VI] PHILOSOPHY AND DOGMA 113 its exposition of the Scriptures unfalsified by forg- eries, but read plainly and in the gift of love {mumis delectionis).'^ ^ This statement might seem to Clement and Origen to beg the real question : What is the doc- trine of the apostles ? How shall it be understood and stated ? To an understanding of the Gospel as con- tained in the Scriptures, that is to say, to the ascer- tainment and statement of the true Christian yi/oio-is, a training in preparatory modes of knowledge, i.e. in Greek philosophy, was essential.^ If so, the unlearned could not have knowledge of Christianity. Clement and Origen recognized two classes of Christians, those who had simple faith, and those who with fuller knowledge were the true knowers, yvoxmKOL.^ The first, however, had the saving faith, which must also underlie the further perfections of the latter.* Indeed, Clement would trace all demonstration back to its basis in undemonstrable faith.* Nevertheless the view of gnosis as higher than faith tended to destroy the unity of the Christian ideal of life, which is faith, love, and knowledge of the truth, and also to break the unity of the saving work of Christ. Says Origen : "The Redeemer becomes many things, perhaps even all things, according to the necessities of the whole creation capable of being redeemed by him. . . . Happy are they who have advanced so far as to need the Son of God no longer as a healing physician, no 1 Irensos, Contra Haer., IV, zxxiii, 8. « Clement, Strom., I, 7, 8, 9.
- These true ytrnvnitoi are not to be confused with the Qnoetics.
4 Strom., II, 12; IV, 21, 22, etc.; V, 1, 13. Cf. Bigg, ChriaHan Platonists of Alexandria, p. 84, etc. » Strom., VIU, 3. See Strom., II, 2, 4, 6. I
