Chapter 4 - The Saviour Of Men
CHAPTER 4
THE SAVIOUR OF MEN
THE passage under consideration in the last chapter continues with the words, Therefore also to believe in him and through him is to become something unified, being indivisibly made one in him; but to disbelieve means separation, estrangement, and division.' 1 Clement passes from his description of the Son in his relations to his Father and the cosmos to his relation to men. We have here the ethical or religious consequences of the Son being 'one thing as all things'. The man who believes in the Son is made one in him. This is the dominant theme of Clement's account of salvation. Clement found in the philosophical concepts of 'the one' and 'one thing as all things' a useful vehicle for the presentation of Christian truth and a useful weapon against dualistic error. After an introductory passage we shall examine the scheme of salvation (1) beginning with its meaning for individuals
( Strom. IV, chs. 25 and 26), (2) beginning with its meaning for the human race (
Strom. VII, chs. 2 and 3).
The importance of being at one with the universe had been recognised throughout Greek philosophy. In the thought of the Stoics, especially in that of Posidonius, we have the notion of a living world, from which separation means the end of existence. 2 From Posidonius the idea passed into Platonism, so that we find in Plotinus an account of the impotence of the soul that has separated from the All. 3
In Marcus Aurelius the same thought is found and the key words ἀποκóπτειν, ἀ µνειν, ἀπσχí∯ειν ἔνωσις are used. 4 The impulse of gnosticism, 5 not to mention of ____________________ 1Strom. IV, 157; II, 318, 5.
2Theiler, Die Vorhereitung des Neuplatonismus, p. 94: 'die Kraft der Sammlung und das Verderben der
Individuation'.
3Enn. IV, 18, Cited Theiler, op. cit. p. 94.
4Meditations, VIII, 34.
5Hans Jonas, Gnosis und spätantiker Geist, vol. I, p. 104: 'Die Zersplitterung -Sind aus dem einen Licht, dern ersten Leben, Teile abgetrennt und in die Finsternis gernischt worden, so ist eine ursprüngliche
Einheit zersplittert und der Vielheit überliefert worden.'
Hermetism and the 'mysteries' in general, was to regain the original unity which had given way to plurality.
Clement lived at a time when the age-long quest for harmony and unity was explicit on every side; yet nowhere do we find a unified character portrayed which is the equal of Clement's gnostic. The greatness of Clement's picture of the gnostic 1 lies partly in his constantly recurring emphasis on the unity of the gnostic with God and especially in the way in which this unity is related to the whole of life. 2 Because the presence of God is always with us we do our daily work in a spirit of praise whether we plough the earth or sail the seas. 3 The gnostic never gives way to pleasures and temptations because he knows that God sees everything. 4
1. ἀ ἐ µενον ἐν αὐτῶ To believe in and through the Son is to become one, to be indissolubly made one in him, while to disbelieve is to be separated, estranged, divided. 5 The meaning of this statement is found in the sections which follow it and which bring the fourth book of the Stromateis to its conclusion.
(1) To be one in Christ is to be pure, free from the sin which separates from God.
Clement expounds the ceremonial law of Ezekiel xliv. No foreigner who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh, but only the Levites, may enter into the holy places. Uncircumcision means impurity of body and spirit. Foreigners are those who do not want to believe, but want to disbelieve. The real priests are those who live purely. If a priest is defiled by contact with a dead body he must wait seven days
(the period of genesis), the seventh day being the day of rest. Then on the ____________________ 1Especially in Strom. VII, ch. 7.
2Strom. VII, 35; III, 27, 9.
3Strom. VII, 35; III, 27, 27.
4Strom. VII, 36; III, 28, 23 and Strom. VII, 37; III, 29, 14; cf. Strom. VII, 5; III, 6, 1. Cf. Theiler, op. cit. pp. 82-4. The repetition of the Xenophanes reference made concerning the Son in Strom. VII, 2 is part of another Posidonius theme which is continued in Neoplatonism. Pliny (Nat. Hist. 14) had said:
'quisquis est deus si modo est alius . . . torus est sensus, totus auditus, totus animae, totus animi, totus sui.' Cf. also Proclus, Comment. Tim.84, 6.
