The Stromata
c. 198–203
Stromateis
Clement’s Miscellanies: philosophy as a handmaid to faith, and Greek chronology beside Scripture. English in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.
Translated by William Wilson
English translation by William Wilson, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II (eds. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson; Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885). Public domain. Digital text via New Advent Church Fathers.
Contents
- Book 1, Chapter 1: Preface — The Author's Object — The Utility of Written Compositions.
- Book 1, Chapter 2: Objection to the Number of Extracts from Philosophical Writings in These Books Anticipated and Answered
- Book 1, Chapter 3: Against the Sophists
- Book 1, Chapter 4: Human Arts as Well as Divine Knowledge Proceed from God
- Book 1, Chapter 5: Philosophy the Handmaid of Theology
- Book 1, Chapter 6: The Benefit of Culture
- Book 1, Chapter 7: The Eclectic Philosophy Paves the Way for Divine Virtue
- Book 1, Chapter 8: The Sophistical Arts Useless
- Book 1, Chapter 9: Human Knowledge Necessary for the Understanding of the Scriptures
- Book 1, Chapter 10: To Act Well of Greater Consequence Than to Speak Well
- Book 1, Chapter 11: What is the Philosophy Which the Apostle Bids Us Shun?
- Book 1, Chapter 12: The Mysteries of the Faith Not to Be Divulged to All
- Book 1, Chapter 13: All Sects of Philosophy Contain a Germ of Truth
- Book 1, Chapter 14: Succession of Philosophers in Greece
- Book 1, Chapter 15: The Greek Philosophy in Great Part Derived from the Barbarians
- Book 1, Chapter 16: That the Inventors of Other Arts Were Mostly Barbarians
- Book 1, Chapter 17: On the Saying of the Saviour, All that Came Before Me Were Thieves and Robbers.
- Book 1, Chapter 18: He Illustrates the Apostle's Saying, I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise.
- Book 1, Chapter 19: That the Philosophers Have Attained to Some Portion of Truth
- Book 1, Chapter 20: In What Respect Philosophy Contributes to the Comprehension of Divine Truth
- Book 1, Chapter 21: The Jewish Institutions and Laws of Far Higher Antiquity Than the Philosophy of the Greeks
- Book 1, Chapter 22: On the Greek Translation of the Old Testament
- Book 1, Chapter 23: The Age, Birth, and Life of Moses
- Book 1, Chapter 24: How Moses Discharged the Part of a Military Leader
- Book 1, Chapter 25: Plato an Imitator of Moses in Framing Laws
- Book 1, Chapter 26: Moses Rightly Called a Divine Legislator, And, Though Inferior to Christ, Far Superior to the Great Legislators of the Greeks, Minos and Lycurgus
- Book 1, Chapter 27: The Law, Even in Correcting and Punishing, Aims at the Good of Men
- Book 1, Chapter 28: The Fourfold Division of the Mosaic Law
- Book 1, Chapter 29: The Greeks But Children Compared with the Hebrews
- Book 2, Chapter 1: Introductory.
- Book 2, Chapter 2: The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith
- Book 2, Chapter 3: Faith Not a Product of Nature
- Book 2, Chapter 4: Faith the Foundation of All Knowledge
- Book 2, Chapter 5: He Proves by Several Examples that the Greeks Drew from the Sacred Writers
- Book 2, Chapter 6: The Excellence and Utility of Faith
- Book 2, Chapter 7: The Utility of Fear. Objections Answered
- Book 2, Chapter 8: The Vagaries of Basilides and Valentinus as to Fear Being the Cause of Things
- Book 2, Chapter 9: The Connection of the Christian Virtues
- Book 2, Chapter 10: To What the Philosopher Applies Himself
- Book 2, Chapter 11: The Knowledge Which Comes Through Faith the Surest of All
- Book 2, Chapter 12: Twofold Faith
- Book 2, Chapter 13: On First and Second Repentance
- Book 2, Chapter 14: How a Thing May Be Involuntary
- Book 2, Chapter 15: On the Different Kinds of Voluntary Actions, and the Sins Thence Proceeding
- Book 2, Chapter 16: How We are to Explain the Passages of Scripture Which Ascribe to God Human Affections
- Book 2, Chapter 17: On the Various Kinds of Knowledge
- Book 2, Chapter 18: The Mosaic Law the Fountain of All Ethics, and the Source from Which the Greeks Drew Theirs.
