Chapter 7 - The Goodness Of Things Other Than God -- Its Unity
CHAPTER 7 THE GOODNESS OF THINGS OTHER
THAN GOD -- ITS UNITY
GOODNESS, from man's point of view, consists of three parts-a starting point, an end (or goal), 1 and the good life which joins one to the other. The starting point is, for Plato, 2 the daemon or the ruling rational part of each human soul. The starting point is, for Clement, the image of God which every soul receives at birth. The end is, for Plato, the Good. The end is, for Clement, God. The good life is, for Plato, participation in the Good, eudaemonia, or assimilation to God. The good life is, for Clement, assimilation to God and restoration to perfect sonship. These are the three parts of goodness -- the starting point, the end, and the good life. They are grouped by Clement and Plato in a special way. The good life and the end are joined to form a twofold end or hope. One reason for this is that the process of reaching the goal is itself a goal. The way we reach the end is of equal importance with the end. The two cannot be separated. They are together a two-fold end'. 3
In the second half of the second book of the Stromateis Clement gives an account of the philosopher's opinions concerning the end of human living. In chapter 22 4 he describes the opinions of Plato concerning the end, and shows the similarity between the two-fold end of Plato and the two-fold hope of the Christian. Plato, he says, has spoken of a two-fold end. On the one hand there is the Good which is participated in, is first, and exists in the forms themselves. On the other hand there is the virtue of men who participate in the Good and receive its likeness. All human goodness participates in the one Good. Socrates always taught the identity of the just and the happy man, and ____________________
2'Plato' in this chapter means Clement's Plato, to whom later doctrines were attributed. The formulation of the 'two-fold end' is not found in any dialogue.
4Strom. II, 131; II, 185, 9
cursed the impiety of the man who separated the just from the useful. Plato said that eudaemonia (well-being) was a good condition of the daemon, the daemon being the ruling part of the soul, and eudaemonia being the most perfect and complete good, a life consistent, harmonious, and perfect in virtue. The good life was to be found in knowledge of the Good and in a state of likeness to God -likeness being justice and holiness with wisdom.
In the same way, says Clement, some of our people speak of man receiving at birth the image of God and afterwards, by a process of perfection, receiving his likeness.
1 Plato describes this likeness in 'the Laws', speaking of the need for humility and of obedience to the law of the omnipresent God. 2 He says that the conduct which will be dear and pleasing to God is that which is like God, for 'like will be dear to like'.
Such conduct will be subject to measure, for what is not measured is unlike all else, whether measured or unmeasured. These views, says Clement, Plato got from the Law of Moses, and he acknowledges his debt. In the Theaetetus Plato recognises the need for escape from the evils of this mortal sphere, and describes this escape as assimilation to God. To be assimilated to God is to become just and holy with wisdom. 3 Speusippus says that eudaemonia is the perfect state of those who live in accordance with nature or the state of good men. Every man desires this state, but only the good, as the joint result of their several virtues, attain it. Xenocrates says eudaemonia is the possession of true virtue in the soul, the effect of the virtues and the many elements which go to make them up. Polemon says that eudaemonia is a sufficiency of all good things or of the majority of these. He also discredits the separation of virtue from eudaemonia, and claims that virtue is all one needs for eudaemonia.
In these opinions we have depicted a starting point and a twofold end. The starting point of the good life is the daemon, the ruling part of the soul, or the image of God. These things are present in every man. The two-fold end consists of the good life and the perfect Being, and the former participates in the latter.
____________________ 1∈ íω∣ς 2Laws 715 E-716 D.
3Strom. II, 133; II, 186, 16. Theaet. 176A, B.
The good life consists of eudaemonia -- keeping one's daemon in a good condition, or of assimilation -- making one's image of God more like him. It is the most complete and perfect good, the life of virtue with all the virtues as contributing causes and parts. It is assimilation to God, participation in the Good, the life of righteousness.
Clement continues with a Christian account of the end. Whatever the opinions of the philosophers may be, we must reach the 'endless end' by obeying the commandments, which means obeying God. We must live according to the commandments, blamelessly and intelligently, in the knowledge of the will of God.
