Clement of Alexandria

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Monastic Theology Set 3 of 3

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#set-monastic-theology-clement-of-alexandria

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Once we pull, when we pull up to now, remember this is a second book, a book called The Wizarding and where the Wizarding was published, the first book was for the pagans, the ones who were the first pagans. We've heard of the first chapters, for that one reason, we'll read one of them. As we get into chapters 5 and 6, we're going to get richer. This book is the core of this first book. There's quite a bit of anti-Gnostic form in here, which you may or may not notice, but it comes out at certain times. But behind a lot of these fundamental notions, we find that it's just a notion of a child, for instance. It is the same sort of a Gnosticist that everyone else is making. You'll notice that Kellynne Covington uses quite a bit of Gnosticism in this.

[01:04]

We've gotten up to chapter 5. In this chapter, as you have seen, there's a kind of tissue of scripture quotations. Every conceivable scripture quotation is new and interesting. The point they bring on to testify to the fact that we are children. And then there's the theological interpretation of what it means, which is very interesting. In fact, his choosing this notion is a bold thing to do. From the point of contesting Gnosticism, of course, it's very important. But from his point of view, it makes him scratch himself a bit, because he has to prove both that there is an advanced knowledge of Christ, that there is a teaching, and at the same time, that we're all his children. So he has to use paradox.

[02:07]

Okay, let's go quickly through some of his quotations. I found one that's one of the most important. Some of them, specifically some of them, the ones that you would pick up, who were searching out the theme of the child in the Testament, and some others I can't remember. Now, the connection in the beginning is between, is a linguistic connection between pedagogy and Christ. So it's the same word, it's the same word. The word for child and the word for pedagogy. And in your translation, the leading of the children, the training of the children, is pedagogy, and the word for child is pedagogy. And then the string of quotations. In many ways, we are the children, we are the children.

[03:15]

Now, how is he going to be able to show a progress, when he says that we're children, and that we remain children? And he's going to contend that the perfection of Christianity, or the perfection of Christianity, is the word for child. And undertaking the word for child, is also very deeply stating the truth about Christianity. I suppose we're the children. We are the children. In many ways, Scripture celebrates this, and describes it as an ample, privileged future, giving variety to the simplicity of the faith in diverse names. Now, simplicity there has a difficult meaning. It means that simplicity is as opposed to the child. The simplicity of the faith also, I find it unity in spite of the diversity of the figures that are used. And then it begins. And he starts with John 21. What about children?

[04:18]

They were already in the position of disciples, the children. This is the end of the Gospel. It's also after the Resurrection. So they had already been taught. And then one quotation. They brought children to children. So, unless you turn and become their children, you shall not turn and become their children. Not in that way speaking figuratively about regeneration, but setting before us the limitation of simplicity of the children. It's more or less relevant, speaking of the origin of the world. Prophetic spirit. Okay. The children are crying out because the spirit in them knows the Christ,

[05:26]

knows the Messiah. That's the prophetic spirit which is recognizing oneself. That's what I mean. Yes. Yes. Yes, it could be. In other words, you can read it in both of those ways. You can read it morally, or you can read it as Jesus was to be condemned, and Jesus says it necessarily, but I don't think it's relevant in both ways. You see what I mean? Yes. Yes. He wants to, he wants to save himself. He says he wants to save himself. The prophetic spirit, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,

[06:27]

and the wisdom of that kind of thing. So, I think he means that if the prophetic, if any of the prophetic spirit was in him, it was to recognize the Messiah. Yes. Forth-telling rather than fore-telling, because prophecy means to speak, to speak forth, and forth means to read it. That's the thing. Prophets were expecting them to be forth-telling. Let's not be essential. The prophet is one who speaks for God, and he's one who may also predict that the first man to come is a spokesman. And so here, the children become spokesmen for the spirit. They become prophets in the sense of having those to be proud of.

[07:29]

Remember. Okay. Remember it's the English translation, but I don't know what the Greek word would be for this translation. Very often those words are used in the Torah. I just don't know what it means. The interpretation of Hosanna there, of course, was written in Hebrew as well. Have you never read out of the mouths of birds and serpents, or if you've read the Torah, it's the Holy Spirit speaking through them. Remember, lots of times the father told me this, the Holy Spirit was speaking in Daniel. I'm not sure. He was speaking about the Spirit. In this way, the Lord in the Gospel spurs on his disciples, urging them to attend to him,

[08:38]

hastening as he was to the father. There's more there than meets the eye, in the sense that as you attend to Jesus, as you give your heart to him, as it were, you discover something of yourself as a child. I think that's a great thing. As he moves toward the father, or he takes you toward the father, as it were, you discover your parent as a child. They should take more in spirit than one into the truth, and they will be full of the goodness of the Son of God. Children, for a while, as it were, begin to know less of their father, especially a child, because he repulses them. Children take them to marketplaces. That's... that one is over, that one is over. And if you marry a child, you also write No, no.

