sotto voce

Male with female, then.

stephan huller

We are taught that there are three kinds of friendship (Τριττὰ δὲ εἴδη φιλίας διδασκόμεθα): and that of these the first and the best is that which results from virtue (ἀρετήν), for the love that is founded on reason is firm (στερρὰ γὰρ ἡ ἐκ λόγου ἀγάπη); that the second and intermediate is by way of recompense, and is social, liberal, and useful for life; for the friendship which is the result of favour (ἐκ χάριτος φιλία) is common. And the third and last we assert to be that which is founded on intimacy (συνηθείας); others, again, that it is that variable and changeable form which rests on pleasure. And Hipppodamus the Pythagorean seems to me to describe friendships (φιλιᾶν) most admirably: "That founded on knowledge of the gods, that founded on the gifts of men, and that on the pleasures of animals." There is the friendship of a philosopher (φιλοσόφου φιλία), -- that of a man and that of an animal.

For the image of God is really the man who does good (τῷ γὰρ ὄντι εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος εὐεργετῶν), in which also he gets good: as the pilot at once saves, and is saved (σῴζει καὶ σῴζεται). Wherefore, when one obtains his request, he does not say to the giver, Thou hast given well, but, Thou hast received well. So he receives who gives, and he gives who receives. "But the righteous pity and show mercy." "But the mild (χρηστοὶ) shall be inhabitants of the earth, and the innocent shall be left in it. But the transgressors shall be extirpated from it." And Homer seems to me to have said prophetically of the faithful, "Give to thy friend." And an enemy must be aided, that he may not continue an enemy. For by help good feeling is compacted, and enmity dissolved. "But if there be present readiness of mind, according to what a man hath it is acceptable, and not according to what he hath not: for it is not that there be ease to others, but tribulation to you, but of equality at the present time," and so forth. "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever," the Scripture says.

For conformity with the image and likeness (τῷ γὰρ κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν) is not meant of the body (for it were wrong for what is mortal to be made like what is immortal), but in mind and reason, on which fitly the Lord impresses the seal of likeness, both in respect of doing good and of exercising rule. For governments are directed not by corporeal qualities, but by judgments of the mind. For by the counsels of holy men states are managed well, and the household also. [2.19]

stephan huller

Yes but Clement makes clear that Christian union is different.

The philia founded on the knowledge of God is Christian love.

sotto voce

But Clement was to Christianity as Marx was to McCarthy.

This is BC&H.

stephan huller

On this ground Pythagoras seems to me to have said that God alone is wise, since also the apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans, "For the obedience of the faith among all nations, being made known to the only wise God through Jesus Christ;" and that he himself was a philosopher, on account of his friendship with God (διὰ φιλίαν τὴν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν φιλόσοφον). Accordingly it is said, "God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend." [4.3]

stephan huller

Which ancient witness to the existence of 'true Christian marriage' do you prefer?

stephan huller

The example of Pythagoras seems consistently used to exemplify Christian philia:

stephan huller

Let not the above-mentioned people, then, call us, by way of reproach, "natural men" (yukikoi), nor the Phrygians either; for these now call those who do not apply themselves to the new prophecy "natural men" (yukikoi), with whom we shall discuss in our remarks on "Prophecy." The perfect man ought therefore to practise love, and thence to haste to the divine friendship (τὴν θείαν φιλίαν σπεύδειν), fulfilling the commandments from love (δι' ἀγάπην ἐκτελοῦντα τὰς ἐντολάς). And loving one's enemies does not mean loving wickedness, or impiety, or adultery, or theft; but the thief, the impious, the adulterer, not as far as he sins, and in respect of the actions by which he stains the name of man, but as he is a man, and the work of God. Assuredly sin is an activity, not an existence: and therefore it is not a work of God. Now sinners are called enemies of God -- enemies, that is, of the commands which they do not obey, as those who obey become friends, the one named so from their fellowship, the others from their estrangement, which is the result of free choice; for there is neither enmity nor sin without the enemy and the sinner. And the command "to covet nothing," not as if the things to be desired did not belong to us, does not teach us not to entertain desire, as those suppose who teach that the Creator is different from the first God, not as if creation was loathsome and bad (for such opinions are impious). But we say that the things of the world are not our own, not as if they were monstrous, not as if they did not belong to God, the Lord of the universe, but because we do not continue among them for ever; being, in respect of possession, not ours, and passing from one to another in succession; but belonging to us, for whom they were made in respect of use, so long as it is necessary to continue with them. In accordance, therefore, with natural appetite, things disallowed are to be used rightly, avoiding all excess and inordinate affection. [4.13]

stephan huller

As I have already noted, the Philosophumena says that the longer gospel of Mark (= referenced in Clement's Letter to Theodore) develops a myth about divine philia from the pages of Empedocles. Clement's interest in philia is filtered from Empedocles and Pythagoras:

stephan huller

Wherefore also man is said "to have been made in [God's] image and likeness." For the image of God is the divine and royal Word, the impassible man; and the image of the image is the human mind. And if you wish to apprehend the likeness by another name, you will find it named in Moses, a divine correspondence. For he says, "Walk after the Lord your God, and keep His commandments." And I reckon all the virtuous, servants and followers of God. Hence the Stoics say that the end of philosophy is to live agreeable to nature; and Plato, likeness to God, as we have shown in the second Miscellany. And Zeno the Stoic, borrowing from Plato, and he from the Barbarian philosophy, says that all the good are friends of one another. For Socrates says in the Phoedrus, "that it has not been ordained that the bad should be a friend to the bad, nor the good be not a friend to the good;" as also he showed sufficiently in the Lysis, that friendship (φιλία) is never preserved in wickedness and vice. And the Athenian stranger similarly says, "that there is conduct pleasing and conformable to God, based on one ancient ground-principle, That like loves like, provided it be within measure. [5.14]