A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

213But it is not doubting, in reference to God, but believing, thatis the foundation of knowledge. But Christ is both the foundationand the superstructure, by whom are both the beginning and theend. And the extreme points, the beginning and the end, I meanfaith and love, are not taught. But knowledge, which is conveyedfrom communication through the grace of God as a deposit, isintrusted to those who show themselves worthy of it; and fromit the worth of love beams forth from light to light. For it issaid, “To him that hath shall be given” [cf. Matt. 13:12]—tofaith, knowledge; and to knowledge, love; and to love, theinheritance.…Faith then is, so to speak, a compendious knowledge of theessentials; but knowledge is the sure and firm demonstration ofwhat is received by faith, built upon faith by the Lord's teaching,conveying us on to unshaken conviction and certainty. And, asit seems to me, the first saving change is that from heathenismto faith, as I said before; and the second, that from faith toknowledge. And this latter passing on to love, thereafter gives [192]a mutual friendship between that which knows and that whichis known. And perhaps he who has already arrived at this stagehas attained equality with the angels. At any rate, after he hasreached the final ascent in the flesh, he still continues to advance,as is fit, and presses on through the holy Hebdomad into theFather's house, to that which is indeed the Lord's abode.(c) Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V, 11. (MSG, 9:102, 106.)The piety of the Christian Gnostic.The sacrifice acceptable with God is unchanging alienation fromthe body and its passions. This is the really true piety. And is notphilosophy, therefore, rightly called by Socrates the meditationon death? For he who neither employs his eyes in the exercise