'The end is assimilation to the true Logos as far as is possible, and restoration to perfect sonship through the Son.' 1 St Paul tells us that having been freed from sin and made slaves to God, we have fruit to sanctification, and the end is everlasting life. Hope is twofold, what we expect and what we have, the object of hope and our state of hoping. Our hope is not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The present possession is one part of the two-fold hope. The other part of the twofold hope is God himself. The present possession is the good life and is a participation in the ultimate hope. God's love is already in our hearts. Because of this love we reach the restoration and the rest which is laid up for us. 2 A passage from Ezekiel 3 concerning the death of the soul that sins and the righteousness of the righteous man speaks further of the connection between what is and what will be. 'He is righteous. He shall surely live, saith the Lord God.' The passage from Isaiah, 4 which tells us to seek the Lord while he may be found, reminds us of the disparity between what is and what will be. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor his ways our ways. 'God's virtue and man's are not the same.' So, we must seek him, forsake our wicked ways and return to the Lord, to his mercy and his pardon. The noble apostle tells those who have received the hope of righteousness from faith that in Christ only one thing counts -- 'faith made
____________________
Strom. II, 134; II, 187, 7. There is a pun on òρθòς 쎻óγος, a Stoic term for 'right reason', which is used here for 'the true Logos'.
3Ezek. xviii. 4-9.
4Isa. Iv. 6-9.
active by love'. 1 We are urged in the Epistle to the Hebrews 2 to have zeal 'to bring hope to its perfection, even to final perfection', and to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Abraham, to whom God's selfsworn promise was made, endured patiently and obtained the promise. There is great encouragement for us to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope is an anchor to our souls, sure and steadfast. It enters within the veil where Jesus our forerunner, a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek, entered for us. The allvirtuous Wisdom 3 says, 'He who hears me shall rest, having trusted in hope.' The same word 'hope' is used ambiguously for the good life and its fulfilment in God.
The faithful man receives 'the hope which he has hoped'. Again St Paul says quite openly, 'Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.' 4 Through imitating him we are to be imitators of Christ, and through imitating Christ to be imitators of God. The words of Plato are put into the mouth of St Paul, who fixes as the goal of faith 'assimilation to God, as far as is possible becoming just and holy with understanding', the end being the fulfilment of the promise through faith. This is where all the philosopher's ideas of the end find their source.
Assimilation to God was a constantly recurring theme in later classical philosophy.
Pythagoras is said to have uttered the words 'Follow God', and Plato to have described an assimilation which was 'physical, ethical, and rational', adding the idea of 'following God'. 5 The famous Theaetetus passage, 176B, was frequently cited.
The references to this idea in the Laws, Republic, and Timaeus added the ideas of friendship and following after God, of the philosopher who is 'ordered' 6 through association with a God who is 'ordered', and of harmony and constancy. 7 The Stoics originally made no use of the idea, but it appeared in middle
____________________ 1Gal. v. 5f.
2Heb. vi. 11-20.
3Prov. i. 33.
4I Cor. xi. 1.
Arius Didymusapud Stob. Ecl.11, 49, 8 cited Merki, 'οΜοΙωΣ∣Σ θΕϮ von der Platonischen
Angleichung an Gott zur Gottähnlichkeit, pp. 1, 2. The next two paragraphs are drawn very largely from Merki.
7Laws IV, 716 A-D, Rep. VI, 500C, Tim. 90D. Merki, pp. 5-7.
and later Stoicism. Posidonius is credited with the bringing together of knowledge, assimilation to God, piety and happiness. 1 It was to recur in Plotinus with the notions of the deification of man, 2 and the vision of God in purity and beauty. 3
Philo links the Theaetetus passage with obedience to the Law and with Stoic Ő쎻∣γóδ∈∣ἀ and ἀυτáρκ∈ἀ. 4 Man lost his 'aloneness' when woman was created. 5
The wise man strives to regain this quality and in regaining it to become like God. 6
This he does by acting as God acts, doing good and not evil.
The cognate idea of man as the image of God springs indirectly and not directly from Plato. The sun is described as an image of the Good in the Republic. The visible world is described as an image of the invisible world in the Timaeus. The Stoic idea of man as a microcosm led to the application of this second idea to men.
Cicero speaks of the self-knowledge of the divine similacrum within man, 7 and Diogenes and Musonius join him in connecting this with virtue. In Plotinus and Neoplatonism the 'image' idea is so spiritualised as to lose all similarity with Plato's original thought. The Bible contributes an essential element to the idea in the account of creation in Genesis. 'And God said, Let us make man according to our image and likeness.... And God made man. According to the image of God he made him.' 8 This description left Philo and the Fathers free to specify the quality which constituted the image and to interpret the image of God as an intermediary pattern, with man as 'the image of the image'. The latter interpretation is found in Philo 9 and Clement. For Philo the quality of the image in man is non-material and concerned with spirit, mind, and intellect. It is an impression and a fragment of the divine image.
