Protrepticus

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Proptrepticus (προτρεπτικος προς Ελληνας: Exhortation to the Greeks) is the first in the great trilogy by Clement of Alexandria.

The Protrepticus forms an introduction inviting the reader to listen, not to the mythical legends of the gods, but to the "new song" of the Logos, the beginning of all things and creator of the world. He denounces what he claims to be the folly of idolatry and the pagan mysteries, the role of the erotic in pagan religion, the shamefulness of the pederastic practices of the Greeks, and the horrors of pagan sacrifice, and argues that the Greek philosophers and poets only guessed at the truth, while the prophets set forth a direct way to salvation; and now the divine Logos speaks in his own person, to awaken all that is good in the soul of man and to lead it to immortality.

External links

• ΠΡΟΤΡΕΠΤΙΚΟΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΑΣ
• Exhortation to the Heathen, at Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• Biography of Clement, with short commentary on the Proptrepticus

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Last updated on Thursday February 21, 2008 at 09:30:24 PST (GMT -0800)
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