5Strom. IV, 157; II, 318, 5.
eighth day he must bring a propitiation. The perfect purification, says Clement, is faith in the gospel; the seven days (whether they stand for periods of time or heavenly spheres) represent the genesis and sin which the gnostic must put off. The eighth day or heaven is the gnostic's place, the highest rest, or the fixed sphere that borders on the world of ideas. Here the fear of change which characterises the lower spheres is absent.
(2) To be one in Christ is to be born again to a life of righteousness and of eternal peace in God. Job's nakedness at birth and death was nakedness of sin and the deformities which sin brings. He was naked because he was righteous. We must be as little children, pure in body and holy in soul. God generates us in this condition from our mother, the water of baptism. As a result of our second genesis we are immortal. The wicked are not so. Moses symbolised our state of purity in the virginity of Rebecca whose name means 'the glory of God', which glory is immortality. Righteousness is peace and health. Melchizedek, king of Salem, means
'righteous king of peace', and this shows that righteousness and peace mean the same thing.
To the great relief of his readers Clement now says, 'We must pass from the more theological questions 1 to ethical questions which are clearer', and ends by speaking of the Saviour as our mystagogue. 2
To be one in Christ is to serve God with our whole being in the world which he has made. God as οὐσíα, τἀγαΘóν, νοῦς is the first principle of all things -- physical, ethical, and logical -and the Son is our Teacher for all of them. Consequently it is wrong to declare that the world and the human bodies, which God made and adapted for right living and of which he is the first. principle, are evil. Such a God will receive from the gnostic a complete devotion which is ethical, physical, and logical. Clement has been speaking of the Ogdoad as the true gnostic's place. He has been speaking of the Son of an unknowable Father as the ____________________ 1τῶ πων. See Stählin trans., BKV, vol. IV, p. 109 n. 4.
2The reference to the mystagogue explains the manner of the passage. The Ezekiel passage is treated in the fashion of Hellenistic Judaism. The Jews described their ceremonial worship in the terms of mystery religion. Cf. W. Knox , St Paul and the Church of the Gentiles, pp. 29-30.
converging point of all the powers. These statements are consistent with a pessimistic dualism similar to that of the heretical gnostics. It is no accident that Clement now makes an unambiguous statement that God is the first principle of all things, and follows this statement with a criticism of the pessimistic dualism of Basilides.
In God's world man is placed with his members arranged in a way conducive to right action. 1 A complete service of God is fulfilled by the gnostic, logically in the wisdom which is the knowledge of divine and human things, ethically in the justice which is a harmony of the parts of the soul, physically in the holiness which is the service of God. The condemnation of the flesh in the Bible refers not to the physical body but to sin, 'carnal men' being 'men in sin'. The soul is better than the body; but it is not naturally good nor the body naturally bad. Body and soul are ethically neutral, 2 different from one another but not mutually opposed. The soul of the gnostic treats its earthly tabernacle, the body, with respect, but not with warm attachment. 3 Basilides claims that the elect are in essence superior and strange to the world. But this is not so. 'For all things are of one, namely God. It is not possible for anything to be essentially foreign to the world, for being is one and God is one.
But the elect man lives as a stranger, knowing that the things of the world are to be possessed and then given up.' 4 We may groan for our heavenly tabernacles. We may wish rather to be absent from the body and present with God, but the word
'rather' implies comparison, which in turn implies likeness. 5 There can be no comparison between things that are wholly dissimilar. That is why St Paul adds,
'wherefore we strive, whether dwelling in the body or out of it, to be well pleasing to God'. 6 Both our earthly and heavenly tabernacles are places of serving a God who is 'the one God, by whom all things are made and created, the world, and things above the world'. 7
____________________ 1ππòς τò καΛóν, οὐ ππòς ἡ ν εὔΘετα.
2Strom .
4Strom. IV, 165; II, 321, 30.
5Strom. IV, 166; II, 322, 15 62 Cor. V. 9.
7Strom. IV, 167; II, 322, 19.