Clement says, 'Is it not in this way that some of our people have understood men to have received what is according to the image immediately at their birth, but to obtain what is according ____________________ 1Cicero, De Nat. Deorum11, 153. Merki, p. 8. Theiler, Die Vorbereitung des Neuplatonismus, pp. 1067.
2Enn.11, 6, 2 f. Merki, p. 20.
3Enn. 1, 6, 7. Merki, p. 24.
4In Virt. 8. Merki, p. 38.
5De Opif. 151. Merki, p. 40.
6Abr. 87. Merki, ibid.
7De Legibus 1, 59. Merki, p. 67.
8Gen. 1, 26, 27.
9Heres. 231. Merki, p. 79. In Virt. 205. Merki, p. 81.
to the likeness afterwards by a process of perfection?' 1 Irenaeus said that Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. Through his sin he lost for all mankind the likeness of God. The Logos took the nature of man to restore this likeness. Men may, through assimilation to him, become not only in the image, but also in the likeness of God. Men have by nature the image of God in their reason and freewill.
But the likeness they can only receive through perfection. 2 Origen's position was slightly different. He interpreted the Genesis account literally. We are told that God said, 'Let us make man in our image and likeness', but we are not told that he did this. We are told that he made man 'in the image' and the omission of 'in the likeness' is significant. 3 The likeness was reserved to be the goal of the process of spiritual perfection. This seems to be Clement's view.
Our Paedagogus, says Clement, having spoken through the Law and the Prophets sketched the outline of true living and educated man in Christ. This was part of a general plan. He formed man out of dust, regenerated him with water, made him grow with the spirit, trained him with the Word, and directs him to sonship and salvation by holy commandments. The purpose behind all this work is that, by his advent, the Logos might. mould the earth-born man into a holy and heavenly man and so fulfil the divine words, 'Let us make man in our own image and likeness.'
These words have been fulfilled in Christ alone. The rest of humanity has been only in the image and not in the likeness of God. 4 But we may fulfil our Father's will, have our image of God stamped with the impression of the saving life of our
Saviour, and consider the heavenly way of life in accordance with which we are made divine. We have a clear pattern of immortality in the behaviour of our Saviour as we seek to follow in the footsteps of God. Through virtue we are assimilated to God. Let us not give up the struggle, for the prize far exceeds our hopes and our imagination. 5
____________________ 1Strom. II, 131; II, 185, 25 2Merki, p. 45.
3De Princ. III, 6, 1: 'de similitudine siluit.' Merki, p. 61.
4Paed. I, 98; I, 148, 21.
5' Paed. I, 99; I, 149, 21.
Clement speaks similarly at the end of the Protrepticus. Men have reason and in this they are superior to animals; but this is not enough. 'Do not be superior to irrational animals by your reason alone, for to you of all mortal beings I grant the enjoyment of immortality.' 1 Men are made in the image of God but the image needs to be made like the archetype. The exhortation continues, O you who have from of old been images, but not completely like your model, I wish to correct your likenesses of the archetype, so that you may become like me.' 2 Again, the closing prayer of the Paedagogus prays for the grace 'to bring to perfection the likeness of the image'. 3
The image in man is the ruling part of the soul. Plato is said to have called this the daemon and to have placed the highest good in a good condition of the daemon
(eudaemonia) and in assimilation to God. The parallel Clement sees is between daemon and image on the one hand and eudaemonia and likeness on the other (the latter term being used both by Plato and 'our people'). This is amplified elsewhere.
At creation God breathed into man's face a rational soul. The image of God is the divine and kingly Logos and the image of the image is the human mind. 4 Clement follows Philo in placing an archetypal image between man and God as well as in making man's image rational. The third divine image is manifest in the true gnostic in whom the Saviour dwells. The Logos, who is the stamp of the Father's glory, impresses the gnostic with the seal of perfect contemplation 'according to the image of himself, so that there is now the third divine image made as like as possible to the second cause'. 5
The distinction between image and likeness entered into the gnostic controversy.
The Valentinian Demiurge, who is made in the image of God, makes the visible world in his own image. The Demiurge is 'in the image', but the followers of Valentinus, 'the different race' who are the result of the breathing into the soul of the 'different spirit', are in both the image and the likeness of God. 6 It is an important part of Clement's teaching that all
____________________ 1Prot. 120; I, 84, 35.
2Prot. 120; I, 85, 8.
