Religious Tradition of the Ancient World in the Interpretation by Clement of Alexandria

The article analyzes the interpretation of the religious tradition in the Exhortation to the Heathen by Titus Flavius Clemens, the leader of the School of Alexandria. The aim of the article is to reflect the specific interpretation of the antique religion by Clement of Alexandria in its three pillars: religious conscience, religious activities, and religious relations. The study is relevant, for the analysis of the intellectualism of a human in a transitional era (like Clement of Alexandria) would allow to look more closely at the features of the cultural, religious, socioeconomic, and political development in Roman society at the crossroads of two different eras-the pagan pre-Christian period and the Christian era. The issue is also mainstreamed by the needs and goals of the modern society, which is in the process of transition. The analysis is based on the Exhortation to the Heathen by Clement of Alexandria. The methodological framework of the article builds on the comprehensive, functional, and activity-oriented approaches to research on the interpretation of the religious tradition of the Antiquity by Clement of Alexandria in their interaction and interdependence. Traditions of intellectual history are an essential methodological part of the article because, at the moment, this scientific direction includes not only research on the development of thoughts of one or another intellectual (in the context of the study of Clement of Alexandria), but also the process of their dissemination in synchronic and diachronic dimensions. The comparative historical method helped to identify the specifics of certain types of the heathen religions, such as the antique religion, the Egyptian pagan religion, the barbaric religion, as interpreted by Titus Flavius Clemens. The system-oriented analysis revealed the views of Clement of Alexandria on the antique religion in its three pillars: religious conscience, religious activities, and religious relations. The analysis of the Exhortation to the Heathen showed that Clement of Alexandria treated the antique religious tradition decidedly negatively. The author of the article claims that Clement of Alexandria acts as the ultimate antagonist of the antique religion when examining heathens' religious conscience, their religious activities, and their system of religious relations. The author also emphasizes that the allegation that Clement adapted the antique heritage to the realities of Christianity, which is generally accepted in the scholarly community, is related to the pagan philosophy only and does not affect the antique religion.

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