Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - After reflecting on the Twelve Apostles and then on the disciples of the latter, Pope Benedict XVI continues to focus his teaching during the weekly General Audiences on major figures in the early Church. During the audience in St Peter’s Square on Wednesday April 18 the Pope spoke about the great theologian Clement of Alexandria, born probably in Athens about the middle of the 2nd century. “From Athens he inherited a marked interest for philosophy which was to render him a herald of dialogue between faith and reason in the Christian tradition” Benedict underlined recalling while still young Clement reached Alexandria, where he was a disciple of Pantaenus, and then succeeded him as head of the Alexandrian School of Catechesis. Numerous sources say he was ordained a priest. During the persecution of 202-203 he left Alexandria and went to Cesarea, in Cappadocia, where he died in 215. The three most important works he left are the "Exhortation", "The Tutor", the "Miscellanies".
“As a whole Clement’s catechesis - the Holy Father explained - accompanies the path of the catechumen and the baptised Christian step by step because, so that with two "wings" of faith and reason, they may reach intimate knowledge of the Truth, who is Jesus Christ, the Word of God. Only this knowledge of the Person who is the truth, is ‘authentic gnosis’, the Greek word for ‘knowledge’ ‘intelligence’. This is the building constructed by reason under the impulse of a supernatural principle. Faith itself constructs authentic philosophy, that is authentic conversion on the path to be taken in life … Knowledge of Christ is not only thought it is also love which opens the eyes, changes the person and builds communion with the Logos, with the - Divine Word who is truth and life. In this communion, which is perfect knowledge and love, the perfect Christian attains contemplation, unity with God.”
The Pope then underlined that Clement upheld the doctrine according to which the ultimate destiny of man is to become similar to God. “We are truly created in the image and likeness of God however this is also a challenge, a journey; in fact the purpose of life, the final destination is really to become like God. This is possible thanks to co-naturalness with Him, which man received at the moment of creation, and therefore is already in himself,- already in himself - an image of God. This co-naturalness enables man to know divine reality and which, accepted first of all out of faith and, through lived faith, the practice of virtue, can grow and reach contemplation of God”. In the process of perfection Clement gives the moral requisite the same importance as the intellectual one: “The two go together because we cannot know without living and we cannot live without knowing. Assimilation to God and contemplation of God cannot be reached only with rational knowledge: they require a life according to the Logos a life according to the truth. And consequently good works must accompany intellectual knowledge as the shadow follows the body.”
The moral ideal of ancient philosophy, namely liberation from passions, is redefined and conjugated by Clement with love, in the continual process of assimilation with God. Thus he constructs “the second great occasion of dialogue between Christian proclamation and Greek philosophy”. As John Paul II wrote in the Encyclical Fides et ratio, “Clement of Alexandria interprets philosophy as ‘instruction which prepared for Christian faith (n. 38). And in fact Clement even goes as far as to say that God gave philosophy to the Greeks ‘as their Testament (Strom. 6,8,67,1). For him Greek philosophic tradition, almost equal to the Law for the Jews, is a source of ‘revelation’, they are two rivulets which definitively flow into the Logos. So Clement continues to mark with decision the path of those who intend "to explain the reason" of their faith in Jesus Christ. He can be an example for Christians, catechists and theologians of our day.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 20/4/2007 - righe 46, parole 662)
