Report on Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen

 

 

An interesting document. Various portions are written in different styles—for instance, in Chapter 6 Clement dialogues directly with Plato rather than his audience—and yet its message is cohesive. 

The Word is characterized by Clement as a “new song”…

This is the New Song, the manifestation of the Word that was in the beginning, and before the beginning… has in recent days appeared… (1)

Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song. (1)

Continuing with the metaphor, all things were made by him and are governed by him…

[This sew song] composed the universe into melodious order, and tuned the discord of the elements to harmonious arrangement, so that the whole world might become harmony. It let loose the fluid ocean, and yet has prevented it from encroaching on the land. The earth, again, which had been in a state of commotion, it has established, and fixed the sea as its boundary. The violence of fire it has softened by the atmosphere… and the harsh cold of the air it has moderated by the embrace of fire, harmoniously arranging these the extreme tones of the universe... according to the paternal counsel of God. (1)

I’m reminded here of Clement of Rome’s Epistle, Ch. 20…

The heavens, revolving under His government, are subject to Him in peace. Day and night run the course appointed by Him, in no wise hindering each other. The sun and moon, with the companies of the stars, roll on in harmony according to His command, within their prescribed limits, and without any deviation...  (20)

The idea here may not be obvious to us today. We think of the laws of nature as doing something… as though they were cosmic policemen… but nature does not explain itself and the patterns in nature are not self-explanatory. The laws in nature that we discover just are descriptions of the way things actually happen… they are not explanations of what happens. An explanation is needed for the patterns themselves—and this explanation cannot consist in the activities of “gods” who are themselves part of the order of things that require explanation.

The target of the work is paganism. Paganism is characterized as "impious." Clement goes back to this theme repeatedly… that the Greeks, both poets and philosophers, worship things within the created order… and do not look past this order to the explanation of it… In so doing, they neglect he who is truly worthy of worship...

(In Plato's Euthyphro, 'piety' is at one point tentatively defined in terms of giving the gods their due--it is that part of justice concerned with the care of the gods.) 

Why do you love vanity, and seek after a lie?" What, then, is the vanity, and what the lie? The holy apostle of the Lord, reprehending the Greeks, will show thee: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and changed the glory of God into the likeness of corruptible man, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." And verily this is the God who "in the beginning made the heaven and the earth." But you do not know God, and worship the heaven, and how shall you escape the guilt of impiety? (4)

The same governance is made to apply to man, a “universe in miniature”…

[Thsi song] having tuned by the Holy Spirit the universe, and especially man,--who, composed of body and soul, is a universe in miniature, makes melody to God on this instrument of many tones; and to this instrument--I mean man--he sings accordant: "For thou art my harp, and pipe, and temple." --a harp for harmony--a pipe by reason of the Spirit a temple by reason of the word; so that the first may sound, the second breathe, the third contain the Lord… A beautiful breathing instrument of music the Lord made man, after His own image.  (1)

 

But man is fallen and in need of restoration. The Word is himself the instrument of God par excellence, whose unselfish desire is to reconcile disobedient children to their father.

And He Himself also, surely, who is the supramundane Wisdom, the celestial Word, is the all-harmonious, melodious, holy instrument of God. What, then, does this instrument--the Word of God, the Lord, the New Song--desire? To open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf, and to lead the lame or the erring to righteousness, to exhibit God to the foolish, to put a stop to corruption, to conquer death, to reconcile disobedient children to their father. (1)

God loves us while we hate him… 

And now the more benevolent God is, the more impious men are; for He desires us from slaves to become sons, while they scorn to become sons. (9)

The Lord was laid low and man rose up…

The first man, when in Paradise, sported free, because he was the child of God; but when he succumbed to pleasure (for the serpent allegorically signifies pleasure crawling on its belly, earthly wickedness nourished for fuel to the flames), was as a child seduced by lusts, and grew old in disobedience; and by disobeying his Father, dishonoured God. Such was the influence of pleasure. Man, that had been free by reason of simplicity, was found fettered to sins. The Lord then wished to release him from his bonds, and clothing Himself with flesh--O divine mystery!--vanquished the serpent, and enslaved the tyrant death; and, most marvellous of all, man that had been deceived by pleasure, and bound fast by corruption, had his hands unloosed, and was set free. O mystic wonder! The Lord was laid low, and man rose up; and he that fell from Paradise receives as the reward of obedience something greater [than Paradise]--namely, heaven itself. (11)

How does one enter into the kingdom of God? By becoming a child.

