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c. A.D. 150 – c. 215

Clement of Alexandria

Worth knowing

  • A convert with a wide Greek education who taught in the Christian school at Alexandria around A.D. 190 and is remembered as Origen's teacher.
  • He argued that philosophy was to the Greeks what the Law was to the Jews: a teacher that led them toward Christ.
  • His Exhortation to the Greeks is built out of their own poets and myths, and uses them to point the reader to the true God.
  • He left Alexandria when persecution broke out around A.D. 202.

In Scholar’s Dream, Clement of Alexandria has three books

Clement of Alexandria’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Clement of Alexandria that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“Behold the might of the new song! It has made men out of stones, men out of beasts. Those, moreover, that were as dead, not being partakers of the true life, have come to life again, simply by becoming listeners to this song.”

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 1 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move The New Song
RationalityArgument · power 66 · 100% accurate

In the gameClement opens by listing the Greek singers who moved stones and tamed beasts — Amphion, Arion, Orpheus — and then says the one song that actually did it. He is not sneering at their poetry. He is telling them what it was reaching for.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 1)

“Perchance, too, philosophy was given to the Greeks directly and primarily, till the Lord should call the Greeks. For this was a schoolmaster to bring ‘the Hellenic mind,’ as the law, the Hebrews, ‘to Christ.’ Philosophy, therefore, was a preparation, paving the way for him who is perfected in Christ.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain), quoting Galatians 3:24.public domain
How it works in the game: the move A Schoolmaster to Christ
RationalityArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gamePaul calls the Law a schoolmaster that brought Israel to Christ. Clement says Greek philosophy did the same job for the Greeks — real teaching, real preparation, and never the destination.

Learned byStromata (Lv 20), Clement’s Corpus (Lv 30)

“Let us then avoid custom as we would a dangerous headland, or the threatening Charybdis, or the mythic sirens. It chokes man, turns him away from truth, leads him away from life: custom is a snare, a gulf, a pit, a mischievous winnowing fan.”

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 12 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Avoid Custom
AnthropologyArgument · power 72 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe strongest reason for the old gods was not an argument. It was that everyone had always done it. Clement answers the habit, because the habit is what keeps people there.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 21), Clement’s Corpus (Lv 34)

Strong against
×3Ancestral Customan argument · why?

Clement answers the habit behind the charge. Doing something because everyone always has is not a reason, and custom can lead a whole people away from the truth.

“The way of truth is therefore one. But into it, as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move A Perennial River
RationalityArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameOne way, many streams. Clement says the road to truth is single and then says that everything true the Greeks ever wrote runs into it — which is a claim about where their learning ENDS, not a claim that any road will do.

Learned byStromata (Lv 24), Clement’s Corpus (Lv 38)

“Sail past the song; it works death. Exert your will only, and you have overcome ruin; bound to the wood of the cross, thou shalt be freed from destruction: the word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven.”

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 12 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Bound to the Wood
ChristologyArgument · power 88 · 95% accurate

In the gameOdysseus had himself lashed to the mast to hear the Sirens and live. Clement takes the picture off Homer and hands it back: there is a mast, it is a cross, and the man tied to it comes home.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 26), Clement’s Corpus (Lv 30)

Strong against
×3Odysseya book · why?

Clement read this book and kept the picture. There is a mast, and the man tied to it comes home.

“But faith, which the Greeks disparage, deeming it futile and barbarous, is a voluntary preconception, the assent of piety — ‘the subject of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,’ according to the divine apostle.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.2 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain), quoting Hebrews 11:1.public domain
How it works in the game: the move The Assent of Piety
FaithArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe Greeks called faith futile and barbarous — credulity with a foreign accent. Clement does not deny that faith comes before proof. He says what it actually is: a choice made on purpose, and the beginning of every action a man takes.

Learned byClement’s Corpus (Lv 44)

Strong against
×2.5Why I Am Not a Christianan argument · why?

Russell has faith meaning belief without evidence, and holds it beneath a grown man. Clement had the same charge from the Greeks and answered it rather than denying it: faith is a choice made before the proof, which is where every chain of reasoning has to start.

