Harnack’s Image of 1 Clement and Contemporary Research

Abstract

This paper wants to outline Berlin church historian Adolf von Harnack’s view and opinion on the First Letter of Clement by taking a closer look at his works on the epistle. Furthermore, it will give an answer to the question what is to be gained from Harnack’s studies for contemporary research on 1 Clement. In 1929, Harnack published a small volume with the title An Introduction to Early Christianity. In his introduction to this booklet about the First Letter of Clement, Harnack explains why he considers the epistle to be “the most important document we have received from Earliest Christianity.” However, Harnack’s scientific work on the First Letter of Clement already began to bear fruit much earlier, starting with the intense years in Leipzig at the beginning of his academic career before he obtained his state doctorate in 1875. During his lifelong research on 1 Clement, Harnack obviously saw in the basal theology of the First Letter of Clement a not yet particularly Hellenized, simple message-interpreting the Letter as a “Clementine- Roman Christianity” that is far away from Pauline Christianity and draws lines right up to the newly strengthened Italian Catholicism after the Lateran Accords from 1929. Harnack’s works dealing with the First Letter of Clement are, with the exception of the editions, evidence of a view of Early Christianity that, while it is impressive in its coherence, is nevertheless excessively one-sided.