A
PSEUDO-CLEMENTIME AXIOM:
A
FORMLESS GOD CANNOT BE SEEN
Commonly dated around 300-320 CE,
the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies is another pre-Nicene source including a
Christology envisioning the Son endowed with a body of glory and a form (morphe).
The form is invisible for the ordinary eye and only the pure heart may perceive
it:
For He has shape (μορφη γαρ εχει), and He has every limb primarily
and solely for beauty’s sake, and not for use. For He has not eyes that He may
see with them; for He sees on every side, since He is incomparably more brilliant
in His body (απαραβλητως λαμπροτερος ων το σωμα) than the visual spirit which is
in us, and He is more splendid than everything, so that in comparison with Him
the light on the sun may be reckoned as darkness. Nor has He ears that He may hear;
for He hears, perceives, moves, energizes acts on every side. But He has the
most beautiful shape (την δε καλλιστην μορφην) on account of man, that the pure
in heart may be able to see Him (τη καρδια αυτον ιδειν), that they may rejoice because
they suffered. For He molded man in His own shape (τη γαρ αυτου μορφη) as in the grandest seal, in
order that he may be the ruler and lord of all, and that all may be subject to
him. Wherefore, judging that He is the universe, and that man is His image (εικονα) (for He is Himself invisible [αορατος], but His image man is visible),
the man who wishes to worship Him honours His visible image, which is man. (Hom.
Clem. 17.7)
The text continues with an
interesting counterargument: If the Son owns a Form, he has to exist in space
and necessarily imply a spatial shape (schema). The author’s surprising
reply is to agree with the contender and also to add that the Form of the Son
extends infinitely:
For He avenges His own shape (μορφην). But
someone will say, If He has shape, then He has figure (Ει μορφην εχει, και σχημα) also, and is in space; but if He
is in space, and is, as being less, enclosed by it, how is He great above
everything? How can He be everywhere if He has figure (εν σχηματι ων)? . . . What, then, is there to prevent God, as being the Framer
and Lord of this and everything else, from possessing figure and shape and
beauty (δημιουργον και δεσποτην οντα, αυτον μεν εν σχηματι και μορφη και καλλει οντα), and having the communication of
these qualities proceeding from Himself extended infinitely? (Hom. Clem.
17:8)
The next chapter of the same
homily presents a vision of God as the cruciform structure of the universe,
present everywhere in the world, as in Irenaeus’s theology:
One, then, is the God who truly
exists, who presides in a superior shape (εν κρειττονι μορφη προκαθεζεται), being the heart of that which is
above and that which is below twice, which sends forth from Him as from a
centre the life-giving and incorporeal power (ασωματον δυναμιν); . . . It must be, therefore,
that this infinite which proceeds from Him on every slate exists, having as its
heart Him who is above all, and who thus possesses figure (υπερ παντα εν σχηματι); for wherever He be, He is as it
were in the centre of the infinite, being the limit of the universe. And the
extensions taking their rise with Him, possess the nature of six infinites; of
whom the one taking its rise with him penetrates into the height above, another
into the depth below, another to the right hand, another to the left, another
in front, and another behind. (Hom. Clem. 17:9)
The following passage is more
epistemologically focused. The text informs us that only the νους may perceive God’s μορφη and ειδος. If God did not have a form,
human beings would not be able to see or contemplate him because the human mind
would be empty without apprehending a form. The chapter similarly includes the
argument that God has a form because he is beautiful and beauty cannot exist
without form:
What affection ought therefore to
arise within us if we gaze with our mind on His beautiful shape (την ευμορφιαν αυτου τω νω κατοπτευσωμεν)! But otherwise it is absurd to
speak of beauty. For beauty cannot exist apart from shape (αδυνατον γαρ καλλος ανευ μορφης ειναι); nor can one be attracted to the
love of God, nor even deem that he can see Him, if God has no form (και δοκειν θεον οραν ειδος ουκ εχοντα). But some who are strangers to
the truth, and who give their enemies to the service of evil, on pretext of
glorifying God, say that He has no figure (ασχηματιστον), in order that, being shapeless
and formless, He may be visible to no one (αμορφος και ανειδεος ων μηδενι ορατος η), so as not to be longed for. For the mind not seeing the form of
God, is empty of Him (νους γαρ ειδος ουχ ορων θεου εστιν αυτου). (Hom. Clem. 17:10-11) (Dragoş
Andrei Giulea, Pre-Nicene Christology in Paschal Contexts: The Case of the
Divine Noetic Anthropos [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae Texts and
Studies of Early Christian Life and Language 123; Leiden: Brill, 2014], 326-28)
