As with many people from ancient times there is unclarity in detail. Clement was born around one hundred and fifty AD to pagan parents either in Athens or Alexandria and he died sometime shortly after two hundred and fifteen. In early youth he rejected his parents' paganism and was baptized a Christian. Sometime in his younger years he set out on an educational journey to broaden his mind. and toured the region around the Eastern Mediterranean, which comprised Greece, Anatolia and Egypt. The tour ended in Alexandria, which suggests that this city was his native land.
During the journey he encountered educated men of various cultures. Already, Clement was well versed in the philosophy of Plato, who believed believed that the path to perfection would require more than one lifetime. and this might have had an impact on his thinking, for he believed in reincarnation, which was a belief common in Platonic circles.He also had the opportunity to meet pagan thinkers, who may have been other Platonists and/or Stoic and Epicurean philosophers and develop his thought. Moreover, he encountered Jewish scholars and discuss religious and philosophical matters with them. One such thinker from among the Christian thinkers that he met was possibly Tatian, author of an attempt to synthesize the four canonical gospels into one account called the Diatessaron. This was not accepted by the church as it was not a work with apostolic authority backing it up. Completing his intellectual journey he would have studied Gnostic thinkers. Gnosticism was a belief that salvation comes from metaphysical knowledge. It had some Christian like forms, but was ultimately rejected by the church.
Being rather well-schooled in Philosophy, a subject which played a significant role in his life, he took up a job tutoring this subject, and he believed that philosophy would play an important role in Christian thinking.
His first philosophical work, the Protrepticus, which means Exhortation, took a tilt at paganism, of whose tenets he had a deep knowledge from his pagan upbringing. He had a deep grasp of Greek and Egyptian mythology, and had a grasp of the teaching of what were known as the mystery religions, such as the cult of Mother Isis, which suggests that his pagan parents were adherents of these alternatives to the official religions practiced in Graeco-Roman culture. But he also had a powerful grasp of Christian Scripture, which he loved greatly. Aspects of his Egyptian background here filter into his thinking. For example, he accepted that Eve was made from Adam's body, but he suggested that Eve was formed when Adam ejaculated sperm in the night and it was blended into a water source, from which Eve grew. This has similarities to the Egyptian myth of creation by the God Ra. He addressed pagan beliefs by promoting a theory of the origins of religions, which he believed grew from the deification of forces of nature and great persons.
It is also believed that he was married, which distinguishes him from many other church fathers, who were celibate ascetics. Clement took a relatively relaxed view of the earthly joys that are available to us, believing that we can honour God by enjoying his creation. In this he is compatible with Scripture, which in one case, Jeremiah 31, says, "The young girl will rejoice and will dance." We do not know if he had any children.
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