Come, come, O my young people! For if you become not again as little children, and be born again, as saith the Scripture, you shall not receive the truly existent Father, nor shall you ever enter into the kingdom of heaven. For in what way is a stranger permitted to enter? Well, as I take it, then, when he is enrolled and made a citizen, and receives one to stand to him in the relation of father, then will he be occupied with the Father's concerns, then shall he be deemed worthy to be made His heir, then will he share the kingdom of the Father with His own dear Son. (9)

As in Irenaeus, we're given the principle outlined in Christ's explanation of the parable of the talents... "For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away." (Matthew 25: 29)

Let no one then despise the Word, lest he unwittingly despise himself. For the Scripture somewhere says, "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation...  Wherefore I was grieved with that generation... I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter into My rest." (9)

Look to the threatening! Look to the exhortation! Look to the punishment!... Rightly, then, to those that have believed and obey, grace will superabound; while with those that have been unbelieving, and err in heart, and have not known the Lord's ways... God is incensed, and those He threatens. (9) 

Threatening is one of the ways in which God exercises his parental care over us. 

Sometimes He upbraids, and sometimes He threatens. Some men He mourns over, others He addresses with the voice of song, just as a good physician treats some of his patients [in one way and others in another according to need]. The Saviour has many tones of voice, and many methods for the salvation of men; by threatening He admonishes, by upbraiding He converts, by bewailing He pities, by the voice of song He cheers. (1)

DSMW

Report on St. Irenaeus Against Heresies Book V

 

Book V has a number of themes, a main theme being the last things. I will focus on the theme of Christ's recapitulation of Adam in himself for our redemption. 

St. Irenaeus gives us in Book V something of a metaphysics of salvation.

Ch. 1

The fact of the incarnation is presented as necessary for our redemption. By “summing up in Himself the ancient formation of Adam,” we, who are of that substance, are renovated.

as, at the beginning of our formation in Adam, that breath of life which proceeded from God, having been united to what had been fashioned, animated the man, and manifested him as a being endowed with reason; so also, in [the times of] the end, the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become united with the ancient substance of Adam's formation, rendered man living and perfect, receptive of the perfect Father, in order that as in the natural [Adam] we all were dead, so in the spiritual we may all be made alive. 1.3

Ch. 2 

By feeding us with his actual body and blood, he, an actual man, brings salvation to the whole man.

When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can [the gnostics] affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?— even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Ephesians 5:30 He does not speak these words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh; Luke 24:39 but [he refers to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones — that [flesh] which is nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the bread which is His body. 2.3

Ch. 6 

The whole man, body, soul, and spirit, is made in the image of God. St. Irenaeus offers an anthropology, the first line of which is profound beyond words. 

Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son... 

For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God…  

Man has three parts. Also, the spirit of man is here identified with the Spirit of God…

For if any one take away the substance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God's] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God…

The perfect man, that which is made in the image of God, is one made like God through the Spirit… One who does not receive the similitude through the spirit is imperfect, Irenaeus goes as far as to say that such a one is not a man (or is an incomplete man).

But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation, but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. 6.1

Ch. 10 

We are “grafted” into Christ (the perfect man) and receive the Spirit of God, which we can refuse. Receiving the Spirit in faith results in our perfection. We are grafted on to the perfect tree.

As, therefore, when the wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its former condition, viz., a wild olive, it is cut off, and cast into the fire; but if it takes kindly to the graft, and is changed into the good olive-tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive, planted, as it were, in a king's park: so likewise men, if they do truly progress by faith towards better things, and receive the Spirit of God, and bring forth the fruit thereof, shall be spiritual, as being planted in the paradise of God. But if they cast out the Spirit, and remain in their former condition… That flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 10.1

… man, if he does not receive through faith the engrafting of the Spirit, remains in his old condition, and being [mere] flesh and blood, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 10.2

Ch. 21 

The first Eve came from the first Adam, bringing death. The second Adam came from the second Eve, bringing life. In this way he sums up all things in himself and is victorious over death.

