CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

Titus Flavius Clemens, 3d-century Father of the Church, after origen, the principal representative of the early theological School of alexandria.

Life. Of the two traditions for Clement's birthplace extant in Epiphanius's time, modern authors prefer Athens, even though Clement spent most of his life in Alexandria. Clement, a convert to Christianity, traveled extensively to seek instruction from famous Christian teachers, until he came to Egypt. There he attached himself to one whom Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 5.11.2) assumed to be pantaenus, the earliest of the Alexandrian teachers known to us and one of Origen's masters.

Eusebius (Hist. eccl. 6.6) asserts that Clement succeeded Pantaenus as head of the catechetical School of Alexandria and places Origen among Clement's disciples. But modern historians offer serious objections to these assertions. As J. Munck observes, the Christian instruction given by Clement probably never had an official character, but remained a private enterprise, in keeping with the pedagogic practice of other philosophers in those days. Such institutions ended when their founders ceased teaching. The fact that Origen never cites Clement in his writings is a reason for doubting that he had studied under Clement, despite their obvious intellectual affinity.

Clement's activities in Alexandria were interrupted by the persecution of Septimius Severus in 202 or 203, and he left Egypt apparently never to return. About 211 Alexander, Bishop of Cappadocia, sent a priest named Clement with a letter to the Church of Antioch: "I am sending you, my lords and brothers, this letter through the intermediary of Clement, the blessed priest, an esteemed and virtuous man whom you already know. His presence here, through the providence and vigilance of the Master, has strengthened and enhanced the Church of the Lord" (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.11.6). It is possible that this refers to Clement of Alexandria, for Bishop Alexander was his friend and admirer, and Clement had dedicated one of his

works to him (Hist. eccl. 6.13.3). In a letter addressed to Origen in 215 or 216, the same Alexander, having meanwhile become bishop of Jerusalem, mentions some deceased teachers, including Pantaenus and "holy Clement who has been my master and has helped me," thus giving rise to the conjecture that Clement had taken refuge in Cappadocia and that he was dead by the time Alexander wrote to Origen.

Eusebius is apparently relying on the letter from Alexander to the Church at Antioch when he designates Clement as a priest in his Chronicle, but a passage in the Paedagogus (1.6.37) often cited to prove Clement's priesthood can no longer be advanced after O. Stählin's textual correction.

Writings. Clement was a cultured Greek philosopher and scholar, though his erudition was often secondhand; a Christian apologist and exegete; a theologian and mystic. His open mind and enthusiasm are reflected in a varied literary output, original and daring in content, refined and elegant in style. The absence of method and synthesis in his work was often calculated, but it disconcerts the modern reader.

Protrepticus, following the meaning of the word, is an "exhortation" to conversion and an apology for Christianity, addressed to pagans. The work reveals close links with the earlier Christian apologetic, whose terms and types of argument Clement uses, but with a personal touch and uncommon warmth. Clement criticizes Greek religion (he supplies valuable details on the "mysteries") and Greek philosophical doctrines about God (ch. 2–5). He maintains that the best philosophers and poets of old had caught glimpses of the truth (ch. 6–7); but this truth is revealed through the Hebrew prophets and above all by the Logos, who calls men to faith and conversion, and whose role in the world Clement extols in remarkable language (ch. 8–12).

Paedagogus, a sequel to the Protrepticus, is addressed to the baptized. Clement portrays Christ the Educator as He trains the Christian in a moral way of life. Book 1 presents the pedagogy of the Word and introduces the reader to a thoroughly evangelical spirituality that stamps the ethics of Clement with a truly Christian character. Books 2 and 3 form a treatise on practical morality and describe in detail the Christians' daily life, mixing together moral precepts and rules of decency and hygiene. This combination of Christian casuistry and etiquette parallels Stoic literature and employs long excerpts borrowed from Musonius, the teacher of epictetus. The Stoic influence gives a highly rational character to Clement's presentation of morality: man must follow "nature" or "reason" (logos ), which for Clement meant at the same time following the divine Logos.

After the "exhortation" to conversion and moral "pedagogy" at the outset of the Paedagogus, Clement calls attention to a third stage in the action of the Logos: doctrinal instruction. Historians debate whether Clement had contemplated a trilogy that would add a dogmatic work to the Protrepticus and Paedagogus and whether the Stromata should be considered an imperfect attempt in this direction.

Stromata (tapestries—a term used for a work of very free composition comparable to an anthology or miscellany), in eight books, is the most important of Clement's extant writings, and is a veritable mine of ideas, but it defies analysis. The absence of a plan and the deliberate obscurity of style make for difficult reading. Certain principal themes dominate the whole: the relations between Christianity and hellenism, and between faith and philosophy; the elaboration of a Christian gnosis to confront the "false gnosis"; and the search for ways to know God and achieve union with Him. The only definite chronological indication is that Book 1 was written after the death of the Emperor Commodus in 192 (cf. Strom. 1.21.139–147).

