Clement calls for his readers to meet Jesus as the “Word” and “Educator” that “forcibly” compels people from
the “worldly way of life and educates them to the only true salvation: faith in
God.” The Educator is the one “who leads
the way” to “improve the soul” not just in knowledge but to guide in
virtue. The Educator does not focus
solely on knowledge, but leads his “children” toward a life of virtue. The “Word” perfects his disciples “in a way
that leads progressively to salvation” through persuasion, education, and lastly, through teaching. The teaching
of the Educator “educates” people in the “fear of God,” instructs in “the
service of God” and provides “knowledge of truth” toward living the virtuous
life which ensures salvation.
For Clement, “The
education that God gives is the imparting of the truth that will guide us
correctly to the contemplation of God, and a description of holy deeds that
endure forever.” God and Jesus, the
Word, have been guiding his children as revealed in scripture, as God’s
guidance to Jacob, Moses, and the Israelites reveals. The Educator from the Old Covenant to the New
Covenant teaches with love, but those under the old were “guided by fear,” while
under the New the “Word has become flesh, [thus] fear has been turned into
love” in Jesus. “Such, then, is the authority wielded by the Educator of
children, awe-inspiring, consoling, leading to salvation.”
Given the role of
the Educator, what role does philosophy have to play in the people’s
education? Addressing the role of
philosophy, Clement argues that it was “an essential guide to righteousness for
the Greeks” and “at the present time, it is a useful guide towards reverence
for God.” He asserts, “For philosophy
was to the Greek world what the Law was to the Hebrews, a tutor escorting them
to Christ. Philosophy is a preparatory
process; it opens the road to the person who Christ brings to his final
goal.” For Clement, philosophy, though
imperfect, leads people toward virtue if one is willing.
“God has created
us sociable and righteous by nature,” Clement announces. Therefore, when one pursues philosophy, “it
makes it quicker and easier to track down virtue.” For Clement, a level of righteousness can be
found outside of divine dispensation.
“It follows that we may not say that righteousness appears simply by a
divine dispensation. We are to
understand that the good of creation is rekindled by the commandment, when the
soul learns by instruction to be willing to choose the highest.”
Faith is best
accompanied by reason as it will keep one from being led astray, so Clement
argues, as opposed to those who would argue “it is not right to have anything
to do with philosophy or dialectic,” even refusing to “engage in the
consideration of the natural world at all.”
In Clement’s perception, “The person who yearns to touch the fringes of
God’s power must of necessity become a philosopher to have a proper conception
about intellectual objects.” As with other Christian thinkers through the ages, Scripture
itself is perceived as rational and supporting the dialectic action.
Clement sees the possible role that philosophy had in bringing the Greeks “to righteousness, though not to perfect righteousness.” The “perfect righteousness” comes through the education of the Son. He contends that philosophy “does not add more power to the truth; it reduces the power of the sophistic attack on it.” Philosophy is a defense for the “treacherous assaults on truth,” and thus is a “savory accompaniment or dessert” to the gospel.
Clement uses the apostle Paul in Act 17 quoting from Aratus’ Phaenomena as
a Christian affirmation of even pagan philosophy having some element of truth. The degree to which philosophy has the capability of moving one toward
apprehending truth depends on how well philosophy is practiced. For Clement, there are indeed true philosophers and “caricatures
of philosophers.” True philosophers are those
“whose joy is in the contemplation of truth.”
For Clement, “Philosophy operates through knowledge of the good in its
own being, and through the truth, which are not identical with the Good, but
more like paths to it.” Drawing from none other than Socrates's thoughts, philosophy “contributes to the soul’s awakening.” Philosophy can aide as it, “makes a
contribution to grasping the truth – it is a search for the truth.” However, the ultimate discovery of the one
truth “depends on the Son.” Clement
emphasizes that “it is only this unreachable sovereign truth in which we are
educated by God’s Son.”
Clement
gives numerous insights into the way God may work in the world to draw people toward Himself as in the case of Greek philosophy.
Clement argues that philosophy is a search for truth and is a path ultimately leading toward
the one truth from God. Clement and the grand consensus of Christian thinkers affirm that Philosophy, in and of
itself, is not complete without Jesus at the center as the “Educator” par excellence in
leading to the truth and salvation. For Clement, the academy has a mission if
rightly directed, not by “caricatures of philosophers” but by those who take authentic joy “in the contemplation of truth.”