[09:51]

Children are just taken as members of the family. There's no... they can't be together. They can't be sworn in. That's right. Wisdom is justified by law, by law. Often wisdom can treat this room a little bit like a circus. Sometimes a girl, sometimes a boy. Okay, and more and more, there'll be lambs. What is the lambs like? The young sheep. Well, maybe you can get your... I think there's a group called... children lambs. Because of that tenderness and simplicity of disposition, love, sensuality, and the harmlessness and innocency

[10:52]

qualtry of nature of understanding. They're called as children. This is an example in the world of the good law. Sometimes they're thought of as children, and all the prudence and resentments of other times' sins, and a new people, a more recent people, and my servants shall be called by a new name." A new name, he says, the name gets lower as the prudence evolves. He's kidding. A new name, he says, fresh in the form of pure and simple, and shall have no control. Notice the name is a lot more than we think of as a name. It's got a kind of strong symbolism. The name is a good. It's nice when you see the person as input for the worship. Again, quotes. Simple and bound in joyously to the Father Almighty, not forbidden in sources. Free in movement, jubilant by means of faith, ready to run to the truth.

[11:58]

And then even the young poet, Jesus Christ. He had it also of the young to show the youth of humanity in Christ, and the eternities of this world. How does one let a thumb drop from the scripture? What a poet. And we who are little ones, being such poets, who read up on a different importance than that. Quotes. If the new man in scripture is represented by the ass, this ass is also a poet. And then the poet in the mind. This is difficult, but it does it. Having bound the simple and childlike people to the Word, and the figuratively represents as a bond. The mind produces bond, the Word produces bond. It must be something like that. But when he thinks of the sacrament, he never thinks only of the sacrament.

[13:01]

It's interesting also, the Word produces bond. It's a kind of a merging, a fusion between wisdom and the sacrament. The Word, and the growth of the sacrament. Both drink for health and health. Both wine for the body, blood for the spirit. There are different kinds of people in this life. The closest are animals. And where else in the world can I find a person with a perfect purpose in life, an abortion, a wife, a daughter, a child? It's got to be a collective conceit there. But then the beauty of it is the child. But then, these are the finest things in the world. God created them for a reason. But they have a beauty. And then on,

[14:07]

Jesus puts the little child in the midst. A question of who should be the greater. Now notice that this reflects the nasty question of the ones who are the most superior class in the world, according to the Word. So it's not going to happen. The Greek word, pedagogia. The second Greek word, first is pedagia. And the difference between the two, the first, I think, is a general word for all education, including the higher level of education. And so it's a kind of pillar word in the Greek word. Pedagogia is more specifically the training of the child, which originally was leading the child to school, but then became pedagogia, which was a more advanced education. The person who is the servant, the slave of the person,

[15:12]

is not good at anything. That word, first, is the same as the meaning of the second word. Very good. That's right. Yes. And it seems to me that an enormous portion of the movement was esteemed by the Greeks, central to this population, the intellectuals. Because there's the affiliation of children, there's kind of a limited amount of understanding. See, it is getting away from the pedagogical diminished sense of the word.

[16:13]

We'll still hear the whisper. But this seems hollow to those whose lips are open. Rightly, then, are those called children who know him who is God alone as their father, as their nephew, as their father. They are simple infants and toddlers, they are lovers of their mother, they are the destroyers. The pedagoger makes fun of this. Yes. Actually, maybe it is that. It is simplistic, isn't it? Simplicity, perhaps. And as a reflection, it's not going to be pure, it's not going to be pleasant. That's the point at some point. There was a similar question. That's the kind of relationship between the son of a purist and the lament of the sub-purist. The son of a purist.

