‘The Radiance of the Righteous’ in Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

The article examines Clement’s testimonies about both the ability of baptized Christians to contemplate the Divine and the enlightenment of their faces (from Moses to the contemporaries of the author of the Stromata); it shows the impact of Holy Scriptures on the Alexandrian theologian, and analyzes the vocabulary used by Clement to characterize the radiance emanating from the righteous. The paper is aimed to demonstrate the antiquity of the concept of visible manifestation of holiness, which exists in the Orthodox Church. According to Clement, the enlightenment in baptism occurs suddenly, while further progress is to be achieved gradually. He considered Gnostic perfection achievable in earthly life. A successful Christian could not only see God, but also bear the bright imprint of his virtue; it is not enough for such a Christian to be warm and bright, as he desires to emit light himself. This light, which the Bible speaks of in an eschatological perspective, Clement describes as visible already here. Like later authors, including St. Nicholas Cabasilas, the Alexandrian theologian does not draw a sharp line between earthly and heavenly existence. Since many of Clement’s statements must be understood allegorically, no exception should be made for the thesis about the radiance of a Gnostic: one does not emit physical rays, but shines with one’s outwardly manifested spirituality, knowledge and good deeds. However, the brightness of the images, and the assertion of the connection between the Gnostic’s comprehension of God and his ability to become the source of this knowledge himself, as well as his moral purity, manifested in an obvious way (ἐπιφανές), could not but leave a trace in Eastern Christianity and, along with many biblical and later patristic texts, should have created the theoretical prerequisites for the emergence of the idea of the visible radiance of the righteous. The author uses comparative-historical and textual methods. The novelty of the study lies in the use of the writings of an early Church Father to confirm the belief, which existed in the 2nd century of the Christian era, in the ability of saints to radiate a certain radiance that testified to their closeness to God.