In coming to grips with Clement's philosophical theology, we must ask a fundamental questions: whose philosophy? When Clement wrote about philosophy, we was referring to Platonism, which was alive and well throughout the Roman Empire. Again, as many church historians have noted, Clement's thought was actually very progressive, and was somewhere between Middle Platonism and Neo-Platonism,. It is debatable as to which one he leaned towards, but many would argue that Clement was more of a Neo-Platonist.
Clement regarded philosophy as the way in which God prepared the hearts and minds of the Greeks for Christ, just as He did the law of Moses for the Jews. He praised Socrates and Plato, and believed that it was a work of providence that God brought them forth when He did. Throughout his writings, he even refers to Plato as "the truth loving Plato," as well as denoting him an imitator of Moses.
But what of some of the apostle Paul's negative comments on Greek philosophy? How did Clement address these? Clement argued throughout his writings that Paul only condemned Epicureanism and Stoicism, and not philosophy in general. Again, Clement argued that true philosophy was beneficial. What was true philosophy? That which was found in Socrates and Plato!
But why Platonism? What did Clement find so enthralling about it? Why did he view it so highly? Why did he see it as a necessary advocate in communicating the gospel to the Greeks? First, it rejected polytheism. This was a major plus. Platonism focused on one, ultimate spiritual reality out of which everything else derives both its goodness and its very being. It must be stated that Clement did hold to creation out of nothing, therefore he rejected Platonism's idea that creation was an impersonal, eternal process of emanation from the spiritual reality.
Next, Platonism believed in an afterlife. It held to a spiritual dimension, thus pointing people away from simply living for life in the here and now. It focuses on getting away from physical and bodily pleasure, and reaching towards things spiritual. There are more, but these were the two major parallels he saw between Christianity and Platonism.
in the next post on Clement, we will look at one of his most controversial teachings- the Christian as the "true gnostic."