Clement of Alexandria

Oversimplified

• Head of the great catechetical school of Alexandria (c. 150–215), who argued that the best of Greek philosophy was a schoolmaster leading the pagan world toward Christ.
• Teacher of Origen of Alexandria and author of a three-part programme — Exhortation, Instruction, and higher teaching — for making a whole Christian.
• Not officially recognized as a Saint.

Summary

Titus Flavius Clemens brought the learning of the Greek world into the service of the Gospel without surrendering to it. Where some saw philosophy as the enemy of faith, Clement called it a preparation — "a schoolmaster to bring the Hellenic mind to Christ," as the Law had been for the Jews.[^1] He is our best window onto the sophisticated Christianity of second-century Alexandria, a faith confident enough to reason with its critics.

His Writings

Clement's major works form a deliberate sequence. The Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Greeks) calls the pagan reader away from idols to the living Word; the The Paedagogus (The Instructor) — Book I (The Instructor) then trains the new convert in Christian conduct down to everyday details; and the The Stromata — Book I (Miscellanies) offers the deeper contemplative knowledge of the mature believer.[^2] Threading through all of it is his portrait of the true gnostic — not the heretic, but the Christian whose knowledge is inseparable from love and holiness. See Holy Tradition, Baptism, and his pupil Origen of Alexandria.

[^1]: Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata — Book I (Miscellanies), Book I. [^2]: The trilogy: Protrepticus, Paedagogus, and Stromata.