He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as you can perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed…  For from that time, He who should be born of a woman, from the Virgin, after the likeness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent… But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. For indeed the enemy would not have been fairly vanquished, unless it had been a man [born] of a woman who conquered him. 21.1

Ch. 23 

Adam died on the 6^th Day. Christ recapitulated this in himself, granting man a second creation.

Now in this same day that they ate, in that also did they die. But according to the cycle and progress of the days, after which one is termed first, another second, and another third, if anybody seeks diligently to learn upon what day out of the seven it was that Adam died, he will find it by examining the dispensation of the Lord. For by summing up in Himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, He has also summed up its death. From this it is clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while he disobeyed God. Now he died on the same day in which he ate. For God said, In that day on which you shall eat of it, you shall die by death. The Lord, therefore, recapitulating in Himself this day, underwent His sufferings upon the day preceding the Sabbath, that is, the sixth day of the creation, on which day man was created; thus granting him a second creation by means of His passion, which is that [creation] out of death. 23.2 

 

DSMW 

Clement of Alexandria

I'm not gonna lie. I'm super anxious to put Irenaeus behind us and take a deep dive into Clement of Alexandria. The readings will be about a 1/2 hour per day for the summer. We'll begin with his Exhortation to the Heathen before taking up his magnum opus The Stromata.

The chart below, which I've borrowed from here, gives us a nice picture of where we are and where we're going. I can't say that I endorse all of the notes. In any case, big names on the horizon!

Person or Event	Flourished	Notes
Apostolic Fathers, those whom tradition says knew the apostles
Author of the Epistle of Barnabas	70–130	Anonymous.
Author of the Didache	80–120	Anonymous.
Clement of Rome	85–100	Bishop of Rome. Traditional author of several letters, which assert apostolic succession.
Ignatius	85?–115	Bishop of Antioch. Student of the apostle John and friend of Polycarp. Author of seven letters, about which there is much dispute. Advocate of episcopal supremacy. Creates the cult of martyrs, and coins the term catholic.
Papias	95–120 or 110–140	Bishop of Hierapolis. Student of John and companion to Polycarp. Only known by quotations in later Fathers
Author of the Shepherd of Hermas	100–160	Anonymous.
Polycarp	100–155/165	Bishop of Smyrna. Student of John and companion to Papias. Reluctant martyr.
Cerinthus	100	Early Gnostic. Supposed opponent of the evangelist John.
2nd Century
Basilides	120–140	Early Gnostic.
Valentinus	135–165	Early Gnostic.
Marcion	140–160	First to compile a canon for the NT. Marcion broke from mainstream Christianity when the Roman Jesus club rejected his proposed canon. He constructed his own canon, consisting of an abridged version of Luke, and some of Paul's letters. His organisation vexed the other Jesus clubs for centuries.
Justin Martyr	150–165	Prolific apologist and exegete, the most important thinker between Paul and Origen.
Melito	150–180	Bishop of Sardis. First Christian to refer to the Jewish scriptures as the OT.
Irenaeus	150–200	Bishop of Lyon. Knew Polycarp as a boy. Author of the massive work Against the Heretics, which provides us with invaluable information about earliest Christianity.
Tatian	160–185	Compiler of the Diatessaron, a synthesis of the four gospels.
Clement of Alexandria	180–215	Theologian. Influenced by Hellenistic philosophy
3rd Century
Origen	200–250	Compiled the Hexapla. First Christian Bible scholar.
Tertullian	200–240	First Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. Later converted to Montanism.
Cyprian of Carthage	245–260	Pre-eminent Latin writer of Western Christianity until Jerome and Augustine.
4th Century
Edict of Toleration	313	Christianity legalised.
Eusebius	310–340	Bishop of the old Roman capital of Judea, Caesarea Maritima. Important Church historian. His works are often the sole source we have for earlier church fathers.
Council of Nicaea	325	Basic creed of Christianity established.
Athanasius	330–375	Patriarch of Alexandria.
Ambrose	375–395	Bishop of Milan. Major influence on church-state relations through the Middle Ages.
Edict of Thessalonica	380	Christianity made the state religion.
5th Century
Jerome	380–420	Compiler of the Latin Vulgate. Correspondent of Augustine.
Augustine	390–430	Bishop of Hippo. Most influential theologian of all the Fathers in the West.
John Chrysostom	390–407	Patriarch of Constantinople. Greatest preacher of the Fathers.