Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Life and works
- PART I DIVINE PLAN/ECONOMY
- PART II DIVINE RECIPROCITY
- PART III FAITH AND SALVATION
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Irenaeus and Clement
- Select Bibliography
- Subject index
- Citations from Clement
- Citations from the Bible
- Citations from ancient authors
1 - Life and works
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Life and works
- PART I DIVINE PLAN/ECONOMY
- PART II DIVINE RECIPROCITY
- PART III FAITH AND SALVATION
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Irenaeus and Clement
- Select Bibliography
- Subject index
- Citations from Clement
- Citations from the Bible
- Citations from ancient authors
Summary
LIFE AND THOUGHT
Clement was a traveller, always moving on. He invites Greeks to desert to God's side and to enjoy the danger of change (prot 10.93.2). In his quest for knowledge, he left home and travelled to teachers around the eastern Mediterranean, moving from Italy to Egypt.
Of these [teachers], one, an Ionian, lived in Greece, two others who came from Coele-Syria and Egypt respectively were in Magna Graecia. Others were in the east – one was from Assyria, and the other a Hebrew from Palestine. I found the last of them where he was hiding in Egypt. Here I came to rest. He was a real Sicilian bee who drew from the flowers of the apostolic and prophetic meadow and who engendered a purity of knowledge in the soul of his hearers.
(1.1.11)He remained in Alexandria until in 202 persecution drove him to Palestine, where he died. His early travels had been tied to intellectual exploration. While in Alexandria, his intellectual voyages did not cease. He explored the bible, philosophy and literature, often preserving fragments of philosophers who would otherwise be lost today, and quoting classical writers with affection and sensitivity. He was now driven by evangelical zeal: to explain the gospel, he became all things to all men.
In spiritual matters he called for exploration and movement: he exhorted Greeks to turn to Christ, to follow Christian morals in every detail of behaviour and finally to become wise in the mysteries of Christ.
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- Clement of Alexandria , pp. 1 - 28Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005