What approach did the early Church take, as exemplified by the trilogy of St. Clement of Alexandria?

St. Clement of Alexandria is known for his famous trilogy: Protrepticus , Paedagogus , and Stromata . This trilogy illustrates the teaching program of the first Catechetical School of Alexandria. As Osborn says, “The problem of the relation between the three major works has attracted considerable attention during the last fifty years.”⁸³⁵ And Swete says, “Perhaps nothing in the whole range of early patristic literature is more stimulating to the modern reader than this great trilogy of graduated instruction in the Christian life … Clement’s conception of Christianity, in its relation to the whole field of human thought, is one which has an especial value for our own times and promises to be increasingly useful in the present century.”⁸³⁶

For St. Clement, God’s plan for humanity consists of three stages that correspond to these three books:⁸³⁷

First: The Logos, the “Word of God,” calls humanity to salvation and away from the clutches of paganism through faith. This corresponds to his first book, Protrepticus or Exhortation to the Greeks . And as Eusebius says, “It was indeed fitting for Clement to expose the vileness of paganism, for he himself passed through it but escaped its plague.”

Second: Human life is reformed through moral commandments. This stage corresponds to the book Paedagogus or The Instructor , which deals with many moral commandments, the goal of which is “to become like God the Word or the divine Teacher Himself.”

835 E. F. Osborn, The Philosophy of Clement of Alexandria (Cambridge University Press, 1957): p. 5.

836 H. B. Swete, Patristic Study (London: Longmans, Green, 1902): p. 48.

837 Cf. A. Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. 2 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1871): p. 455.

Third: In his book Stromata or The Miscellanies humanity rises to the full knowledge of the divine and the state of Christian gnosis .⁸³⁸

This trilogy offers advice and counsel, training and strengthening, and finally healing and education. As Jay says, “In his trilogy, he endeavors to show that the Word of God (the Logos), who brought enlightenment to ancient Israel and to the Greek philosophers, has now, in Jesus Christ, come in a new way to bring the saving knowledge of God to all men. He pleads with his readers to take Christ as their tutor. He will first exhort them. Then, after their conversion, he will train them with a salutary discipline, and lead them from the first rudiments of discipleship, through fear to hope, on to disinterested love and to knowledge which is now desired for its own sake, the knowledge of God.”⁸³⁹ And in the words of the saint himself: “Eagerly desiring, then, to perfect us by a gradation conducive to salvation, suited for efficacious discipline, a beautiful arrangement is observed by the all-benignant Word, who first exhorts, then trains, and finally teaches.”⁸⁴⁰

The writings of St. Clement of Alexandria illustrate the early Church’s diligence, from the earliest times, in addressing every aspect of human life — whether deliverance from the corruption of paganism, enjoyment of fellowship in daily new life as an icon of the divine Teacher, or enjoyment of growth in the knowledge of divine mysteries. Life is a unified whole, and there is no separation between doctrine, worship, behavior, learning, and knowledge. Therefore, we cannot isolate the Church’s social thinking from all other aspects of life.