Logos-Paedagogus Doctrine By Clement Of Alexandria In Ancient Logosophical Tradition

Abstract

The subject of this research is a part of the philosophical heritage left by Clement of Alexandria (approximately AD 150-210), an Alexandrian School theologian of late Antiquity, his influence on forming a new type of mentality and culture, his role in adapting the ancient cultural heritage to establishing the Christian ideology, his contribution to developing the Medieval theocentric consciousness and further manifestation of his ideas in the European philosophy. Clemet’s doctrine on the Logos is preceded by long antique tradition in which Clements’s doctrine has the philosophical reasons. This is Heraclitus, Plato, Stoicism, and Philo of Alexandria. Clement in own way opens a new stage of theological development of this concept, having included it in a Christian context. He specially considers this story in one of the three main works - the treatise "Instructor" which aims to reveal a being of the person Christ, the second person of the Divine Trinity. At the same time, besides all known values of a concept of Logos - "word", "speech", "the contents and a form of the speech", "sense and interrelation of separate parts", "thought", "myth" or "epos", the ontological aspect - "lawful relationship of things", designated by the term Logos or - the deity dominating over space (Heraclitus) or the divine establishment forming space (Plato), or the initial space law (Stoicism) is interesting to Clement more.

Keywords: History of Ancient PhilosophyPlatonism and StoicismLogosophyEarly ChristianityClement of AlexandriaLogos Doctrines

Introduction

The Doctrine of the Logos by Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-210) - one of the early Christian theologians, - is commonly recognized as the main element of his Philosophical and Christological Concept. Besides, according to a Russian theologian, «the character of this Doctrine is more philosophical than theological» (Bolotov, 1879, p. 77). This subject is analysed in one of the main writings by Clement of Alexandria, a prominent founder of the Christian dogmatics, - «Paedagogus»/«Instructor» (Clement of Alexandria, trans. 1996), where the author deals with the Person of Christ, i.e. the second entity in the Holy Trinity. It was the time of Clement when this area of the Christian dogmatism was being established. Therefore, it is worth considering the fact that Clement used one of the most popular concepts of Ancient Greek pagan philosophy to study the nature of Christ as a precedent, fixed in the historic-philosophical and historic-theological literature, of recognizing the value of the traditional Greek science and philosophy by most educated early Christian theologians (Maiorov, 1979). This fact confirms that Christianity is a historical phenomenon spiritually rooted in the world and European culture, which was undoubtedly founded on the philosophical systems of Ancient Greek scholars prior to Clement of Alexandria.

Problem Statement

First, we emphasize that Clement’s Doctrine of the Logos is preceded by multicentury ancient tradition, which it philosophically stemmed from. Although this subject is well analyzed in the outstanding research of the famous Russian philosopher of early previous century Trubetskoy (1994), some issues in the history of ancient logosophy need to be clarified, in our opinion. Ignoring the ancient etymology and definition of such terms as «logos», «utterance», «content and form of speech», «sense and coherence», «thought», «mythos» or «epos», we have to question the following statement of Trubetskoy (1994): «Early Greek philosophy became anti-mythological, when mythos and epos were opposed to the “sensible word” referring to the nature of things: here the word, or the logos, meant reckoning» (p. 55), firstly, with regard to the fact that the clearly reflected opposition between the concepts starts not until Aristotle; and early Greek physics (as it profoundly analyzed by Lebedev (1983; 1987) is of mythological type, which is primarily rooted in the tradition of Mediterranean cosmogonies. Secondly, the «relation of things», defined by the term «logos», was interpreted by early Greek philosophers, - if to take a more profound ontological aspect of the pre-Plato physics – as the divine cosmic law (nomos), or divine establishment, or supreme deity ruling the cosmos. It is obvious that the meaning of the term used in philosophical writings was modified at every turn of ancient thinking, which underwent the dynamic evolution at the time. In our opinion, this very aspect of the «Logos» concept influenced greatly the Christology of Clement of Alexandria