3Paed. III, 101; I, 291, 2.
4Strom. V, 94; II, 388, 10.
5Strom. VII, 16; III, 12, 22. Cf. Philo, Heres. 231, cited above.
6Strom. IV, 90; II, 288, 7.
men are made in the image of God and that they all may, if they choose, become like him.
Not all men do, however, become assimilated to God. Some are assimilated to the devil who 'accompanies us through men who emulate his works in this earthly life'. 1
Those who choose salvation may be divided by the manner of their choice into those
'according to the image' and those 'according to the likeness'. This differs completely from the Valentinian division in being a result of choice, not of natural endowment. There are those who choose salvation through fear of punishment or hope of promised benefit and those who choose for the sake of the good itself. 2 The former are the 'hirelings' on the left of the sanctuary. The others are on the right.
Those on the left live according to the likeness of those on the right. Those on the right live according to the likeness of the Saviour. The former choose by imitation and the latter by knowledge. They differ as what is set on fire and illuminated differs from fire and light, as the image which is a separate thing differs from the Israel which is the light of the likeness.
This particular view is not fundamental to Clement's thought. His basic tendency is to avoid a division between image and likeness. There is the archetype, the image, and the thing that joins them together -- the likeness. 3 Men are images who need to be put right in correspondence with the archetype. Their moral and spiritual life is a striving to perfect the likeness of the image. 4
The Law tells its to follow the Lord our God and keep his commandments, For the Law calls likeness "following". Such following assimilates as much as possible.' 5 Our
Lord tells us to be compassionate and merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful.
'Hence also the Stoics define the end as τò ἀκο쎻 ᾔ ∈∣ ∃ , changing inappropriately the name of "God" to "nature".' 6
This equation of 'following' with 'assimilation' 7 makes it possible ____________________ 1Strom. IV, 95; II, 290, 11.
2Strom. IV, :29; II, 261, 10.
3Frag. 33, 111, 218, 3. Cf. also the closing passages of the Protrepticus and the Paedagogus, quoted above.
4Sometimes Clement uses 'image' to mean images that are like, e.g. Strom. VII, 16; III, 12, 22.
5Strom. II, 100; II, 168, 6.
6Strom. II, 101; II, 168, 9, adopting Stählin's emendation, ẳσρ∈σὠς.
for Clement to find a strong Scriptural basis in both Old and New Testaments for his doctrine of assimilation, as well as to link this doctrine with that of the Stoics. 1
Clement uses the words of Plato to express the central thought of assimilation. The words of Theaetetus 176B 2 recur at least twenty-two times in his writings. They constitute the only ethical element which Clement considered essential to philosophy. 3 Assimilation concerns a disposition of mind which does not change. 4
By assimilation a man becomes spiritual and thereby elect, 5 and ultimately perfect and angelic, 6 finding love and true life. 7 When Plato defined the end in the Theaetetus, he somehow hit on the decree of the Law. 8 This may have been the result of his own great insight, or else he may have learnt it from some oracles in his unceasing thirst for knowledge. ομοíωσ∣ íωσ∣ς, ẳκο쎻ουθíἀ, οìκ∈íωσ∣ς describe a life of increasing likeness, obedience, and proximity to God, a life which possesses certain moral and spiritual qualities -- justice, holiness, wisdom, 9 kindness, love of man, and a grand service of God. 10 The virtues which contribute to the likeness are elsewhere listed as continence, patience, righteousness, control of passions, liberality, and beneficence.
11 Great importance is given to passionlessness, for God is passionless. 12 Purity and holiness lead to the holy vision of God. We must remove all passions, 13 yet, in our assimilation to intellectual things, still maintain wonder and reverence for creation and Creator. 14 Forgiveness seventy times seven and forgetfulness of evil make us like the God who makes his sun shine on the just and the unjust. 15 Simplicity of life which has few needs makes us like the God who needs nothing. 16 Love which is linked with passionlessness brings us to perfect manhood. 17
____________________ 1Strom. V, 94; II, 388, 16. Cf. Philo, De Migr. Abr.127f.
10Strom. VII, 13; III, 10, 26.
11Strom. II, 97; II, 166, 1.
12Strom. IV, 147; II, 313, 14: ẳοἀ .
