"Ulme stützt Weinstock"

This work presents a basic literary analysis of two letters of Clement of Alexandria, Quis dives salvetur? and Paedagogus. It shows how Clemens uses literary genres to embed Christian teaching in pagan forms. The structure of Clement's works includes the use of many early Christian genres, such as homilies, florilegia, and legends of the Apostles, and also reflects the structure of the Catechetical School of Alexandria. The elm of paganism, unfruitful on its own, thus becomes the support -- on an external level of structure as well as an internal level of thought -- of the Christian vine.