Research Questions

The proof that Clement was impacted by ancient logosophy results from his citation of Heraclitus of Ephesus, a philosopher of the 5th century BC, «physicist» of the 2nd generation, whose name is often associated with the emergence of the most conceptual framework of the Logos. As Clement wrote, Heraclitus presented his own Zeus doing free play. «For what other employment is seemly for a wise and perfect man, than to sport and be glad in the endurance of what is good-and, in the administration of what is good, holding festival with God….» (Clement of Alexandria, trans. 1996, p. 43). As we know that Heraclitus of Ephesus, the «Weeping philosopher», was not glad at all, Clement’s judgment, based on the famous fragment DK 52: «αἰὼν παῖς ἐστι παίζων, πεσσεύων·παιδὸς ἡ βασιληίη / Time is a child playing pessoi, kingdom belongs to the child» (Diels, 1906, p. 69; Lebedev, 2014, p. 70) implies a different view: in Heraclitus’s opinion, God rules the universe by playing its elements. Clement admires this proposition of the Ephesian philosopher. What is the God? Other fragments of the «Obscure sage» explain his ideas about a «playing God»: «Of all those whose logoi I have listened to, no one reaches to the point of recognizing that the Wise is /totally/ distinct from all» in fr. DK 108 (Diels, 1906, p. 77; Lebedev, 2014, p. 70) and: «The one and only Wise Being does not tend and tends to be spoken of by the name of Zeus» in fr. DK 32 (Diels, 1906, p. 67; Lebedev, 2014, p. 70).

According to Heraclitus, God playing, which involves cosmos, is equated with the Universe blazed up and down with fire (reminiscences of the Indo-European mythological idea about fire cycles), and also it is the law of the cosmos existence: «This cosmos, the same for all beings, no god and no man has ever made, but it always was, it is and it will be everliving fire, kindling up by measured periods and going out by measured periods» in fr. DK 30 (Diels, 1906, pp. 66-67; Lebedev, 2014, p. 18), because «the Logos is common» in fr. DK 2 (Diels, 1906, p. 62; Lebedev, 2014, p. 9), but human knowledge is the knowledge of this law, for «all human laws are fed by the one divine law» in fr. DK 114 (Diels. 1906, p. 78; Lebedev, 2014, p. 67). Clement was familiar with at least four of Heraclitus’s above-cited fragments, he accepted Heraclitus’s assertions and interpreted them in the way of Christian Exegesis. Thus, it is important for Clement that in Heraclitus’s view, the Logos is the universal law, the play of God (but not God himself) which makes the cosmos pulse as the only living organism and which can be understood as the «Word» expressed by a philosopher, but that is not the God that rules the cosmos. In accordance with the theological tradition Clement followed, God is a «consuming fire», which cannot be grasped or seen by the power of any human understanding, however, the Logos (Word) is a «visible manifestation of God», which brings the law to the world and is a real guarantor of this law: «He is our judge» (Origen, trans. 1966, pp. 7-29). As the colleague Dragoş Andrei Giulea (2016) notes, detection of a «μορφὴ θεοῦ was the key linguistic tool of early Christianity …, defining the huge and shining anthropomorphic character" of deity (p. 407).

A great contribution to the formation of late Platonism (both pagan and Christian) was made by Plato writings, most important of which, as a mentioned classic emphasizes (Trubetskoy, 1994), were his doctrine about the highest good declared in the «Republic», VI–VII (Burnet, 2003), and cosmology in the «Timaeus», 28c-29c, 37a-37c (Burnet, 2003). But does Plato have an idea of over-cosmos Logos which ideally forms the world of multiplicity? According to Plato’s doctrine, «in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed» in «Republic», VII 517b-518a (Burnet, 2003). Let's pay attention to this fragment which says that the idea of the highest good put forward by Plato could be related to verifying the Christian theology, i.e. the doctrine of God, rather than Christology. The idea of the good for Plato is not the God himself (i.e. the Demiurge as the being responsible for the production of the universe), but the being that produces the God and lives beyond the God in the real cosmic hierarchy; therefore this does not refer to the Christian Logos-Son, but God-Father, because the Logos in the dogmatic Christianity, as Clement of Alexandria claims, represents «the law», «the truth» (Clement of Alexandria, trans. 1996, pp. 77-85) as «Father’s love» (some secondary good), «God in his visible image» and the Demiurge of the universe, or «the Creator of the universe» (Clement of Alexandria, trans. 1996, pp.33-34). These distinction have development in syntactic distinction between “ὁ θεός” and “ὁ λόγος “θεὸς” ὀνομάζεται” beginning from Philo (Soler, 2016, p. 68)

