Clement of Alexandria

The Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-ca. 215) sought to integrate Greek classical culture with Christian faith.

The date and place of birth of Clement of Alexandria, born Titus Flavius Clemens, are not known, though it is likely that he was born in the decade 150-160, possibly in Athens. Having studied with religious and philosophical teachers in Greece, southern Italy, and Syria, he settled in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. There he was deeply impressed by the teachings of Pantaenus, who had been converted to Christianity from stoicism and who was at the time head of the Christian catechetical school in Alexandria. Clement, remaining a layman, eventually succeeded Pantaenus in this office and held the post for a number of years, probably not more than a decade. In relation to his activities as a Christian teacher Clement produced his three most important writings: The Exhortation to Conversion, The Tutor, and Miscellanies.

In Alexandria, Clement was at one of the leading intellectual centers of the Hellenistic world. Highly speculative and heretical Gnostic forms of Christian thought had been prominent there for decades among those who professed any form of Christianity. Gnosticism itself represented one way of synthesizing Christian faith with Hellenistic culture. Clement was of the firm conviction that Greek philosophy, particularly Platonic metaphysics and Stoic ethics, represented one of the ways in which God had prepared the world for the coming of Christ. His task, then, was to work toward an orthodox Christian appropriation of Greek thought.

The reader senses in Clement's writings the presence of three groups of critics against whom he constantly defends himself. To the pagan representatives of classical culture he argues the defensibility of any kind of "faith" and of Christian faith in particular. To the heretical Christian Gnostics he shows that the experience of redemption in Christ does not entail a depreciation of the material world created by God. To the simple and orthodox Christians he gives assurance that faith and intellectual sophistication are not incompatible and that philosophy does not inevitably lead to Gnostic heresy.

Clement left Alexandria on the outbreak of persecution against the Christians in 202. There is a fleeting glimpse of him in Syria shortly afterward. Later still he appears in the company of an old pupil, now a bishop in Asia Minor; the bishop sends his old teacher with a letter of congratulation to a newly elected bishop of Antioch. It is generally thought that Clement died about 215.

Further Reading

The classic study in English, R.B. Tollinton, Clement of Alexandria: A Study in Christian Liberalism (2 vols., 1914), is particularly useful for the way in which it synthesizes widely scattered materials, though it is sometimes dull. A splendid treatment of much smaller scope is Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement, and Origen (1966).

Additional Sources

Ferguson, John, Clement of Alexandria, New York, Twayne Publishers 1974. □

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.

Clement of Alexandria. See after Pope CLEMENT XIV.