(4) To be one in Christ is to exchange an 'earthly' for a 'heavenly' life. The heretical gnostics have twisted things around the wrong way. Our souls are not sent down from heaven to earth. God always works for the betterment of things. Our journey is from earth to heaven and we can even now exchange earth for heaven by living a life of righteousness. To pass from ignorance to knowledge is to pass from earth to heaven. Scripture calls the man who has chosen ignorance and hardness of heart
'earth', while the Christian gnostic, who has given himself to the contemplation of heaven and divine things, is called 'heaven'. The 'earth' is judged. The unbeliever is condemned. God does not save the wicked who do not want to know him. Men are free to choose. The good God is not the cause of evil and ignorance. This would be absurd. God asks men, in the words of Scripture, to fear him and walk in his ways 1 only because they have the power of choosing. 'He asks this of you because you have the power to choose salvation.' 2
The result of this choice should be evident to all. We should have works that cry our faith aloud. Our works should shine before men. The gnostic must imitate God as far as possible. Euripides speaks of soaring aloft to speak to Zeus. Clement prays that he may soar by the Spirit of Christ to his new Jerusalem, his heavenly city, the Church in which the will of God is done, on earth as it is in heaven. 3
This closing chapter of Book IV of the Stromateis shows Clement arguing against the heretical gnostics. He attacks what has been called their 'pessimistic dualism' and 'deterministic naturalism'. 4 Their dualism divided the world and the body as bad from heaven and the spirit as good. Their determinism claimed that in order to be spiritual and elect one had to be born that way. Clement's arguments are based on two propositions -God is the first principle of all existence, God is good. His arguments may be expressed syllogistically.
(a) A good God cannot cause evil things. God caused the ____________________ 1Deut. X. 12.
2Strom. IV, 170; II, 324, 4.
3Strom. IV, 172; II, 324, 24 to end of chapter.
4Buri, Clemens Alexandrinus und der Paulinische Freiheitsbegriff, ch. 1.
world and the body. Therefore the world and the body are not evil.
(b) A good God cannot cause evil things. The sinfulness of man is evil. Therefore
God does not cause the sinfulness of man.
But the syllogisms leave out the many corollaries and allusions which Clement's arguments contain. This chapter shows how well fitted Clement was to defend his scheme against the objections of heretical gnostics. It shows too how his ideal of unity with God concerns both this world and the next and is fulfilled in the fellowship of the Church, God's city on earth and in heaven. 1 The important thing about a city was its unity and Clement considered the Church to be essentially one. 2
II. πáντες αũτοũ οí ǰ4υθρωποι 3 We have considered Clement's account of salvation, beginning with its meaning for individual believers. We shall now consider the universal scheme. The Son of God rules over all and all things are his. By his universal and sustaining power he directs and orders the whole universe. God has put all things under him. The angels and divine beings are his, set in obedience under him. All men belong to him; but only some know whose they are. Men differ in their responses to his providence, which is individual, public, and universal. He does not compel anyone but is nevertheless the Saviour and Lord of all. 'How could he be Saviour and Lord if he were not the Saviour and Lord of all?' 4 He came in his great love for men for their common salvation. They who choose his salvation have a common faith. The Son is the cause of all good things and does all things well.
The variable factor in the scheme of salvation is not the Son's almighty power nor his perfect love. It is the will of man. 'For this is the law from of old, that he who wants virtue must choose ____________________ 1The importance of this idea for Christian thought is considerable. A Stoic (Marc. Aurel. Meditations,
IV, 28) and Platonic (Republic, IX) idea, it had been used by St Paul (Phil. iii. 20; Eph. ii. 20) and was to provide the basis of St Augustine's philosophy of history.
2Strom. VII, 107; III, 76, 4.
3Strom. VII, 5; III, 6, 5. We turn now to Strom. VII, chs. 2 and 3.