In Plato’s philosophy this over-cosmos idea does not bear the name of Logos, however, it is intelligible through words – concepts, namely through Plato’s dialectical Logos. This dialectical method in «Republic», VI (Burnet, 2003) is mostly true, though discussions, according to Plato's dialectic, can be presented in a figurative and symbolic (mythological) form. This is shown in «Timaeus» 28c-29c, 37a-37c (Burnet, 2003) where on veracious statement of the colleague he uses concepts “eikōs muthos” or “eikōs logos” to reveal the relationship between copies and paradigm (Loh, 2017, pp.157) and where this myth of Plato, which he considered as an approximate stage (in relation to the truth) of knowledge, could have been perceived as «pre-revelation» by early dogmatic Christianity; and the projection of ideas discussed in Plato's Timaeus onto the early dogmatic Christian doctrine of Logos-Christ could have been found more thoughtful, if it had not been for obvious contradictions between manifestations of Logos-Son and Plato's divine Demiurge. Here logos makes tool sense, concentrating in itself value of «the framing idea».

After Heraclitus, logosophy experiences the most vivid representation in the post-classical period of the ancient philosophy – in philosophical writings of the Early and Middle Stoa, where the concept of Logos is at the heart of physics (cosmological part). It implies that the God-Demiurge rules the universe, notwithstanding God is pantheistic, or immanent in all the things: “God is one and the same with Reason, Fate, and Zeus; he is also called by many other names. In the beginning he was by himself; he created first of all the four elements, fire, water, air, earth» (Diogenes Laertius, trans. 1925, pp. 240-241). Besides, the Logos – God has the physical nature: it is the purest fire, i.e. one of the four material elements in ancient physics. Becoming condensed, the Divine Fire turns into solid elements, which mix with each other and form a multiplicity of objects. On termination of a cosmic cycle, the cosmos is destroyed by a great conflagration («ekpyrosis»). In addition, the Stoic doctrine of the Logos has another feature derived from early ideas of Anaxagoras about the «seed» structure of the Logos, which implies that the embodied Logos contains seeds of all things. The Stoic Logos is characterized by intelligible existence and universal intelligence (this doctrine is rooted in the tradition of Anaxagoras, partly Plato and Aristotle), which perfectly arranges and prophesies the cosmos, because Reason for every ancient philosopher is the best form of existence. It is assumed that the Stoic concept of Logos undoubtedly influenced the formation of the Christian thought of Logos; it is the embodiment that is the foundation for dogmas about the incarnate Word, or the Incarnation of God. Hence the ideal of philosophical existence which the Stoic ethics saw in seeking the harmony between the individual intelligence of a sage (philosopher) and the providential activity of the universal intelligence, and attaining the ideal of calmness. It is the Stoic logic that was to ensure this harmony.

Purpose of the Study

Our task consists in showing the following. Universalist geopolitical and cultural trends of Early Hellenism (conquests of Alexander the Great, wars of the Diadochi, early Roman conquests) first caused the rejection of metaphysical universalism – validation of which most Classical Period writings were aimed at, – by leading post-Platonic and post-Aristotelian schools of philosophy. Cynicism (Antisphenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes etc.), Epicureanism, Scepticism (Pyrrhonic school, Middle Academy) mostly renounced to develop both «positive» conceptual physics (except Epicurus’ atomism) and the structure of metaphysical («world-beyond») values. However, schools of the Middle Stoa (Panaetius of Rhodes, Posidonius and their numerous school successors), where the Logos remained the Divine Fire, rising and dying in mega cosmic cycles, tried to interpret the ancient universalism in a positive way. The doctrine of the Logos meant regulating a human life in accordance with cosmos periods, obeying the all-knowing Providence of the Divine Logos. Therefore, late Stoic ethics is supplemented with a number of platonic ideas, though it is characterized by a great deal of pessimism.