13Strom. VII, 86; III, 61, 32.
14Strom. IV, 148; II, 313, 25.
15Strom. VII, 85; III, 60, 34.
16Paed. III, 1; I, 235, 21.
17Strom. VII, 84; III, 60, 5.
ϕυᾔ óμοíωσις ιω θ∈ω κἀτà τò δυνἀτóν δμοíν κἀì ὅσ∣ν μ∈ ∈ως γ∈ ἀ∣. The passage does not recur in its entirety so many times.
3Strom. I, 52; II, 34, 12.
4Strom. IV, 139; II, 310, 7-9.
5Strom. IV, 168; II, 323, 7-9 6Strom. VII, 84; III, 60, 7.
7QDS, 7; III, 164, 21.
8Strom. II, 100; II, 167, 24.
9Strom. II, 136; II, 188, 20.
The process of assimilation, while an end in itself, was yet to reach an ultimate end, the perfection of the likeness. The end or hope was two-fold -- something received and something expected. 1 The end of assimilation to the true Logos, or restoration to perfect sonship, was a state of complete unity with God. It was a state of rest, of immortality, of God. The Logos of God became man that man might learn to become God. 2 So in Strom. IV, ch. 23, we read of the union of the gnostic with his
Lord, his drawing near, his complete rest, peace, and trust in God. 'In this way it is possible for the gnostic even now to become God. "I said, Ye are gods and sons of the most High." ' 3 Man is made a spiritual being in physical form. What he becomes depends on his choice. He should become passionless and one, like the one high priest and the God who is one. When he puts aside all passions, he becomes divine and one. Just as sailors who pull at an anchor pull themselves to the anchor and not the anchor to themselves, so those who in the gnostic life draw God to themselves unconsciously draw themselves to God. To honour God is to honour oneself. The contemplative man, who, as he worships God, looks to himself and becomes completely pure, enjoys a holy vision of the holy God. Here the emphasis is on the gnostic's personal holiness and spiritual fellowship with God. He is joined to God as a spiritual being.
The link between man and God is also rational and aesthetic. 4 It is most important to know one's self. For knowing one's self one knows God, and knowing God one is assimilated to him (not by wearing fine clothes but by doing good works and needing very little). The ruling part of man's soul, the intellectual, rational element, is divine. The man with whom the Logos dwells does not beautify himself because he has the form of the Logos, is assimilated to God, and is beautiful. He is true beauty because he is God. He becomes God because he wills what God wills.
Heraclitus was right when he said, 'Men are gods and gods ____________________ 1Strom. II, ch. 22.
2Prot. 8; I, 9, 9. For a discussion of this idea see articles by Butterworth and Lattey in JTS, 1916. The former attributes it to Greek, the latter to Christian, sources.
3Strom. IV, 149; II, 314, 23 including Psalm lxxxii. 6.
4Paed. III, 1; I, 235, 20.
are men, for they have the same Logos.' 1 This is a mystery -- God in man and man in God. The mediator is the Logos who is common to both -- God's son and servant, our Saviour and Paedagogus. Clement exploits the ambiguity of 'logos' (the Son or reason) because he wishes to point out the connection between the two meanings.
For Clement assimilation to God is not merely a process of ethical achievement. It is something which God does in us. This is clear from Strom. II, ch. 22. The two-fold hope consists of what we have received and what we hope for. Our hope is not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy
Ghost who is given to us. It is through this love that we reach our rest and receive the fulfilment of our hope. Love is given a leading place in Clement's ethics. 2 It finds expression in the various virtues, but remains undivided in itself. In this way
Clement gives a Christian account of ẳγáπη. Meifort is right in showing how different
Clement's view is from that of Plato. 3 Völker is similarly justified in finding the roots of Clement's ethics in the New Testament, even if he does unnecessarily belittle the influence of philosophy upon their formulation. 4 Clement's distinctive and essential message is that of the Christian Gospel. We do not merely strive towards the Good.
We hope in God because God has come down to us in his Son and has entered into our lives. Christ is in us the hope of glory. 5
____________________ 1Cf. Heraclitus, frag. 67, Bywater. 'Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals', and frag. 92 '... the Logos is common.'
2A fuller treatment of δμοíωσ∣ς will be given in Part III.
3Meifort has a section on this subject in Der Platonismus bei Clemens. Alexandrinus.
4Völker, Der wahre Gnostiker nach Clemens Alexandrinus, p. 505.
5Col. i. 27.