Miscellanies 1.20.99
Summary: Philosophy is a preliminary training and joint cause, not a necessary condition: most believers received the word of God by faith without it; it justified the Greeks partially, and it helps with clarity and defense against heresies.
Greek text · Stählin 2:63
εἰ δὲ καὶ διαστέλλεσθαι ἡμᾶς διὰ τοὺς φιλεγκλήμονας δεήσει, συναίτιον τὴν φιλοσοφίαν καὶ συνεργὸν λέγοντες τῆς ἀληθοῦς καταλήψεως, ζήτησιν οὖσαν ἀληθείας, προπαιδείαν αὐτὴν ὁμολογήσομεν τοῦ γνωστικοῦ οὐκ αἴτιον τιθέμενοι τὸ συναίτιον οὐδὲ μὴν τὸ συνεργὸν συνεκτικὸν οὐδʼ ὡς οὗ οὐκ ἄνευ τὴν φιλοσοφίαν, ἐπεὶ σχεδὸν οἱ πάντες ἄνευ τῆς ἐγκυκλίου παιδείας καὶ φιλοσοφίας τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς, οἳ δὲ καὶ ἄνευ γραμμάτων, τῇ θείᾳ καὶ βαρβάρῳ κινηθέντες φιλοσοφίᾳ, δυνάμει τὸν περὶ θεοῦ διὰ πίστεως παρειλήφαμεν λόγον, αὐτουργῷ σοφίᾳ πεπαιδευμένοι. ὃ δὲ μεθʼ ἑτέρου ποιεῖ, ἀτελὲς ὂν καθʼ αὑτὸ ἐνεργεῖν, συνεργόν φαμεν καὶ συναίτιον ἀπὸ τοῦ σὺν αἰτίῳ αἴτιον ὑπάρχειν ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑτέρῳ συνελθὸν αἴτιον γίγνεσθαι ὠνομασμένον, καθʼ ἑαυτὸ δὲ μὴ δύνασθαι τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα τὸ κατʼ ἀλήθειαν παρέχειν. καίτοι καὶ καθʼ ἑαυτὴν ἐδικαίου ποτὲ καὶ ἡ φιλοσοφία τοὺς Ἕλληνας, οὐκ εἰς τὴν καθόλου δὲ δικαιοσύνην, εἰς ἣν εὑρίσκεται συνεργός (καθάπερ καὶ ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ δεύτερος βαθμὸς τῷ εἰς τὸ ὑπερῷον ἀνιόντι καὶ γραμματιστὴς τῷ φιλοσοφήσοντι), οὐδʼ ὡς κατὰ τὴν ἀφαίρεσιν αὐτῆς ἤτοι ἐλλείπειν τῷ καθόλου λόγῳ ἢ ἀναιρεῖσθαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ἐπεὶ ἡ ὄψις συμβάλλεται καὶ ἡ ἀκοὴ καὶ ἡ φωνὴ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν, νοῦς δὲ ὁ γνωρίζων αὐτὴν προσφυῶς. ἀλλὰ τῶν συνεργῶν τὰ μὲν πλείονα, τὰ δʼ ἐλάσσονα προσφέρεται δύναμιν. ἡ γοῦν σαφήνεια συνεργεῖ πρὸς τὴν παράδοσιν τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἡ διαλεκτικὴ πρὸς τὸ μὴ ὑποπίπτειν ταῖς κατατρεχούσαις αἱρέσεσιν.
English · Claude translation
If we must also make distinctions because of the fault-finders, calling philosophy a joint cause and fellow worker in the true apprehension, being an inquiry into truth, we will acknowledge it as a preliminary training of the one who knows, not making the joint cause a cause, nor the fellow worker a sustaining cause, nor philosophy that without which it cannot be; since almost all of us, without the encyclical education and Greek philosophy, and some even without letters, moved by the divine and barbarian philosophy, have received in power the word about God through faith, taught by a wisdom that works by itself. What acts together with another, being incomplete to act by itself, we call a fellow worker and joint cause, named from being a cause with a cause, or from becoming a cause by joining another, but unable by itself to produce the true result. Yet philosophy once justified the Greeks even by itself, though not to the whole righteousness, toward which it is found a fellow worker (as the first and second step are for one going up to the upper room, and the schoolmaster for one who will philosophize); nor does its removal make the whole account deficient or destroy the truth, since sight, hearing, and voice contribute to truth, but it is the mind that knows it naturally. But among fellow workers some contribute more power, others less. Clarity at any rate works together for the handing on of truth, and dialectic for not falling to the heresies that attack.
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Notes
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (misreading in the digital text (σὺν); space missing before the parenthesis): εὑρίσκεται συνεργός(καθάπερ → εὑρίσκεται συνεργός (καθάπερ; ἀπὸ τοῦ δὺν αἰτίῳ αἴτιον → ἀπὸ τοῦ σὺν αἰτίῳ αἴτιον.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.20.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/20/99/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 1.20.99 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/1/20/99/).
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