Baptism
Although the teaching of the Logos occupies
the center of Clement’s theological doctrine, he does not fail to pay attention
to the Mysterion, to the sacrament. In fact, Logos and mysterion
are the two poles around which his christology and ecclesiology move.
Baptism is for him a rebirth and a
regeneration:
For thus he wishes us to be converted
and to become as children acknowledging him who is truly our father,
regenerated by water; and this is a different begetting than that in creation.
(Strom. 3,12,87)
Listen to the Saviour: I regenerated
you, unhappily born by the world to death. I set you free, I healed you, I
redeemed you. I will give you life that is unending, eternal, supernatural. I
will show you the fact of God, the good father. Call no one on earth your
father . . . For you I fought with death and paid your death which you owned
for your past sins and your unbelief towards God (Quis div. salv. 23,1)
It is hardly possible to give a better
explanation of the adoption as children of God which takes place in the sacrament
of regeneration. Clement uses also the terms seal (σφραγις), illumination, bath, perfection and mystery
for baptism. In his Paedagogus (1,6,26) he describes its effects in the
following words
Being baptized, few are illuminated;
illuminated, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect being made
perfect, we are made immortal. ‘I,’ says He, ‘have said that you are gods and
all sons of the Highest’ (Ps. 81, 6). This work is variously called grace, illumination,
and perfection, and bath: bath, by which we cleanse away our sins; grace, by
which the penalties according to transgressions are remitted; and illumination,
by which that holy light of salvation is beheld, that is, by which we see God clearly.
Now we call that perfect which wants nothing. For what is yet wanting to him
who knows God? For it were truly monstrous that that which is not complete would
be called a gift of God’s grace (ANF). (Johannes Quasten, Patrology, 4
vols. [Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1992], 2:27-28)
