Clement of Alexandria was born around the year 150 AD in Athens to parents who had converted to Christianity from paganism. Fr. Georges Florovsky records that Clement endeavored on a sort of pilgrimage to further understand his Christian religion, traveling through Syria, Palestine, and Italy. Commonly noted as one of the leading figures in the Alexandrian catechetical school, Clement was a student of the first teacher of this Didascalia, St. Pantaenus of Alexandria. Due to the polemical nature of the efforts of the Didascalia, Clement was formed into a strong anti-Gnostic and succeeded his instructor, St. Pantaenus. Clement went on to teach students such as St. Origen, and after a flight from the persecution in Alexandria, reposed in Cappadocia between the years 211 and 216. According to Florovsky, the Christian writers of the early centuries saw Clement of Alexandria as a saint. Although our knowledge of Clement is limited, it is evident that he mastered a well-rounded education and was intimately acquainted with Holy Scripture. Like the other early Apologists, Clement presented Christianity to the world as a philosophical system; Florovsky notes that to Clement, “all secular learning serves theology if approached correctly. On this note, Clement is negatively painted as one who is to blame for the Hellenization of Christianity; on this topic, Florovsky instructs his reader that “Christianity that is not Hellenized properly is not an authentic Christianity,” which indicates one of the broader themes of the legacy of Clement of Alexandria. In a very unique attempt to utilize the fullness of truth regardless of where that truth might turn up, Clement opposed Gnosticism not in full force, but in such a way as to produce a true “Christian Gnosis.” This synthesis echoes the sensibilities of St. Justin Martyr and directly opposes such fundamentalists as Tatian the Syrian and Tertullian. Clement proves a unique pioneer in this freshly explored front. The three most predominant works of Clement are his Exhortation to the Greeks, Tutor, and Stromata. One written homily is also extant, Who is the Rich Man Who is Saved, in which he preaches against the passion of the desire for wealth. He is also alleged to have written a commentary on the Old and New Testaments called the Hypotyposeis, which St. Photius hotly contested, denying its Clementine authorship. This denial of Clement’s fall into heresy by St. Photius is largely due to his positive reputation in the empire at that time; Florovsky remarks that “he was no Docetist,” while the writing of the Hypotyposeis teaches such heretical things as the two different Logoi, only the lesser of which appeared himself to man. Among his other lost writings are an Ecclesiastical Canon against the Judaizers, On Providence, Exhortation to Endurance (To the Recently Baptized), Discourses on Fasting, On Slander, On the Prophet Amos, and Letters. Of these works only small fragments exist, if even that. In order to discuss the main tenets of the doctrine of Clement of Alexandria, it must be brought to light that he is, as Florovsky describes, “the founder of speculative theology, the founder of Christian apologetics on a systematic basis.” Like the other apologists, Clement expresses his belief in the original deposit of the Faith of the apostles and affirms the consistent universality of Christian doctrine from Christ’s establishment of His Church on earth. Although Adolf von Harnack would accuse Clement of believing in two different Logoi, as mentioned before, one which exists originally and one which exists as Son of God, Florovsky disputes this claim, affirming that Clement made no ontological distinction between these two concepts, but rather believed that “the Logos [the Word] is eternally equal with but distinct from the Father and distinct precisely as the Son of the Father. Clement did not shy away from dialogue with philosophy, but taught that “faith and knowledge were harmonious,” in the words of Florovsky. It appears that Clement saw faith as a precursor to true philosophy, as he wrote in his Stromata, “faith is superior to knowledge and that faith is the criterion of knowledge.” He taught a development in spiritual growth which starts with faith in the revelation which leads to salvation and grew into a faith which would look beyond itself and towards a Christian Gnosis. Regarding his doctrine of God, Clement of Alexandria practiced apophatic theology (defining God through negative statements, defining what is not of God rather than what is) and saw God as the ultimate Creator and Father of the universe; this teaching is in no way disconnected from his view of the Logos, for he maintains the unity of the Father and Son and even ascribes Old Testament theophanies to appearances of the Son of God. Clement writes that “there is nothing antecedent to the Unbegotten. It remains that we understand, then, the Unknown, by divine grace, and by the Logos alone who comes forth from him.” Clement is by all means both Biblical and Trinitarian in doctrine.