4Strom. VII, 7; III, 7, 16.
it for himself.' 1 According to a man's faith, he is placed in an order which descends from the one first principle, the Son, through the powers and angels to men. The Son directs the salvation of all through the intermediary powers. Clement pictures a magnet the force of which is spread over a series of steel rings. Some separate pieces of steel are attracted to the magnet itself and to each of the rings, while other pieces drop off and fall away. In the same way, drawn by the Holy Spirit, some men rise to the presence of God, some to places of increasing distance from God, while others, giving way to passions, drop off, spin round and round, and fall away. It is the same power which draws all men through all the 'saving circles' of different times, places, and heritages. The Son has done everything he could towards the salvation of men, short of taking from them their freedom of will. 2 He gave the law to the Hebrews, philosophy to the Greeks, and has arranged the whole universe to facilitate men's salvation. 'Everything, then, which did not in any way obstruct man's free power of choice he made conducive to virtue and showed it to be so. So that in some way or other, even to those who can only see dimly, the true, only, one, almighty, good God might be manifest from eternity to eternity saving by the Son, and in no way whatever the cause of wickedness.' 3
The apprehending vision of the Gnostic is a state of unity with God. By salvation we are made one with the Logos and with other men. For he is more than an external leader and controller. He lives within the souls of those who believe on him, and by this indwelling presence he draws them together. 'For the soul of a just man is above all "a divine image similar to God". In this soul, through obedience to the commandments, the ruler of all things mortal and immortal is consecrated and set apart. He is the king and the author of good things. He is truly law, ordinance and eternal Logos, and he is individually to each and in common to all the one Saviour.
This is in truth the only begotten, the stamp of ____________________ 1Strom. VII, 9; III, 8, 28.
2Buri contrasts this recurring element in Clement's teaching with the teaching of St Paul concerning man's slavery under sin. He speaks of 'Die von Clemens nichtheachtete naturhafte Gebundenheit des natürlichen Menschen bei Paulus'. Op. cit. p. 77.
3Strom. VII, 12; III, 9, 22.
the majesty of the king of all and Almighty Father who impresses the gnostic with the seal of perfect contemplation in accordance with his own image. So there is now a third divine image, which is made as like the second cause as possible and made like that life which is life indeed, the life through which we live the true life.' 1
The last sentence suggests a parallel between Plato's theory of art (in Book X of the Republic) as a copy of a copy of reality and the likeness of a likeness of God in the believer's soul. The same notion is found in Athanasius, where man is compared to a painting of the Logos, being made in the image of God. 2 There are the three terms: God, the image of God or the Logos, our image of the image.
This account of art given by Plato was derived from his theory of forms and the notion of participation. What reality a bed or a picture of a bed possessed was the result of a relation between these things and the 'form' of the bed. The relation was called 'participation'. Of the forms Plato said, 'Each in itself is one. . . but they appear everywhere and each seems many.' 3 The one thing is the form, the many appearances participate in it. The man who is awake 'recognises a certain real beauty (i.e. the form of beauty) and is able to discern both it and the objects which participate in it'. 4 There is no difference between this structure of forms and particulars and that of 'individually to each and in common to all the one Saviour'. If F. M. Cornford was right in his theory of the religious origin of the theory of forms, this application of the Platonic scheme to religious experience is very important. The circle is completed, from religion to philosophy, from philosophy to religion.
Speaking of participation he wrote, We understand the problem and its insolubility when we grasp that this relation called 'participation' is from the first a mystical, nonrational relation, which defies rational analysis. The Idea is a groupsoul, related to its group as a mystery daemon, like Dionysus, is related to the group of worshippers, his thiasos. The worshippers of Dionysus believed that, when they held their orgiastic rites, the one God entered into each and all of them; each and all became entheoi;
____________________ 1Strom. VII, 16; III, 12, 14.
2De Incarnatione, XIV.
3Republic, 476.
4Ibid.
they 'partook' of the one divine nature which was communicated to them all, and 'present' in each. It is thus we must interpret the three terms -- methexis, parousia, koinonia -- by which Plato tries to describe the relation of an Idea to its groups. 1
Whether Cornford was right or wrong in attributing to the forms this mystical origin, the parallel is obvious. One daemon, many worshippers, one form, many particulars, one Christ, many Christian souls
-- the one unites the many by the relation of 'participation', 'presence', 'communion'.
We may now summarise the main points of this chapter. The soul of the individual believer is saved from inward division and strife into a life of unity in Christ. This life is characterised by purity from sin, inward peace in Christ, the service of God in the whole of life and doing the will of God on earth as in heaven. The universal scheme of Christ's salvation extends to all men throughout all ages. It brings men into unity with Christ and thereby into unity with one another.
____________________ 1Cornford, From Religion to Philosophy, p. 254.