What is old is new again. That’s why the Fathers are so important, they’ve done battle with the heresies that continue to plaque our Church even today. Also in his writings you can see the “Theology of the Body”…1800 years or so before we hear from Pope John Paul II. Faith and Reason can live in harmony…then knew it then and we can be confident about that now.
Take a listen to Mike Aquilna, who does a great job giving us the life of this early, early father of the Church, Clement of Alexandria.
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Here in a very small nutshell is an overview of St. Clement of Alexandria –
from wikipedia –
Titus Flavius Clemens (c.150 – c. 215), known as Clement of Alexandria (to distinguish him from Clement of Rome), was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen. He united Greek philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine and valued gnosis that with communion for all people could be held by common Christians specially chosen by God.Though he constantly opposes the concept of gnosis as defined by the Gnostics, he used the term “gnostic” for Christians who had attained the deeper teaching of the Logos.He developed a Christian Platonism. He presented the goal of Christian life as deification, identified both as Platonism’s assimilation into God and the biblical imitation of God.
Like Origen, he arose from Alexandria’s Catechetical School and was well versed in pagan literature.Origen succeeded Clement as head of the school.Alexandria had a major Christian community in early Christianity, noted for its scholarship and its high-quality copies of Scripture.
Clement is counted as one of the early Church Fathers. He advocated a vegetarian diet and claimed that the apostles Peter, Matthew, and James the Just were vegetarians. – wikipedia
Great trilogy of St. Clement of Alexandria
The trilogy into which Clement’s principal remains are connected by their purpose and mode of treatment is composed of:
- the Protrepticus (“Exhortation to the Greeks”)
- the Paedagogus (“Instructor”)
- the Stromata (“Miscellanies”)
The first book deals with the religious basis of Christian morality, the second and third with the individual cases of conduct.
