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5.0 out of 5 stars
Most of Clement's important works. Good editing, November 30, 2009
This review is from: Clement of Alexandria: The Exhortation to the Greeks. The Rich Man's Salvation. To the Newly Baptized (fragment) (Loeb Classical Library) (Hardcover)
Clement of Alexandria, translated by G. W. Butterworth, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2003)
I am reluctant to recommend any book which is half Greek (facing pages translated into English), and I'm sure most of you could probably find Clement (ca150 - ca 215 CE) of Alexandria's works in a more conventional form, but the Loeb Classical Library volumes are so magnificently presented and suitable for carrying around to read in spare moments, that I will stick with them for this writer. This volume includes two of his surviving major works and a third minor work, plus an editor's appendix:
Exhortation to the Greeks
The Rich Man's Salvation
To the newly Baptized or Exhortation to Endurance
Appendix on the Greek Mysteries
Exhortation to the Greeks reads like a modern `new atheist' criticism of Christianity, except that it is a Christian critique of the various pantheons of Greek gods. The Rich Man's Salvation, literally translated to be Who is the rich man that is being saved? It is too long to be a sermon, delivered orally in a single reading. As this is 1400 years before the invention of moveable type, it is unlikely to be for a `pamphlet' so common during the Reformation. It is likely that there were many wealthy Christians in Alexandria, the most important city in the empire next to Rome. So it was in Clement's interest to explain to them how a church with so many scriptural dictums against wealth would have a place for them. The most damning is Mark 10:17--31:
17 ...a man ran up and knelt before Jesus, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 18 Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: `You shall not murder...20 He said to Jesus, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth". 21 Jesus looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Added to this and other gospel statements was the primitive communism of the early Jerusalem community (Acts 2:43--47). The emphasis on eternal life and the popularity of Christianity among the poor just made things worse. The rich may have been alienated by this Christian emphasis and the poor would have treated them with jealousy and suspicion. This is not an easy problem to solve, and may inhibit church participation today. Clement himself may have had some wealth and position, since free time was essential to acquiring the vast knowledge he had of ancient literature, philosophy, and pagan religious practices.
Clement had some important doctrinal positions on his side. Several pre-Christian thinkers believed that ultimate virtue required giving up possessions, and he did not wish to forward a dogma which agreed with thinkers with whom he so strongly disagreed (Democritus, Anaxagoras). In his theological works, he emphasizes the allegorical nature of many of the statements in the Christian scriptures. Thus, it was easy for him to say that what Jesus meant was fundamentally different from the literal statements of the Greek philosophers. Clement states that what Jesus meant was that wealth was to be renounced in a spiritual sense. One is to eschew a love of money, not money itself which stands in the way of one's salvation. In the `turning lemons into lemonade' department, he recommended that the wealthy dispense with selfishness by spending their money liberally for the relief of their poorer brethren. The poor, in turn, will intercede with God for their benefactors, who will earn an abundant recompense. Clement's allegorical interpretation of scripture arose out of the Alexandrian school, and it would blossom to its fullest realization in the works of his student, Origen.
Clement's allegorical readings opened Christianity to assimilate the culture of the Greco-Roman world, and to criticize its follies. This also served a church where the expectations for Christ's speedy return were fading, and the institution had to look to its survival as a citizen on earth alongside St. Paul's `citizenship in heaven'. This needs capital to build churches and to broaden Paul's emphasis on charities for the poor. Thus, none of the art, philosophy, or science, the refinements of the wealthy, could be excluded from the church. Clement himself was not beyond using poetic allusions in his writings, as in Exhortations to the Greeks where music is a medium of expressing the Spirit:
By the power of the Holy Spirit He arranged in harmonious order this great world, yes, and the little world of man too, body and soul together; and on this many voiced instrument of the universe He makes music to God, and sings to the human instrument. "For thou art my harp ...by reason of the music, my pipe by reason of the breath of the Spirit, my temple by reason of the Word--God's purpose being that the music should resound..." Ch. I, p 13.
Clement followed the belief that all truth came from a single sun, and that non-Christians were capable of seeing that truth independently, such as Plato:
I long for the Creator of the world, He who gives light to the sun. I seek for God Himself, not for the works of God. Whom am I to take from you as a fellow worker in the search? For we do not altogether despair of you. "Plato," if you like. Ch. VI. P 153.
Agreeing with Plato, Clement dismisses almost all of pagan worship with:
For a statue is really lifeless matter shaped by a craftsman's hand; but in our view the image of God is not an object of sense made from the matter perceived by the senses, but a mental object. God, that is, the only true God, is perceived not by the senses but by the mind. Ch. IV, p. 117.
Clement does have something to offer to our coverage of `the Christian way of life' in his fragment, To the Newly Baptized. Almost 300 years before The Rule of St. Benedict, Clement outlines the Christian way of life. The most remarkable aspect of this advice is that it seems to apply more to maintaining one's reason and success in commerce with other people than it does to spirituality:
Cultivate quietness in word, quietness in deed, likewise in speech and gait; and avoid impetuous eagerness. For then the mind will remain steady, and will not be agitated by your eagerness and so become weak and of narrow discernment and see darkly;...Learn gladly, and teach ungrudgingly. Never hide wisdom from others by reason of a grudging spirit, nor through false modesty stand aloof from instruction. Pp 371--373.
Clement gives God his due with:
Let everything you do be done for God, both deeds and words; and refer all that is yours to Christ; and constantly turn your soul to God; and lean your thought on the power of Christ...communicate your thoughts most of all to God at night as well as by day...let Christ be to you continual and unceasing joy.
Clement's instructions do not constitute a complete `rule', but he does emphasize regularity of habits and replacing the pleasures of food and wine with the joys that are in divine words and hymns Ephesians 5:18--19
18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.
One may wonder how to reconcile a spiritual joy comparable to intoxication with wine with the instructions to gentle speech, with your glance turned to the ground. The ultimate objective of the Christian discipline would seem to be the trust in God's providing for us and:
Knowing this, make your soul strong even in face of diseases; be of good courage, like a man in the arena,...God will grant grace to His friend when he asks, and will provide succor for those in distress, wishing to make His power known to men.
In Clement's writings, it is remarkable to see the range of his quotes from both classical authors, many of whom are now lost to us, and of the Christian texts which had not yet been collected into a complete canon.
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