SOURCE: “Clement's Gnostic,” in Evil, Freedom, and the Road to Perfection in Clement of Alexandria, Brill, 1999, pp. 139-74.

In the following excerpt, Karavites describes Clement's ideas concerning the perfect Christian and contrasts them with the views of the Gnostics.

It is certain that Clement's basic purpose in writing his various treatises was to sketch the picture of the perfect Christian, the gnostic, as he visualized him. Clement's picture differs fundamentally from that offered by the Gnostics who, in his view, diverted from the true apostolic tradition, ending up with a caricature of the perfect Christian. Had they grasped the true spirit of the Law and adhered to the teachings of Christ, of his apostles, and of the actual Christian tradition, they might not have strayed so far from the truth. References to the perfect Christian are scattered throughout Clement's writings, but makes an effort to develop the topic...