- Book 2, Chapter 19: The True Gnostic is an Imitator of God, Especially in Beneficence
- Book 2, Chapter 20: The True Gnostic Exercises Patience and Self-Restraint
- Book 2, Chapter 21: Opinions of Various Philosophers on the Chief Good
- Book 2, Chapter 22: Plato's Opinion, that the Chief Good Consists in Assimilation to God, and Its Agreement with Scripture
- Book 2, Chapter 23: On Marriage
- 3. Book 3
- Book 4, Chapter 1: Order of Contents
- Book 4, Chapter 2: The Meaning of the Name Stromata or Miscellanies
- Book 4, Chapter 3: The True Excellence of Man
- Book 4, Chapter 4: The Praises of Martyrdom
- Book 4, Chapter 5: On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things
- Book 4, Chapter 6: Some Points in the Beatitudes
- Book 4, Chapter 7: The Blessedness of the Martyr
- Book 4, Chapter 8: Women as Well as Men, Slaves as Well as Freemen, Candidates for the Martyr's Crown
- Book 4, Chapter 9: Christ's Sayings Respecting Martyrdom
- Book 4, Chapter 10: Those Who Offered Themselves for Martyrdom Reproved
- Book 4, Chapter 11: The Objection, Why Do You Suffer If God Cares for You, Answered
- Book 4, Chapter 12: Basilides' Idea of Martyrdom Refuted
- Book 4, Chapter 13: Valentinian's Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted
- Book 4, Chapter 14: The Love of All, Even of Our Enemies
- Book 4, Chapter 15: On Avoiding Offence
- Book 4, Chapter 16: Passages of Scripture Respecting the Constancy, Patience, and Love of the Martyrs
- Book 4, Chapter 17: Passages from Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians on Martyrdom
- Book 4, Chapter 18: On Love, and the Repressing of Our Desires
- Book 4, Chapter 19: Women as well as Men Capable of Perfection.
- Book 4, Chapter 20: A Good Wife
- Book 4, Chapter 21: Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic
- Book 4, Chapter 22: The True Gnostic Does Good, Not from Fear of Punishment or Hope of Reward, But Only for the Sake of Good Itself
- Book 4, Chapter 23: The Same Subject Continued
- Book 4, Chapter 24: The Reason and End of Divine Punishments
- Book 4, Chapter 25: True Perfection Consists in the Knowledge and Love of God
- Book 4, Chapter 26: How the Perfect Man Treats the Body and the Things of the World
- Book 5, Chapter 1: On Faith.
- Book 5, Chapter 2: On Hope.
- Book 5, Chapter 3: The Objects of Faith and Hope Perceived by the Mind Alone
- Book 5, Chapter 4: Divine Things Wrapped Up in Figures Both in the Sacred and in Heathen Writers
- Book 5, Chapter 5: On the Symbols of Pythagoras
- Book 5, Chapter 6: The Mystic Meaning of the Tabernacle and Its Furniture
- Book 5, Chapter 7: The Egyptian Symbols and Enigmas of Sacred Things
- Book 5, Chapter 8: The Use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers
- Book 5, Chapter 9: Reasons for Veiling the Truth in Symbols
- Book 5, Chapter 10: The Opinion of the Apostles on Veiling the Mysteries of the Faith
- Book 5, Chapter 11: Abstraction from Material Things Necessary in Order to Attain to the True Knowledge of God
- Book 5, Chapter 12: God Cannot Be Embraced in Words or by the Mind
- Book 5, Chapter 13: The Knowledge of God a Divine Gift, According to the Philosophers
- Book 5, Chapter 14: Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews
- Book 6, Chapter 1: Plan.
