People are complicated. Our brains are lazy, so we like placing others in groups with labels. Social media and online communication have made this worse. Of course, we hate when others don’t see the complexity of our personality or life experience, but we find it difficult to see others as “works in progress” and give them grace.
Christians should be more willing to look past the surface and view people holistically. Often we do. However, when it comes to Christian history and theology, we can easily label people or dismiss individuals without humanizing them.
Clement of Alexandria is often counted as one of the early church fathers. He’s also often excluded from such lists, depending on the historian or organization’s perspective. Who was Clement? Why should we remember him?
Who was Clement of Alexandria?
We don’t have exact dates and details for Clement’s birth, but the popular estimate is around 150 AD in Athens, Greece (some have postulated he was born in Alexandria). His parents were pagans that worshipped the Greek gods and were heavily involved in the Hellenistic culture of the day.
Clement converted to Christianity as a young man, and as part of his investigation and discovery of faith, he traveled extensively to places in Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt. He listened to teachers in those places.
Reaching Alexandria around 180 AD, he studied under Pantaenus, a leader at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, an institution of theology. He was based in Alexandria for twenty years, where he did most of his influential writing.
He is best known for his trilogy, three major volumes of philosophy and theology. These were Protrepticus (written in 195 AD), Paedagous (written in 198 AD), and Stromata (written around 200 AD).
In these writings and others, Clement attempted to find a synergy between the Mosaic Jewish tradition, Greek philosophy like Plato and the Stoics, and the growing Christianity. He believed Greek philosophy could be used with those in the Hellenistic culture to teach the need for Christianity, much like the Mosaic Law could do the same for the Jews. Clement was one of the first Christian theologians who intellectualized Christianity.
Important Events in the Life of Clement of Alexandria
Apart from his initial conversion, Clement’s relationship with Pantaenus started him on a path of intellectual and theological learning and discipline. Pantaenus was the school’s leader, although his position wasn’t strictly hierarchical, and Clement soon inherited the leadership of that school.
Clement was ordained as a priest by Pope Julian in 189 AD. He began his writing soon after, including his trilogy. Protrepticus encouraged the pagan Greeks to adopt Christianity, using his background in philosophy and knowledge of pagan religion. Paedagous is an instructive book arguing Christ is the teacher of all humanity. One of the main themes in his work is the identity of Christians as God’s children. Clement also wrote about responding to God’s love—acting morally and controlling our passions. Finally, Stromata, collects various writings on faith, theology, and philosophy across eight volumes (only seven of which have survived).
In 202-203, Roman Emperor Severus began persecuting Christians, including those in Alexandria. Clement was leading the theology school and was a famous Christian writer, so he became a major political target. Before going elsewhere, Clement handed over the school to his main student, Origen.
Clement died in 215 AD.
Was Clement of Alexandria a Church Father?
Clement was one of the earliest Christian influencers after the original apostolic writings of Paul, Peter, and John, whose letters are included in the canonical Bible. He was incredibly influential in his day. Many leaders after him can trace their ideas back to him. In that sense, he is considered a saint. The Coptic Church, Eastern Catholic, and Anglican churches consider him a church father.
Clement also held and taught many beliefs that people consider heretical. For example, he taught that matter didn’t come from God (a view connected to Gnosticism). He also believed that Christ, the Logos, was in some way created, not begotten, which opposes the Gospel of John’s view. Clement also believed in reincarnation. Due to these teachings, the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches no longer consider Clement a saint or church father.
We must remember Clement was born only several decades after the death of the apostle John and the writing of Revelation. The Bible hadn’t been canonized in any official form. The Gospels and the apostles’ letters existed, but Scripture wasn’t canonized until the late 300’s. Clement wrote when gnostic gospels (like the one attributed to Thomas) claimed to represent true doctrine.
In the Great Commission, Jesus told the apostles to make disciples, teaching them to observe what he taught them. The early church believed those apostles were given special revelation to pass on correct and complete doctrine, designating the ideas “apostolic doctrine.” The apostles had passed away. A growing number of Gentile believers were being influenced by Hellenistic culture. The early church leaders were fumbling through these difficulties, deciding how to express Christianity to the world. What should the unifying doctrines be? There was some agreement but also much diversity.
The council of Nicea wasn’t until 325 when we got the first universal apostolic creed. Bishops from across the Roman Empire fought over ideas like the nature of Christ to settle on that simple creed.
This places Clement in a certain context. Without many guidelines we have now (a canonized Scripture, centuries of work to draw on), Clement and other church leaders appeared from across a crumbling Roman Empire and did their best with what they had. Clement held some wrong beliefs and weird ideas, but so did many of those we call church fathers. Yet they each fought for Christ and truth, often against harsh political and cultural resistance.
As an early leader, despite his faults, Clement’s historical influence upon Christianity places him comfortably among the church fathers. We shouldn’t agree with his wrong ideas, but we should be willing to look at the man in his context and appreciate what he attempted to do.
Classic Quotes by Clement of Alexandria
1. “For, in a word, if one thinks himself made beautiful by gold, he is inferior to gold; and he that is inferior to gold is not lord of it.”
2. “Those who have castrated themselves from all sin for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, are blessed; they abstain from the world.”
3. “It is not your outward appearance that you should beautify, but your soul, adorning it with good works.”
4. “If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes.”
5. “Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God.”
What Makes Clement of Alexandria Worth Remembering?
Clement attempted to mediate between the heavy philosophy of second-century Rome’s Hellenistic culture and the growing Christian movement. In this effort, he appropriated the word gnosis from the gnostic Christian heretics and Greek philosophy, defining gnosis in this way: all true knowledge only comes from the person of Christ, the Logos.
This effort to engage Hellenistic culture isn’t far removed from Paul speaking with the philosophers in Athens. Paul used their idol to an “unknown god” as a springboard to introduce the true God. Missionaries for centuries have used this model to take ideas and examples from popular or local cultures to introduce the Bible and show people’s need for God and the Gospel.
Clement also introduced influential ideas such as the just war (Christians can support some wars based on the moral right of one side) and the two cities doctrine (different realms of heaven and the world). Both ideas were expounded upon later by the legendary Augustine.
There are other doctrines of Clement we should note. He believed in Christ’s centrality, teaching that we should live under the Logos as a citizen of heaven on earth. He also lashed out at racism as a basis for justifying slavery. Clement even speculated a birth date for Christ.
His student, Origen, became one of the greatest and most important early theologians. Origen took over the school in Alexandria and ended up founding what we think of today as liberal arts, the next evolution after Clement intellectualized Christianity. Further, Clement’s writings led to Christian traditions and doctrines in monasticism and political and economic thought.
Lastly, even though he had some views outside biblical apostolic orthodoxy, he was persecuted for his faith in Christ and for attempting to convert people to Jesus and Christianity through his writing and philosophy. He remained faithful through that persecution, and we should respect another believer for his endurance through hard times.
Peace.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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