Scientific Analysis, Theological Interpretation, and Gnostic Vision: Clement's View of the Cosmos скачать в хорошем качестве

Scientific Analysis, Theological Interpretation, and Gnostic Vision: Clement's View of the Cosmos

A talk for The Faraday Institute’s Philosophy of Nature Seminar Series, 17 June 2025. Hosted by Pui Him Ip and Andrew Jackson. Audio recording Abstract: In her groundbreaking analysis of Clement’s multidisciplinary method of nature contemplation (1996), Laura Rizzerio characterised it as una scienza della natura, a natural science. While this label stands, for the reasons I will disclose in a moment, as I see it the method is more complex than this. It illustrates what we would call today “science-engaged theology,” in the sense of a deliberate theological hermeneutic of nature as described by the available sciences. The elements of this method are discernible throughout Clement’s writings, especially in Stromateis, however, without being outlined in one place. In my reconstruction of the method, I have repeatedly pointed out (2025, 2024, 2021) that his nature contemplation is nestled within the second stage of the threefold curriculum that progresses from ethics to physics to divine vision. Clementine physics, specifically, unfolds from scientific analysis (operating scientifically) to theological interpretation to the spiritual vision of reality. To advance through the three phases of physics, one must acquire virtue, contemplative skills, and sound information regarding nature. Only the “holy gnostics,” or saintly sages, reach the third stage, of insightful—“noetic”—perception of nature. In this talk, the description of this tripartite method of nature contemplation, or physics, focuses upon astronomical objects. It brings to light Clement’s contribution as the first Christian thinker who addressed Ptolemaic cosmography, which, in his theological interpretation, features as an alternate view of things to the widespread heliocentric system. The talk ends by proposing an extrapolation of this method for the theological engagement of contemporary scientific culture. Bio: Protopresbyter Doru Costache is Associate Professor of Theology at the Sydney College of Divinity (SCD) and Academic Dean of SCD’s Nisibis Assyrian Theological College. He authored Nature Contemplation in Clement of Alexandria: Elements of the Method (Routledge, 2025) and Humankind and the Cosmos: Early Christian Representations (Brill, 2021). He coauthored A New Copernican Turn: Contemporary Cosmology, the Self, and Orthodox Science-Engaged Theology (with Geraint F. Lewis; Routledge, 2024) and Dreams, Virtue and Divine Knowledge in Early Christian Egypt (with Bronwen Neil and Kevin Wagner; Cambridge University Press, 2019).