Clement of Alexandria

The Instructor (P Dagogus) Clement of Alexandria

Paedagogus, The Instructor, was the second in the trilogy of Clement of Alexandria. Having laid a foundation in the knowledge of divine truth in the first book, Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Heathen), he goes on in the Paedagogus to develop a Christian ethic. The first book deals with the religious basis of Christian morality, the second and third with the individual cases of conduct. As with Epictetus, true virtue shows itself with him in its external evidences by a natural, simple, and moderate way of living. Titus Flavius Clemens, known as Clement of Alexandria, was a Christian theologian who taught at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. A convert to Christianity, he was an educated man who was familiar with classical Greek philosophy and literature. Clement was influenced by Hellenistic philosophy to a greater extent than any other Christian thinker of his time, and in particular by Plato and the Stoics.