The Stromata — Book II

Clement of Alexandria

  1. 1. Introductory.
  2. 2. The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith
  3. 3. Faith Not a Product of Nature
  4. 4. Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge
  5. 5. He Proves by Several Examples that the Greeks Drew from the Sacred Writers
  6. 6. The Excellence and Utility of Faith
  7. 7. The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered
  8. 8. The Vagaries of Basilides and Valentinus as to Fear Being the Cause of Things
  9. 9. The Connection of the Christian Virtues
  10. 10. To What the Philosopher Applies Himself
  11. 11. The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All
  12. 12. Twofold Faith
  13. 13. On First and Second Repentance
  14. 14. How a Thing May Be Involuntary
  15. 15. On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding
  16. 16. How We are to Explain the Passages of Scripture Which Ascribe to God Human Affections
  17. 17. On the Various Kinds of Knowledge
  18. 18. The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs.
  19. 19. The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence
  20. 20. The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self-Restraint
  21. 21. Opinions of Various Philosophers on the Chief Good
  22. 22. Plato's Opinion, that the Chief Good Consists in Assimilation to God, and Its Agreement with Scripture
  23. 23. On Marriage

As Scripture has called the Greeks pilferers of the Barbarian philosophy, it will next have to be considered how this may be briefly demonstrated. For we shall not only show that they have imitated and copied the marvels recorded in our books; but we shall prove, besides, that they have plagiarized and falsified (our writings being, as we have shown, older) the chief dogmas they hold, both on faith and knowledge and science, and hope and love, and also on repentance and temperance and the fear of God — a whole swarm, verily, of the virtues of truth.

Whatever the explication necessary on the point in hand shall demand, shall be embraced, and especially what is occult in the barbarian philosophy, the department of symbol and enigma; which those who have subjected the teaching of the ancients to systematic philosophic study have affected, as being in the highest degree serviceable, nay, absolutely necessary to the knowledge of truth. In addition, it will in my opinion form an appropriate sequel to defend those tenets, on account of which the Greeks assail us, making use of a few Scriptures, if perchance the Jew also may listen and be able quietly to turn from what he has believed to Him on whom he has not believed. The ingenuous among the philosophers will then with propriety be taken up in a friendly exposure both of their life and of the discovery of new dogmas, not in the way of our avenging ourselves on our detractors (for that is far from being the case with those who have learned to bless those who curse, even though they needlessly discharge on us words of blasphemy ), but with a view to their conversion; if by any means these adepts in wisdom may feel ashamed, being brought to their senses by barbarian demonstration; so as to be able, although late, to see clearly of what sort are the intellectual acquisitions for which they make pilgrimages over the seas. Those they have stolen are to be pointed out, that we may thereby pull down their conceit; and of those on the discovery of which through investigation they plume themselves, the refutation will be furnished. By consequence, also we must treat of what is called the curriculum of study — how far it is serviceable; and of astrology, and mathematics, and magic, and sorcery. For all the Greeks boast of these as the highest sciences. He who reproves boldly is a peacemaker. We lave often said already that we have neither practiced nor do we study the expressing ourselves in pure Greek; for this suits those who seduce the multitude from the truth. But true philosophic demonstration will contribute to the profit not of the listeners' tongues, but of their minds. And, in my opinion, he who is solicitous about truth ought not to frame his language with artfulness and care, but only to try to express his meaning as he best can. For those who are particular about words, and devote their time to them, miss the things. It is a feat fit for the gardener to pluck without injury the rose that is growing a