(Titus Flavius Clemens). Died before A.D. 215. Christian theologian and writer. Born of pagan parents, he received an extensive education in philosophy and literature. He taught in Alexandria as an independent Christian teacher, later fleeing to Asia Minor to avoid persecution.
Clement was the first Christian thinker to rank among the highly educated men of his time. He aimed at a synthesis of Hellenistic culture and Christian faith. Approaching his task with optimistic fervor, he did not grasp the profound contradictions between the two ideological worlds to which he belonged. His religious ideal contains features of classical philosophical humanism. The treatises Exhortation to the Greeks and The Tutor, which continue the tradition of the popular-philosophical literature, interpret Christianity as an enlightening doctrine that overcomes pagan superstitions, frees men from fear, and provides an inner independence. The hymn to Christ, with which The Tutor concludes, is one of the first Christian poetic works. His enormous erudition may be seen in the collection of sketches entitled Miscellanies (Stromata), a valuable source for the history of classical philosophy, which Clement, with some reservations, places on an equal level with the Bible. In the discussion What Rich Man Will Be Saved?, the gospel condemnation of wealth is replaced by an abstract philosophical principle of disdain for material things. On the whole, the type of Christianity expounded by Clement did not find a place in medieval thought and was revived only in the philosophy of Renaissance Christian humanism, represented by Erasmus of Rotterdam and T. More.
S. S. AVERINTSEV