Imprinting Meaning and Identity: Signet Rings and Sealing in Clement of Alexandria

Abstract: This article explores Clement of Alexandria’s comments on the Christian use of signet rings in the Paedagogus and what Clement identifies as appropriate and inappropriate seal imagery. Building on the argument that Clement encourages the use of seal images that overlap with Christian meanings, it relates Clement’s advice to his wider project and his understanding of revelation through signs and symbols. It argues that the acceptable ring images Clement highlights and the possibility of their Christian interpretation reflect a larger process of divine semiosis, where the revelation of God and the invitation to draw closer to him is mediated by signs, and it situates the choice of signet images in Clement’s broader divine pedagogy and the Christian formation it involves. In this context, this article emphasizes the semiotic function and material quality of signet rings and their use and foregrounds the semiotic potency of the impressed image as a visible and material form. It argues that the imprinted seal engenders a semiosis where Christian meanings and identities merge. This article develops a fresh approach to Clement’s comments on signet rings, which pays closer attention to the function of signet rings and to the material quality of the seal as a visual form, and in theological context it explores the semiotic implications of the impressed image.