Selected Works of Clement of Alexandria

Born in Athens but settled in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, the Greek Titus Flavius Clement, better known as Clement of Alexandria [150-215], is one of the earliest Christian apologists in a time of crisis, standing out as a promoter and defender of what has been justly called intelligent orthodoxy. What stands out in Clement, as in Tertullian and other Christian writers of the era, is his passionate optimism in an environment of persecution. For them, certainly, Christianity is the "pearl of great price" (Mt. 13:46) for which it is worth leaving and sacrificing everything, even one's own life, in order to acquire it.

Clement was able to accept the challenge posed by pagan intellectuals against the incipient Christian faith and, without straying at all from the central doctrines of the Gospel, he managed to respond to them in their own language, showing them that if Christians withdrew from the world and society, it was not from what was good and true in it, but from what was false. To do this, he resorted to the great Greek authors, in whom he was a true expert, to demonstrate that the truth ancient philosophers wished to achieve is found in the teachings of Christ.

Although he was a prolific writer, unfortunately, only a small part of his works have been preserved, the best known being: The Stromateis, also known as Stromata, which means "tapestries" because it is a true weaving of biblical and philosophical commentaries on Christian revelation, intended to show the relationship between faith and gnosis by proving the need for a revealing God. The Protrepticus or Exhortations to the Gentiles, where he addresses pagans to refute their polytheism by demonstrating the superiority of Christian monotheism with a view to winning them over to the new faith. And The Paedagogus, his best-known and most widely read work, which is actually a continuation or second part of the Protrepticus; and whose purpose is to guide new believers in the essential principles of faith and the practice of the virtues of Christian life. Everything seems to indicate that Clement intended to compose a third work titled The Teacher, dedicated to the higher level of theological instruction, but its existence is unknown.