what he encountered. No other ancient author knew or quoted as many
pagan and Christian writers as he. As a writer, St. Clement’s chief aim was
to determine the relationship between faith and reason and to show what
philosophy had achieved as a preparation for the coming of Christian
Revelation. Philosophy is the tool by which the data given through Divine
Revelation is to be transformed into a scientific theology.
St. Clement produced three great works:
(1)
The Exhortation to the Greeks (or Protreptikos). This is an apologetical
work aimed at showing the influence of the Logos, or Divine Word,
throughout history in the education of mankind. It is in twelve chapters
and attacks the worthlessness and falsity of pagan beliefs and the
inadequacy of philosophy without God and the true religion found in
the teachings of the Prophets and Jesus Christ;
(2)
The Instructor of Children (or Paidagogos) is a three-part sequel to the
Exhortation and opens with an attack on the false knowledge of the
Gnostics. True knowledge, rather, is a development of faith that begins
with the illuminative effects of baptism. St. Clement then proceeds to
present the Logos as an instructor of converts, particularly in regard to
the conduct of Christians in a pagan world;
(3)
The Miscellanies (or Stromateis) is a collection of eight books in which
St. Clement treats a whole variety of different topics. These include
the legitimacy of studying philosophy and the sciences, the relations
between faith and Christian gnosis, marriage, martyrdom, and the
religious life of a Christian, etc.
Other significant works of St. Clement include the Hypotyposes, an eight-
volume commentary on the Old and New Testaments and the Quis Dives
Salvetur?, a homily on St. Mark 10, 17-31, filled with unction and pious
reflections. Surviving fragments of other writings are mentioned by
Eusebius.
St. Clement was succeeded at the helm of the Catechetical School by the
renowned Origen. Origen was born around the year 185 of Christian
parents in Alexandria. His father, St. Leonidas, was martyred in 202 during
the reign of Septimus Severus. It was in his teenage years that Origen
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