Quotes: Clement of Alexandria

My note-taking pattern is shaping up to look like this:

longer and more detailed reading notes on Guy text (our main text, which I feel I need/want to wrestle through on my own and assimilate my own notes, even though PH provides his own detailed notes)

context and sidebar notes, to help me ponder background material and to give me quick access to certain references

profile notes, which detail biographies of important historic figures

quote notes, in which I type up at least a handful of quotations from prominent historic figures

This last may seem like a time-waster, but I don't think it is entirely. I may limit myself to three quotes because of time restraint. But just as copying a poem helps me inhabit the style/thought of the poet, so typing up thoughts from ancient writers (even in translation!) seems to help me get a better handle on what they're saying and how.

I am concerned about time. I need to pick up my reading pace, but I also want to ponder thoughtfully what I'm reading. Hard to accommodate both needs. How I wish I'd had six weeks more prep time...but that's water under the bridge. (I'm just so swamped this fall I'm hoping the bridge won't collapse)

Without further ado, here are three quotes from Clement of Alexandria that stood out to me as I read the selections in Bettenson's (The Early Christian Fathers, OUP, 1956).

"Philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness, until the coming of the Lord: and even now it is useful for the development of true religion...For God is the source of all good; either directly, as in the Old and New Testaments, or indirectly, as in the case of philosophy. But it may even be that philosophy was given to the Greeks directly; for it was a 'schoolmaster,' to bring Hellenism to Christ, as the Law was for the Hebrews. Thus philosophy was a preparation, paving the way for the man who is brought to perfection by Christ." (Stromateis, I,v. (28, 1) qted in Bettenson pp 168-189)

"As the sun illumines not only the heaven and the whole world, shining on both land and sea; but also sends his rays through windows and small chinks into the furthest recesses of a house; so the Word, poured out everywhere, beholds the smallest actions of man's life." (Stromateis vii iii (21) Bettenson 171

"It was in his love that the Father pursued us, and the great proof of this is the Son whom he bego from himself came down, for this he assumed human nature, for this he willingly endured the sufferings of man, that by being reduced to the measure of our weakness he might raise us to the measure of his power...What is the nature and extent of this love? For each of us he laid down his life, the life which was worth the whole universe, and he requires in return that we should do the same for each other." (Quis Dives Salveteur, 37, qted in Bettenson 174)