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Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), one of the most distinguished teachers of the Church of Alexandria[?], was born about the middle of the 2nd century, and died between 211 and 216.
- His Life (§ 1).
- His Literary work (§ 2).
- His Significance for the Church (§ 3).
- His Eclecticism (§ 4).
- His Dependence upon Philosophy (§ 5).
- His Relation to Ethics (§ 6).
- And to Scripture and the Church (§ 7).
He was certainly not born in Egypt (Strom., i. 1). The indication of Athens as his birthplace by
Epiphanius is supported by the classical quality of his Greek. His parents seem to have been pagans, of the well-to-do class. The thoroughness of his education is attested by his constant quotation of the Greek poets and philosophers. In quest of the best instruction, he traveled in Greece, Italy, Palestine, and finally Egypt. He became the colleague of Pantaenus[?],
the head of the catechetical school of Alexandria, and finally succeeded him in the direction of the school. During the persecution of Septimius Severus (202 or 203) he sought refuge with Alexander, then bishop [possibly of Flaviada] in Cappadocia, afterward of Jerusalem, from whom he brought a letter to Antioch in 211.
The trilogy into which Clement's principal remains are connected by their purpose and mode of
treatment is composed of the Protrepticus ("Exhortation"), the Paedagogus ("Instructor"), and
the Stromata ("Miscellanies"). Overbeck calls it the boldest literary undertaking in the history of the Church, since in it Clement for the first time attempted to set forth Christianity for the faithful
in the traditional forms of profane literature. The Protrepticus forms an introduction inviting the reader to listen, not to the mythical legends of the heathen gods, but to the "new song" of the Logos[?], the beginning of all things and creator of the world. He demonstrates the folly of idolatry and the pagan mysteries, the horrors of pagan sacrifice, and shows that the Greek philosophers and poets only guessed at the truth, while the prophets set forth a direct way to salvation; and now the divine Logos speaks in his own person, to awaken all that is good in the soul of man and to lead it to immortality. Having thus laid a foundation in the knowledge of divine truth, he goes on in the Paedagogus to develop a Christian ethic. His design does not prevent him
from taking a large part of his material from the Stoic Musonius, the master of Epictetus; but for Clement the real instructor is the incarnate Logos.
The first book deals with the religious basis of Christian morality, the second and third with the
individual cases of conduct. As with Epictetus, true virtue shows itself with him in its external
evidences by a natural, simple, and moderate way of living. The Stromata goes further and aims at the perfection of the Christian life by initiation into complete knowledge. The first of these works is addressed to the unconverted, the second to the new Christian, and the third appeals to the mature believer. It attempts, on the basis of Scripture and tradition, to give such an account
of the Christian faith as shall answer all the demands of learned men, and conduct the student into the innermost realities of his belief. Clement entitled this work Stromateis, "patchwork," because it dealt with such a variety of matters. He intended to make but one book of this; at least seven grew out of it, without his having treated all the subjects proposed. The absence of certain things definitely promised has led scholars to ask whether he wrote an eighth book, as would appear from Eusebius (VI. xiii. 1) and the Florilegia, and various attempts
have been made to identify with it short or fragmentary treatises appearing among his remains.
In any case the "excerpts" and "selections" which, with part of a treatise on logical method,
are designated as the eighth book in the single (11th century) manuscript of the Stromata, are not parts of the Hypotyposes which Clement is known to have written. This work was a brief commentary on selected passages covering the whole Bible, as is shown in the fragments preserved by Œcumenius and in the Latin version of the commentary on the
Catholic Epistles made at the instance of Cassiodorus. Besides the great trilogy, the only complete work preserved is the treatise "Who is the Rich Man that Shall Be Saved? " based on Mark x. 17-31, and laying down the principle that not the possession of riches but their misuse is to be condemned. There are extant a few fragments of the treatise on the Passover, against the Quartodeciman position of Melito, and only a single passage from the "Ecclesiastical Canon" against the Judaizers. Several other works are only known by their titles.
The significance of Clement in the history of the development of doctrine is, according to Harnack, that he knew how to replace the apologetic method by the constructive or systematic, to turn the simple church tradition into a scientific dogmatic theology.
It is a marked characteristic of his that he sees only superficial and transient disagreement where others find a fundamental opposition. He is able to reconcile, or even to fuse, differing views to an
extent which makes it almost impossible to attribute to him a definite individual system. He is
admittedly an eclectic (Strom., i. 37). This attitude determines especially his treatment of
non-Christian philosophy. Although the theory of a diabolical origin for it is not unknown to him, and although he shows exhaustively that the philosophers owe a large part of their knowledge to the writings of the Old Testament, yet he seems to express his own personal conviction
when he describes philosophy as a direct operation of the divine Logos, working through it as well
as through the law and his direct revelation in the Gospel to communicate the truth to men. It is
true that the knowledge of the philosophers was elementary, fragmentary, and incapable of imparting true righteousness; and it was far surpassed by the revelation given through the law and the prophets, as that again was still further surpassed by the direct revelation of the incarnate Logos; but this idea of relative inferiority does not prevent him from showing that his whole mental attitude is determined and dominated by the philosophical tradition.
