Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), d. c.215, Greek theologian. Born in Athens, he traveled widely and was converted to Christianity. He studied and taught at the catechetical school in Alexandria until the persecution of 202. Origen was his pupil there. He probably died in Caesarea, Cappadocia. Clement was one of the first to attempt a synthesis of Platonic and Christian thought; in this his successors in the Alexandrian school were more successful. Only a few works survive. The Address to the Greeks ( Protrepticus ) sets forth the inferiority of Greek thought to Christianity. Appended to the Tutor (Pedagogus) are two hymns, among the earliest Christian poems. His homily, Who Is the Rich Man? Who Is Saved? is a well-written fragment. The Miscellanies ( Stromateis ) is a collection of notes on Gnosticism. He attacked Gnosticism, but he himself has been called a Christian Gnostic. Although Clement remained entirely orthodox, in his writing he strove to state the faith in terms of contemporary thought. He was long venerated as a saint, but Photius , in the 9th cent., regarded Clement as a heretic. Because of Photius's contentions the name of Clement was removed from the Roman martyrology.

Bibliography: See studies by E. F. Osborn (1957), W. E. G. Floyd (1971), S. R. Lilla (1971), and M. Smith (1973).

Clement of Alexandria (c.150–c.215), theologian. He was a pupil of Pantaenus in Alexandria, assumed the role of teacher (c.190), but fled from Alexandria in the persecution (c.202). His surviving writings include the Protrepticus, or an ‘Exhortation to the Greeks’; the Paedagogus, on Christian life and manners, and eight Books of Stromateis, or ‘Miscellanies’ (though the last Book seems to be a misplaced fragment on logic). His work represents an attempt to meet the charge that Christianity is a religion for the ignorant. He treads a middle way between heretical Gnosticism which had intellectual pretensions and a religion of simple faith, seeing in Christianity the fulfilment both of the OT Scriptures and of Greek philosophy. He depicts the Logos as exposing the error and immorality of Greek religion and leading people, through Baptism, to the true religion of Christianity; he applies the term ‘gnostic’ to the Christian who has attained to the deeper understanding of the Logos. The ultimate goal of the Christian life is presented as deification. Clement's name appears in earlier martyrologies under 4 Dec., but Clement VIII excised it on the grounds of the doubtful orthodoxy of some of his writings. In the American BCP (1979), feast day, 5 Dec.