- Book 6, Chapter 2: The Subject of Plagiarisms Resumed. The Greeks Plagiarized from One Another
- Book 6, Chapter 3: Plagiarism by the Greeks of the Miracles Related in the Sacred Books of the Hebrews
- Book 6, Chapter 4: The Greeks Drew Many of Their Philosophical Tenets from the Egyptian and Indian Gymnosophists
- Book 6, Chapter 5: The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God
- Book 6, Chapter 6: The Gospel Was Preached to Jews and Gentiles in Hades.
- Book 6, Chapter 7: What True Philosophy Is, and Whence So Called
- Book 6, Chapter 8: Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God
- Book 6, Chapter 9: The Gnostic Free of All Perturbations of the Soul
- Book 6, Chapter 10: The Gnostic Avails Himself of the Help of All Human Knowledge
- Book 6, Chapter 11: The Mystical Meanings in the Proportions of Numbers, Geometrical Ratios, and Music
- Book 6, Chapter 12: Human Nature Possesses an Adaptation for Perfection; The Gnostic Alone Attains It
- Book 6, Chapter 13: Degrees of Glory in Heaven Corresponding with the Dignities of the Church Below
- Book 6, Chapter 14: Degrees of Glory in Heaven
- Book 6, Chapter 15: Different Degrees of Knowledge
- Book 6, Chapter 16: Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue
- Book 6, Chapter 17: Philosophy Conveys Only an Imperfect Knowledge of God
- Book 6, Chapter 18: The Use of Philosophy to the Gnostic
- Book 7, Chapter 1: The Gnostic a True Worshipper of God, and Unjustly Calumniated by Unbelievers as an Atheist
- Book 7, Chapter 2: The Son the Ruler and Saviour of All
- Book 7, Chapter 3: The Gnostic Aims at the Nearest Likeness Possible to God and His Son
- Book 7, Chapter 4: The Heathens Made Gods Like Themselves, Whence Springs All Superstition
- Book 7, Chapter 5: The Holy Soul a More Excellent Temple Than Any Edifice Built by Man
- Book 7, Chapter 6: Prayers and Praise from a Pure Mind, Ceaselessly Offered, Far Better Than Sacrifices
- Book 7, Chapter 7: What Sort of Prayer the Gnostic Employs, and How It is Heard by God
- Book 7, Chapter 8: The Gnostic So Addicted to Truth as Not to Need to Use an Oath
- Book 7, Chapter 9: Those Who Teach Others, Ought to Excel in Virtues
- Book 7, Chapter 10: Steps to Perfection
- Book 7, Chapter 11: Description of the Gnostic's Life
- Book 7, Chapter 12: The True Gnostic is Beneficent, Continent, and Despises Worldly Things
- Book 7, Chapter 13: Description of the Gnostic Continued
- Book 7, Chapter 14: Description of the Gnostic Furnished by an Exposition of 1 Cor. vi. 1, Etc
- Book 7, Chapter 15: The Objection to Join the Church on Account of the Diversity of Heresies Answered
- Book 7, Chapter 16: Scripture the Criterion by Which Truth and Heresy are Distinguished.
- Book 7, Chapter 17: The Tradition of the Church Prior to that of the Heresies
- Book 7, Chapter 18: The Distinction Between Clean and Unclean Animals in the Law Symbolical of the Distinction Between the Church, and Jews, and Heretics
- Book 8, Chapter 1: The Object of Philosophical and Theological Inquiry — The Discovery of Truth.
- Book 8, Chapter 2: The Necessity of Perspicuous Definition
- Book 8, Chapter 3: Demonstration Defined
- Book 8, Chapter 4: To Prevent Ambiguity, We Must Begin with Clear Definition
- Book 8, Chapter 5: Application of Demonstration to Sceptical Suspense of Judgment
- Book 8, Chapter 6: Definitions, Genera, and Species
- Book 8, Chapter 7: On the Causes of Doubt or Assent
- Book 8, Chapter 8: The Method of Classifying Things and Names
- Book 8, Chapter 9: On the Different Kinds of Cause