Quis dives salvetur? (What rich man will be saved?), a homily, is a delicately expressive commentary on Mk 10.17–31. Eclogae Propheticae, exegetical notes, and the Excerpta ex Theodoto, annotated extracts from Gnostic writings, are collections of materials assembled by Clement in preparation for further work. Of other writings only fragments survive, especially in the case of the Hypotyposes, a long exegetical work on the Old and New Testaments.

Doctrine. In his Stromata Clement deals extensively with the problem of the relation of Christianity to Greek culture and philosophy. In Christian thought he opened an optimistic and liberal approach to secular knowledge, laying the foundations for a Christian humanism and introducing philosophy to its role as "the servant of theology." He considered Plato the best of philosophers (1.42.1); but far from being a confirmed Platonist, Clement exemplifies the eclecticism of his time. If Platonism serves to clarify his conception of man's union with God, it is Stoicism that permeates his ethic. He admits that by philosophy he means "what each of the different schools has said that is good" (1.37.6). As such, philosophy is a gift of God (1.37.1); it is partial but nonetheless real truth (6.83.2). It forms a propaedeutic to faith for the unbeliever (1.28.1; 7.20.2; cf. 1.28.3), a useful exercise for the believer (1.20.2), and a necessary aid to a deeper scientific penetration of the faith (1.35.2). Still, faith can spring up in a soul and lead it to salvation without philosophy (ibid. 2 and 4).

Clement affirms the autonomy and transcendence of faith and Christian truth. On occasion he goes back to the less fortunate themes of the older Christian apologetic, which claimed that the truths known by the pagan philosophers had been "stolen" by lesser angels or borrowed from the Bible, and thus he insists on the "barbarian" origin of Greek philosophy (1.66–1.81; 148).

The influence of Greek philosophy contributed greatly to the intellectualist tendency of Clement's ethic and spirituality, and to his desire to fashion an authentically Christian gnosis. Knowledge and contemplation are in the foreground of the spiritual life: the perfect Christian is a gnostic. But Clement dissociates himself sharply from unorthodox gnosticism. Every Christian is, in a real sense, perfect from the moment of his Baptism (Paed. 1.25–31). Gnosis is not in conflict with faith, but is faith's perfection and flowering: "Gnosis is faithful, and faith is gnostic" (Strom. 2.16.2; cf. 5.1.3). "Faith, to all intents and purposes, is a condensed gnosis of essential truths, but gnosis is the strong and solid demonstration of the truths accepted by faith … leading to an unshakable certainty and a scientific understanding" (ibid. 7.57.3). In opposition to the Gnostics, and while clearly underlining the role and necessity of grace (ibid. 2.5.4–5; 3.57.2), Clement insists that free choice is a condition of salvation (ibid. 2.115.2). Likewise the Platonic dualism that crops up sometimes in his spirituality does not prevent him from defending the essential goodness of the body, worldly goods, and marriage.

On the other hand, Clement draws closer to the Gnostics when he introduces into the Christian gnosis the knowledge of revelations secretly transmitted from the time of the Apostles or hidden in Scripture under symbols discoverable only by an allegorizing exegesis whose method he derives from philo judaeus. This esotericism sometimes leads the author of the Stromata to place the favored Christian who is a gnostic in opposition to a mere believer.

Völker, however, has clearly shown that Clement's gnosis is as much an ethic as an intellectual quest. It leads to the ἀπάθεια, apathy (Strom. 6.71–79) and the ἀγάπη or love (ibid. 7.57.4) that assimilate and unite the soul to God. By thus sketching the states of mystical ascent and by orienting his spiritual doctrine toward contemplation, Clement, together with Philo and Origen, exercised a profound influence on the whole of Greco-Christian spirituality.

Clement's contribution to speculative theology is of minor importance; at times it is unfortunate, as when he seems to favor a kind of docetism. Only occasionally in his theology does he mention the place of the Church (Strom. 7.89; 7.107), Baptism (Paed. 1.26), and the Eucharist (ibid. 42–43) in the process of salvation. But he witnesses to what might be termed a pastoral approach to theology in the third century that was actual and effective. He depicts the life of the intelligent Christian family in its ascent toward union with God. For this reason, too, his contribution to the development of Christian thought is far from negligible.

Bibliography: j. quasten, Patrology (Westminster, Md.) 2:5–36. j. munck, Untersuchungen über Klemens von Alexandria (Stuttgart 1933). m. spanneut, Le Stoïcisme des Pères de l'Église (Paris 1957). e. f. osborn, The Philosophy of Clement of Alexandria (Cambridge, Eng. 1957). f. quatember, Die christliche Lebenshaltung des Klemens von Alexandrien nach seinem Paedogogus (Vienna 1945). c. mondÉsert, Clément d'Alexandrie: Introduction à l'étude de sa pensée religieuse à partir de l'Écriture (Paris 1944). p. t. camelot, Foi et Gnose: Introduction à l'étude de la connaissance mystique chez Clément d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1945). w. vÖlker, Der wahre Gnostiker nach Clemens Alexandrinus (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur 57; 1952), with important bibliog.

[m. spanneut]