How did second-century Christians vie with each other in seeking to produce an authoritative discourse of Christian identity? In this book, Denise Buell argues that many early Christians deployed the metaphors of procreation and kinship in the struggle over claims to represent the truth of Christian interpretation, practice, and doctrine.

In particular, she examines the intriguing works of the influential theologian Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-210 C.E.), for whom cultural assumptions about procreation and kinship played an important role in defining which Christians have the proper authority to teach, and which kinds of knowledge are authentic.