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Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria
André Thévet · Public domain · source

Overview

Titus Flavius Clemens, also known as Clement of Alexandria (Ancient Greek: Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς; c. 147 – c. 215 AD), was a Christian theologian and philosopher who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Among his pupils were Origen and Alexander of Jerusalem. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. As his three major works demonstrate, Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular, by Plato and the Stoics. His secret works, which exist only in fragments, suggest that he was familiar with pre-Christian Jewish esotericism and Gnosticism as well. In one of his works he argued that Greek philosophy had its origin among non-Greeks, claiming that both Plato and Pythagoras were taught by Egyptian scholars.

Clement is usually regarded as a Church Father. He is venerated as a saint in Coptic Christianity, Eastern Catholicism, Ethiopian Christianity, and Anglicanism. He was revered in Western Catholicism until 1586, when his name was removed from the Roman Martyrology by Pope Sixtus V on the advice of Baronius. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially stopped any veneration of Clement of Alexandria in the 10th century. Nonetheless, he is still sometimes referred to as "Saint Clement of Alexandria" by both Eastern Orthodox and Catholic authors.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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  1. IRENÆUS (completion); HIPPOLYTUS (completion); Fragments of Third Century. In One Volume. ORIGEN: De Principiis; Letters; and portion of Treatise against Celsus. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, Volume Second; Completion of Miscellanies. TERTULLIAN, Volume First: To the Martyrs; Apology; To the Nations, etc. CYPRIAN, Volume Second (completion); Novatian; Minucius Felix; Fragments.

    of Hippo Augustine, Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy

    The author is tied to Clement of Alexandria in the knowledge graph; names Clement of Alexandria twice.

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  2. Truly Aristotle, who had his surname from Stagira, and Xenocrates of Chalcedon, his companion, through the genius, almost Divine, which Nature had put into Aristotle, knowing this end by means of the Socratic method, with the Academic file, as it were, reduced Moral Philosophy to perfection, and especially Aristotle. And since Aristotle began to reason while walking hither and thither, they were called, he, I say…

    Dante Alighieri, The Banquet

    States what Clement of Alexandria is.

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  3. And just at that time those two books of Philo which were yesterday mentioned by Catulus had been brought to Alexandria, and had for the first time come under the notice of Antiochus; and he, though naturally a man of the mildest disposition, (nor indeed was it possible for any one to be more peaceable than he was,) was nevertheless a little provoked. I was surprised, for I had never seen him so before: but he…

    Marcus Tullius Cicero, The Academic Questions, Treatise De Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations, of M.T. Cicero, With a Sketch of the Greek Philosophers Mentioned by

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Part of Ancient Roman philosophy.

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