10
Christian Platonism. However, this turn to Hellenism was to have a devastating affect on Church
unity, driving a wedge between East and West, and between Alexandria and Antioch.
30
We first encounter Clement, who realized that unless he was able make his teachings
understandable to his audience, his mission to defeat Gnosticism would fail. He turned to
philosophy in order to connect with the people.
31
For Clement, God was completely transcendent
but could be known through the Son and the Spirit. He writes, God, then, being not a subject for
demonstration, cannot be the object of science. But the Son is wisdom, and knowledge, and truth,
and all else that has affinity thereto. He is also susceptible to demonstration and of description. And
all the powers of the Spirit, becoming collectively one thing, terminate in the same point--that is, in
the Son.
32
While he emphasized the differences between God and the Son, he never promoted any
form of dualism. The Word reflects rather than contrasts God.
33
The second Alexandrian on our journey, Origen, continued to meld Christianity with
philosophy. Frend explains, Origen saw Christianity as a movement of spiritual and moral reform,
building sometimes on existing philosophy as well as on Scripture, but always leading the individual
forward by its own merits toward a truer understanding of one`s self and of the divine world.
34
For
Origen, God could not be without the active qualities of Wisdom, Word, and Power. Wisdom was
co-eternal with God, known as the Son, and joined with him through the perfection of love.
35
30
Frend, The Rise of Christianity, 368-69.
31
Ibid., 370; Gonzalez, 70-1.
32
Clement, Miscellanies, IV. 25, as quoted in Roberts and Donaldson, ANF, vol. 2, 438.
33
Williams, 129; Frend, The Rise of Christianity, 371.
34
Frend, The Rise of Christianity, 289.
35
Origen, De principiis, I.2.1-4; II.6.4; Gerald Bostock, Origen: The Alternative to
Augustine? The Expository Times. 114, no. 10 (2003): 327.