Thus he emphasizes the permanent importance of philosophy for the fulness of Christian knowledge, explains with special predilection the relation between knowledge and faith, and
sharply criticizes those who are unwilling to make any use of philosophy. He pronounces definitely
against the sophists and against the hedonism of the school of Epicurus. Although he generally expresses himself unfavorably in regard to the Stoic philosophy, he really pays marked deference to that mixture of Stoicism and Platonism which characterized the religious and ethical thought of the educated classes in his day. This explains the value set by Clement on gnosis. To be sure, he constantly opposes the heretical gnosis. Faith is the foundation of all gnosis, and both are given by Christ. As faith involves a comprehensive knowledge of the essentials, knowledge allows the believer to penetrate deeply into the understanding of what he believes; and this is the making perfect, the completion, of faith. In order to attain this kind of faith, the "faith of knowledge," which is so much higher than the mere "faith of conjecture," or simple reception of a truth on authority, philosophy is permanently necessary. In fact, Christianity is the true philosophy, and the perfect Christian the true Gnostic-- but again only the "Gnostic according to the canon of the Church " has this distinction. Also, he rejects the Gnostic distinction of "psychic" and "pneumatic" men; all are alike destined to perfection if they will embrace it.
From philosophy he takes his conception of the
Logos, the principle of Christian gnosis, through
whom alone God's relation to the world and his
revelation is maintained. God he considers
transcendentally as unqualified Being, who can not be
defined in too abstract a way. Though
his goodness operated in the creation
of the world, yet immutability, self
sufficiency, incapability of suffering
are the characteristic notes of the
divine essence. Though the Logos is
most closely one with the Father, whose powers he
resumes in himself, yet to Clement both the Son
and the Spirit are "first-born powers and first
created "; they form the highest stages in the
scale of intelligent being, and Clement
distinguishes the Son-Logos from the Logos who is im
mutably immanent in God, and thus gives a
foundation to the charge of Photius that he "degraded
the Son to the rank of a creature." Separate from
the world as the principle of creation, he is yet in
it as its guiding principle. Thus a natural life is a
life according to the will of the Logos. The
Incarnation, in spite of Clement's rejection of the Gnostic
Docetism, has with him a decidedly Docetic
character. The body of Christ was not subject to human
needs. He is the good Physician; the medicine
which he offers is the communication of saving
gnosis, leading men from heathenism to faith and
from faith to the higher state of knowledge. This
true philosophy includes within itself the freedom
from sin and the attainment of virtue. As all sin
has its root in ignorance, so the knowledge of God
and of goodness is followed by well-doing. Against
the Gnostics Clement emphasizes the freedom of all
to do good.
Clement lays great stress on the fulfilment of
moral obligations. In his ethical expressions he is
influenced strongly by Plato and the Stoics, from
whom he borrows much of his terminology. He
praises Plato for setting forth the
greatest possible likeness to God as
the aim of life; and his portrait of the
perfect Gnostic closely resembles that
of the wise man as drawn by the
Stoics. Hence he counsels his readers to shake off
the chains of the flesh as far as possible, to live
already as if out of the body, and thus to rise above
earthly things. He is a true Greek in the value
which he sets on moderation; but his highest ideal
of conduct remains the mortification of all
affections which may in any way disturb the soul in its
career. As Harnack says, the lofty
ethical-religious ideal of the attainment of man's perfection in
union with God, which Greek philosophy from
Plato down had worked out, and to which it had
subordinated all scientific worldly knowledge, is
taken over by Clement, deepened in meaning, and
connected not only with Christ, but with
ecclesiastical tradition.
The way, however, to this union with God is for
Clement only the Church's way. The
communication of the gnosis is bound up with holy orders,
which give the divine light and life. The simple
faith of the baptized Christian contains all the
essentials of the highest knowledge; by the
Eucharist the believer is united with the Logos and the
Spirit, and made partaker of incorruptibility.
Though he lays down at starting a purely spiritual
conception of the Church, later the exigencies of
his controversy with the Gnostics make him lay
more stress on the visible church.
As to his use of Scripture, the
extraordinary breadth of his reading and
manifold variety of his quotations
from the most diverse authors make
it very difficult to determine exactly
what was received as canonical by the Alexandrian
Church of that period. Though he uses the
Apocryphal Gospels, our four alone have supreme
authority for him. For the other New Testament writings
he seems not to have had as definite a line of
demarcation; but whatever he recognized as of
apostolic origin had for him an authority distinct
from, and higher than, that of all other ecclesiastical
tradition.
Initial text from Schaff-Herzog Encylopedia of Religion
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