This process gathers pace in the so-called Middle and Late Platonism (Moderatus of Gades, Numenius of Apamea, Albinos, Plutarch of Chaeronea) and Neo-Pythagoreanism (Ocellus of Lucania, Timaeus of Locri which showed a new interest in creating mega-metaphysical philosophical systems after a long period of physicalism, scientization and mathematization of philosophical ideas put forward by Plato’s direct successors. Thus, this set a bright trend towards the spiritualized concept of the Universal Intelligence (or Mind), its place in the cosmos and its understanding as part of the more complex ideal intelligible cosmic hierarchy. This trend was reflected primarily in first interpretations of Plato’s «Timaeus» which served the polemical anti-Stoic purpose to reject the doctrine of the embodied divine Demiurge. Philosophical concepts and thoughts of that time strove for literary and philosophical mythologization, which was clearly manifested in writings of Plutarch of Chaeronea, 2nd century AD. The other side of the trend, its primary goal, was a general syncretical bearing on the Hellinistic and Roman thinking. This was reflected in particular and deliberate convergence of religious and philosophical ideas of different ethnic origins based on Platonic and Aristotelian synthesis. It can be exemplified by the chapter «Poemandres» from the «Corpus Hermeticum», dating back to approximately 3d century AD, where «God, the universals' Father. Holy art Thou, O God, whose Will perfects itself by means of its own Powers» (Nock & Festugière, 1960, pp. 17-18), «Light…, Mind, the First God» (Nock & Festugière, 1960, p. 8), with the help of the Logos proceeding from light, or son of God, makes the universe from «the gloomy Darkness … came the Moist Nature» (Nock & Festugière, 1960, p. 8). Although, like in the above-mentioned writing of the Corpus Hermeticum, Plutarch in «On Isis and Osiris», following the platonic tradition, devotes his works to the profound commentary of ancient Egyptian mythology images, Orphic legends in «On the Delays of Divine Vengeance» and analysis of symbols in archaic Greek philosophy in «The Е at Delphi» (Plutarque, trans. 2003), Christian theologians turn to biblical exegesis (Hendricks, 2014; Soler, 2016). Being the first educated «ideologists» of the new doctrine, they cannot do without fundamental philosophical concepts.

Research Methods

In the research, we applied methods of assessment and comparison of contacts of the logos-doctrine as important element of Christology of Clement of Alexandria with other earlier and simultaneous doctrines on Logos. We tried to find and specify a common ground of this concept for the Greek philosophical doctrines and early Christian theological literature, various by the nature. We can accept a collective analytical discourse "Heraklit im Kontext. Studia Praesocratica" (McKirahan et al., 2017), individual researches of colleagues Hülsz-Piccone (2016) and Muñoz Gallarte (2016) as the examples of such researches presently giving good types of comparative researches on History of Philosophy.

Findings

Like late platonic philosophers, like Philo of Alexandria – the first most significant Alexandrian theologian who began to discuss a problem of Divine Embodiment in Logos (Forger, 2018), like younger contemporaries of Clement – Alexandrian neoplatonic philosophers of the School of Ammonius Saccas (mainly Plotinus), Clement is also in line with common philosophical trends of his time; all thinkers and preachers of his doctrine – Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Monarchians – are involved in seeking and verifying this mediating link between the Ancient and Christian philosophy. However, he also exceeds the contemporaries, for example, equalizing the Greek Orpheus and Christ in wonderful singing (Roessli, 2014).

As the theorist, Clement puts the «theory of double meaning of the Logos» into his link: Logos endiathetos (internal Word) and Logos prophorikos (uttered Word). The latter is inevitably filled with the new embodiment, which became the source of new Stoic ideas for Clement. For Clement applies elements of stoical perception of corporality in this point. In letters of Origen of Alexandria (185-254), the ideological Clement’s successor, the further specification of functions of a Logos-concept connected with development of the trinitarny doctrine will be made. These experiments on search of harmony between the corporal and divine nature of Christ will lead his ideological successor Origen to big difficulties. At the same time, they will form the basis of the theory of subordination of three persons, having found the beginning heresy of Arianism.

Conclusion

Answering a question of the place of a concept of Logos Kliment in his history, we will point to the deep fundamental nature of this concept at Kliment. Accepting the theory of Logos as the cosmological principle, Kliment relies on long philosophical tradition in which he is exclusively well informed.

