Wychowawcza funkcja prawa Starego Testamentu w koncepcji Klemensa Aleksandryjskiego

Abstract

At the end of the 2nd century Christianity was more and more sharply attacked from the inside by numerous heretical groups, which, on the basis of false interpretations of St. Paul's utterances rejected explicitly or implicitly the Old Testament, and especially the Moses Law including the Decalogue. Practically these tendentions lead to ethical indifferentism and to destruction of the basis of the community of social life. Observations of these facts made Clement of Alexandria undertake an apology of the Law and in various ways bring into prominence its good features, among others its potential possibility to educate towards the right. On the basis of an analysis of particular rules of the Law Clement tried to prove that the centuries-old Logos, by giving some rules, wanted to initiate the formation of basic virtues in the human mentality. Clement tried to prove eg. that by limiting the Law of possession in favour of the poor (the command to leave a part of corn and grapes in the field) the law regulated the social inequalities, at the same time teaching the sense of justice; the prohibition to kill an animal's female with young was to inculcate the people with the rule of inviolability of every conceived life; the command to lighten a beast of draught belonging to our enemies was supposed to be an initial exercise preparing us to the prayer for our adversaries, etc. This point of view carries Clementof Alexandria a little away from the teachings of St Paul stressing rather the exciting and stimulating to sin function of the Law, as well as from the views of St Irenaeus and St Justin, criticizing the Jewish observantism and preaching the cessation of the Old Law. Against the background of the Christian literature of the 1st and 2nd centuries Clementof Alexandria distinguishes himself by his optimistic approval and to som e extent apotheosis of the Law by noticing its ability to direct towards virtue through education towards justice, humanitarianizm, moderation, teaching respect for unborn life and preparation to accept the command to love the enemies.