Who is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?

One of the most troubling passages in the Gospels has puzzled Christians for two millennia: when a rich young man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus tells him to sell everything and follow him. The man walks away sorrowful. Then Jesus delivers his devastating verdict: it is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter God's kingdom. Does Christ demand absolute poverty from every believer? In this crisp, penetrating treatise from the late second century, Clement of Alexandria answers with characteristic nuance. He was the learned Father who refused to choose between faith and reason, between the radical demands of the Gospel and the messy reality of human life in the world. Clement parses Christ's words with careful attention, distinguishing between attachment to wealth and the legitimate use of it, between the perfection Jesus demands and the ordinary discipleship available to most. This is not comfortable theology, but it is honest: a second-century mind wrestling with the same uncomfortable question that haunts us now, and refusing to resolve it with easy answers.