Clement of Alexandria Quotes on God
Clement of Alexandria sought to reconcile Greek philosophy with Christian faith, and the quotes gathered here show how that project shaped his understanding of God. Clement held that philosophy was itself a divine gift, given to the Greeks as a stepping stone to the philosophy which is according to Christ, a genuine preparation for the Gospel rather than its enemy. Knowing God, for him, draws the believer into reflective understanding: he asks how anyone who wishes to lay hold of the power of God could fail to philosophise and grasp intellectual concepts. Yet this learned faith remains practical and devotional, directing that everything be done for God, both in deeds and in words. Drawn from his Stromata, Paedagogus, and shorter works, these passages present a God approached through both Christian devotion and the disciplined use of reason; several condensed lines are marked as attributed.
Quotes
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“Philosophy is a clear image of truth, a divine gift to the Greeks.”
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“If I know God, I know myself.”
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Attributed to Clement of Alexandria:
“Faith is the beginning of love, but love is the fulfillment of faith.”
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“Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings.”
Paedagogus ( The Instructor , c. 198 AD), 2. -
“We shall not err in alleging that all things necessary and profitable for life came to us from God, and that philosophy more especially was given to the Greeks, as a covenant peculiar to them, being, as it were, a stepping stone to the philosophy which is according to Christ.”
Stromata ( Miscellanies , c. 198–203 AD), VI, 8. -
“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. ... Let Christ be to you continual and unceasing joy.”
To the Newly Baptized | pp. 373-374. -
“For this is the true following of the Saviour, when we seek after His sinlessness and perfection, adorning and regulating the soul before Him as before a mirror and arranging it in every detail after His likeness.”
The Rich Man's Salvation | p. 315. -
“How can it not be necessary, for him who wishes to lay hold of the power of God, to philosophise and to grasp with comprehension intellectual concepts?”
As reported in Clement of Alexandria by Eric Osborn ( Cambridge University Press : 2008), p. 63.