The tripartite division of Mosaic philosophy into ethics, physics, and epoptics, mentioned in Stromateis 1.28.176, corresponds to Clement’s project of Christian philosophy, as outlined and partly pursued in that treatise. Clement integrates this division, obviously inspired by a Platonist model, into a larger programme of Christian education, adumbrated in the Paedagogus, whose first, pre-doctrinal part is practical. By doing so, he creates, within the context of the church and—arguably—its catechetic school in Alexandria, a coherent and powerful alternative to other similar programmes on the religio-intellectual market of his time.

This chapter discusses the polemical works that Pufendorf wrote in response to the violent criticisms directed against his main natural law work, the Law of Nature and Nations. Pufendorf collected these controversial writings under the title Eris Scandica (Scandinavian dispute) in 1686. Despite being indispensable for the reconstruction of Pufendorf’s thought, and notwithstanding its great success among his contemporaries, this work is one of the least known and used works by scholars of natural law. In beginning to make good this deficit the present chapter offers insights not only into the philosophical arguments of our author, but also into his formidable satirical style, at once strongly contentious and imaginative. Much of the ferocity of the disputes is explained by the fact that Pufendorf’s enemies were actually accusing him of heresy, which helps to clarify the centrality of the work’s philosophical-theological themes and the violence of Pufendorf’s reaction. In presenting the variety of philosophical issues covered in Eris Scandica, the chapter covers not only the classic themes of natural law—state of nature, moral entities, obligation—but also elucidates Pufendorf’s views of the relation between philosophical reason and Christian philosophy, thence philosophy and theology, and his stance towards Cartesianism.

The notion of Platonic Forms as divine thoughts was critical to the theistic interpretation of Plato’s philosophy. This chapter considers the origins and development of the theory of divine ideas. The chapter begins by examining the evidence for this theory in the Old Academy, including Speusippus, Xenocrates and Aristotle. The notion is then traced among subsequent Platonists, including Antiochus of Ascalon, Eudorus of Alexandria, Alcinous, and the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. The reception of the theory of divine ideas in Christianity concludes the chapter, with reference to Origen of Alexandria and Maximus the Confessor.