Clement of Alexandria

Life

Clement is believed to have been born in the mid-second century in the Greek-speaking world. The view that he was born in Athens is widely accepted but uncertain. After converting to Christianity, he traveled to various regions in search of teachers. According to tradition, he eventually met Pantaenus in Alexandria, Egypt, and became his disciple.

He later taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, an institution that instructed believers and those preparing for baptism. Around 202, when persecution broke out under the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, he left Alexandria. He is thought to have spent his remaining years in Asia Minor and to have died around 215. According to one tradition, Origen was his student, but scholars do not regard this as settled.

Ministry and Achievements

Clement's principal works are commonly discussed as a trilogy:

• _Exhortation to the Greeks_ (_Protrepticus_): A work urging the Greeks to abandon pagan religion and come to Christ.
• _The Instructor_ (_Paedagogus_): A work presenting Christ as the Instructor and addressing the daily life and ethics of Christians.
• _Miscellanies_ (_Stromata_): A work discussing the relationship between faith and philosophy in a loose, free-ranging form.

Also extant is _Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?_ In this work, expounding the account of the rich young man in Mark 10:17–31, Clement argued that the problem lies not in wealth itself but in one's attitude toward it.

Clement argued, in effect, that "just as the Law led the Jews to Christ, so philosophy was a preparation leading the Greeks to Christ." He drew on the Logos concept of Greek philosophy to explain Jesus Christ. Like the Jewish philosopher Philo, he also made frequent use of allegorical interpretation, reading Scripture through symbol and figure. Against the Gnosticism of his day, he put forward the concept of the "true Gnostic," holding that true knowledge is not secret knowledge but something that grows on the foundation of the Church's faith.

Influence on the Korean Church

Clement's direct influence on the Korean church has been limited. He is, however, treated as a representative theologian of the early church in church history and patristics courses at Korean theological colleges and seminaries. He is also frequently cited in discussions of the relationship between faith and scholarship, and between the gospel and culture.

Assessment

Clement is regarded as having made the first substantial attempt to explain the Christian faith in the language of the educated people of his time. Reformed and evangelical scholars tend to criticize him for embracing Platonic philosophy too readily and for the arbitrariness of his allegorical interpretation. Those who emphasize dialogue with culture see him as a pioneer in communicating the gospel within its cultural setting. Photius, the ninth-century Patriarch of Constantinople, is known to have criticized certain of his works, no longer extant, as containing heretical views. Clement was once honored as a saint in the Western church, but he is reported to have been removed during a later revision of the Roman Martyrology. Some Orthodox traditions continue to honor him as a revered church father.