“Should one say that Knowledge is founded on demonstration by a process of reasoning, let him hear that first principles are incapable of demonstration; for they are known neither by art nor sagacity… Hence it is thought that the first cause of the universe can be apprehended by faith alone.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.4 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain). (trimmed quote)public domain
How it works in the game: the move Incapable of Demonstration
PresuppositionArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameDemand a proof for every belief and the demand eats itself: the premises a proof starts from cannot themselves be proved, or there is nothing to start from. Clement says so in the second century, and then says which first principle he is standing on.

Learned byClement’s Corpus (Lv 52)

Strong against
×2.5The Ethics of Beliefan argument · why?

Clifford wants a proof for every belief. Clement points at the premises the proof itself begins from — they cannot be proved without other premises behind them, and the rule, applied to itself, leaves nobody able to believe anything.

“Now neither is knowledge without faith, nor faith without knowledge. Nor is the Father without the Son; for the Son is with the Father. And the Son is the true teacher respecting the Father.”

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 5.1 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Neither Without the Other
FaithArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameSome in Clement’s own school had split the two — faith for the simple, knowledge for the advanced. He answers that you cannot believe in the Son without knowing who he is, or know the Father except by believing the Son who teaches him.

Learned byClement’s Corpus (Lv 60)

Strong against
×2.5Room for Beliefan argument · why?

Kant puts knowledge and faith in separate rooms and calls it a service to both. Clement had already refused the partition: believing the Son means knowing who he is, and knowing the Father means believing the Son who teaches him.

×2.5The Critique of Pure Reasona book · why?

Kant puts knowledge and faith in separate rooms and calls it a service to both. Clement had already refused the partition: believing the Son means knowing who he is, and knowing the Father means believing the Son who teaches him.

“And now the Word Himself clearly speaks to thee, shaming thy unbelief; yea, I say, the Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God.”

Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 1 (trans. Wilson, ANF 2, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Learn From Man
ChristologyArgument · power 94 · 95% accurate

In the gameClement has just quoted Philippians 2, about the one who was in the form of God and humbled himself. The Word took what is ours so that what is his could be given to us, by grace and never by nature.

Learned byClement’s Corpus (Lv 66)

Strong against
×2.5The Life of Jesusan argument · why?

Renan keeps a beautiful Galilean and drops the divinity, and calls what is left the real man. Clement says the reason there is a man to look at is that the Word took our nature — take the divinity out and the life Renan admires has nothing behind it.

Words Clement of Alexandria’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’”

Acts 17:28 (WEB), Paul before the Areopagus.
How it works in the game: the move Their Own Poets
RationalityArgument · power 65 · 100% accurate

In the gamePaul on Mars Hill: quote their poets, then preach the risen Christ.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 8)

Strong against
×2Platoa book · why?

Paul did not argue the Athenians out of their poets. He quoted them, agreed with them, and then said the one thing the poets had never reached.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”

Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.
How it works in the game: the move Affirm
Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 19), Stromata (Lv 12), Clement’s Corpus (Lv 33)

“Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians.”

Justin Martyr, Second Apology 13 (trans. Dods & Reith, ANF 1, public domain).public domain
How it works in the game: the move Seed of the Word
RationalityArgument · power 50 · 100% accurate

In the gameJustin: whatever is truly said anywhere is ours. Often finds the telling stroke.

Learned byExhortation (Lv 13)

Strong against
×2"Why So Late?"an argument · why?

Justin taught that the Word was at work before he came in the flesh. Wherever anyone said something true, they had a share in him. The ages before Christ were not empty of him.

×2Platoa book · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever any philosopher said truly, he said it because the Word who became Christ had already sown it in him. Plato is not the opponent here. He is early evidence.

×2The Declamationan argument · why?

Justin’s rule: whatever is truly said anywhere belongs to Christ. What matters in a sentence is whether it is true, and the church keeps whatever is true, however it is dressed.

×2The True Wordan argument · why?

Justin was a philosopher before he was a Christian. He taught that whatever the philosophers said truly belongs to Christ, so the faith has nothing to fear from an educated room.

Who else was alive

Clement of Alexandria against everyone else in the game.

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