Acknowledgments

Supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, project № 15-03-00813

References

1. Bolotov, V. V. (1879). Uchenie Origena o Sviatoi Troitse [Origen’s Doctrine of the Holy Trinity]. St. Petersburg: Eleonsky's Printing-House, [in Rus.].
2. Burnet, J. (Ed.). (2003). Platonis Opera. Oxford Classical Texts, (Vol. 4: Tetralogia VIII). Oxford: University Press.
3. Clement of Alexandria. (1996) Pedagog [The Instructor]. New York: Gnosis Press; Mosсow: Apostle Paul’s Ecumenical Center for Education and Information MSU. [in Rus.].
4. Diogenes Laertius. (1925). Lives of Eminent Philosophers. London: William Heinemann.
5. Diels, H. (1906). Die Fragmente der Vorsocratiker [The fragments of the pre-docratics]. Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagbuchhandlung. [In Ger].
6. Forger, D. (2018). Divine Embodiment in Philo of Alexandria. Journal for the Study of Judaism, 49, 223-262. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700631-12491160
7. Giulea, D. A. (2016). Origen’s Christology in Pre-Nicene Setting. The Logos as the Noetic Form of God. Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 92(3), 407-437. https://doi.org/10.2143/ETL.92.3.3170054
8. Hendricks, G. P. (2014). A philosophical and historical Interpretation of the Concept Logos in John 1:1 from the Perspective of Orality and Literacy. Scriptura, 113(1), 1-13.
9. Hülsz-Piccone, E. (2016). Lógos: Heráclito y los orígenes de la filosofía [Lógos: Heraclitus and the origins of philosophy]. Nova tellus, 33(2), 155-162. https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2016.33.2.713 [in Esp].
10. Lebedev, А. V. (1983). Demiurg u Falesa? (K rekonstruktsii kosmogonii Falesa Miletskogo) [Thales’s Demiurge? (Reconstructing cosmogony of Thales of Miletus]. In T.V. Tsivian (Ed.) Text: semantics and structure (pp. 51–66). Мoscow: Nauka- Publishers. [in Rus.].
11. Lebedev, А. V. (1987). Agonalnaya model kosmosa u Geraklita [Agonal model of the cosmos reviewed by Heraclitus]. In N. Motroshilova (Ed.), History of-Philosophy Yearbook’87 (pp. 29–46). Мoscow: Nauka- Publishers. [in Rus.]
12. Lebedev, A. V. (2014). The Logos of Heraclitus: a Reconstruction of his Thought and Word (with a New Critical Edition of the Fragments). St. Petersburg: Nauka- Publishers.
13. Loh, Y. (2017). The Theory of Plato’s Eikōs Logos or Eikōs Muthos. Humanitas Taiwanica, 88, 57-188. https://doi.org/10.6258/bcla.2017.88.05
14. Maiorov, G. G. (1979). Formirovanie srednevekovoi filosofii. Latinskaia patristika [Conceptualization of Medieval Philosophy. Latinic Patristics (standards CDIO)]. Mosсow: Publishing House Thought [in Rus.].
15. McKirahan, R., O’Brien, D., Primavesi, O., Riedweg, Ch., Sider, D., … Wöhrle, G. (Eds.). (2017). Heraklit im Kontext. Studia Praesocratica [Heraclitus in context. Studia Praesocratica], (Vol. 8) Berlin/Boston: Satz: Dörlemann Satz, Lemförde. [In Ger].
16. Muñoz Gallarte, I. (2016). The Plutarch’s Motive of Descensus Animae in Nag Hammadi and the Corpus Hermeticum. CFC: Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos, 26, 169-178. https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_CFCG.2016.v26.XXXX
17. Nock, A. D., & Festugière, A. J. (Eds.). (1960). Corpus Hermeticum, (Vol. 1). Paris: Les belles lettres.
18. Origen. (1966). On First Principles. NY: Harper Torchbooks y Cathedral Library Harper & Row, Publishers.
19. Plutarque. (2003). Oeuvres morales [Moral works]. (Vol V -VII). Paris: Les belles lettres. [In Fra].
20. Roessli, J. M. (2014). Assimilation chrétienne d’éléments païens construction apologétique. Ou réalité culturelle? [Christian Assimilation of Pagan Elements Apologetic Construction. Or cultural reality?] Laval théologique et philosophique, 70(3), 507-516. [In Fr.].
21. Soler, F. (2016). La interpretación origeniana de Jn. 1, 1-2: identidad del Logos en clave de relación. [The Origenian interpretation of Jn. 1, 1-2: Identity of the Logos in relationship key] Teología y Vida, 57(1), 67-94. [in Esp].
22. Trubetskoy, S. N. (1994). Uchenie o Logose v ego Istorii. [The Doctrine of the Logos in its History (standards CDIO)]. Мoscow: Publishing House Thought [in Rus.].