[17:22]

The son of a purist. So at least he's supposed to be a purist. He doesn't have to be a purist. Decisions are made simplistically, so it's not going to be a purist. It doesn't have to be a purist. It doesn't have to be a purist. It doesn't have to be a purist. I hear that the father of women and the patient of children, and that's the core of this thing, is the knowledge of the father, especially of the father, of these two politicians, of the Secretary of State, of the division of the people. Take my anxious thought, and I want to hear this from you, the word of the patient. Amen. He who fulfills this commandment is in reality a child and a son to God and to the world. The point is that

[18:24]

the person who does this, who has this attitude, is a child, both to God and to the world, a child to the world and a child that you want to despise, not to see, but that you're content to hold to the world, to the love of your God, a child in relation to God. We'll have one last one. Heavens is what you say, but it's those on the left who love you for the sake of themselves. Perfection is with the Lord, who is always teaching, and you can see in childishness with us, we're always learning. So we're always to be children. And you're getting warm, so as we approach the theological disembodied soul, which is the planetary fact that the Lord is always the son,

[19:26]

and that as we find ourselves we'll find the technization, we'll find ourselves in that relationship with God, with the Lord, because of the kind of disproportions of the children. As we find ourselves in the world, we'll find the work of God. And this is in relation to God. Perfection is with the Lord, who is always teaching, and you can see in childishness with us, we're always learning. Does that remind you of anything? I don't know. Perfection is with the Lord. Perfection. He loves me. He doesn't want to trust me. I have a spirit which is a chief virgin. Virgins are,

[20:27]

well, this is with the child. The virgin, the precious virgin. And then, I'm a reporter. We who are children are then made perfect because we are the church, living in the same place as the family. There are two delusions, though, that come to bear as we grow older. The idea of the spouse being made a provider and being made aware that the body receiving the birth and the calling. Notice that he has to handle some difficult folks here. We will deal with those in a moment, as we move forward. St. Paul says that we are no longer children until it's time for the ordination of Christ. So the word child is simply used within a book of its inscriptions, especially in the New Testament, of being the gift

[21:28]

of the Lord and at the same time of being the status of being children of the Lord. In St. Paul, that's the equality. There's more like that in St. Paul. There's the term child of the Lord. This is the present property which is a little different in the Gospels. In the Gospels, the word Jesus remains the same. This is child. Okay. But this is about receiving Christ, the gift of the Lord, as the Gospels say. Amnipia is not

[22:31]

predicated as a soul. The child is therefore gentle and therefore more tender, delicate, and simple, file-less, investigative, and reprehensible. Straightforward and upright in heart which is the basis of simplicity. For such is the virgin speech. Tender, pure, well. It's also a virgin is what we call in the Latino world the child, virgin child, virgin. You're never opposed to a virgin. The ancient race was perverse and hard-hearted, but the band of infants the new people which we are is very good as a child. It's presented in places especially where fathers were hard-hearted and stiff-kneed and sore. It strikes us

[23:32]

as opposites because we think we're in the jungle and we're on the beach and we think we're girls and boys because we're this and [...] this This newness which is a freshness which is a broad depth of information which is a possibility of exhaust for words and gestures and nearly both kind of definition of truth which is a heavy lies for truth but simple for truth It's the word in which I will not give it to you. Depth which is rather the truth since dating sources and designation showing the simple which we ignore and the new minds which have nearly

[24:32]

become noise which has formed into being according to the new mind are infantile to the old mother and lately God has only known God as the Son of God for centuries and once again it's a very powerful deep language of the old mind The new minds which have nearly become noise which has formed into being according to the new mind are infantile to the old mother It's not just a casual reference as a kind of the fact that newness also is a new earthly origin and it's the same thing that organizes the work of the generation that when the word comes it brings the condition with it so that everything is able to move back into a simplicity and as it were for human experience and rediscover its root in the old mind The new

[25:35]

people are called young having learned the new lessons and we have the exuberance of life's new requirements with the chosen world in which we are always going to be truly intelligent always young always kind always good it's essentially good for what's important in the Christian world those must necessarily be new or become partakers of the new world and obviously the word new is always new because it's just coming but it's also new because it is somehow the very new circle the very generation the very questions which always come up

[26:55]

with the

[31:27]

new world in which we always going to be the world in which we are of the new world in are going to be the

[32:30]

new world in we are going be new world in which we are be the new world in which we are going to be the are to be the world in we going to be the new world in which we are going to be the new world

[33:34]

in which we are going in which we are going to be the new world in we are going to be the world in which we are going to be the new world in which we are going to the world in which we are going new world in which we are going

[34:34]

to the new world in which we are the new world which we going to be the world in which we are going to be

[35:35]

the new in we going to which new world in which we are going to in which we are to which we are going to the world in we

[36:47]

are the which we are going the new world in which we to be the world in which we are to new in which we are going the new world we are going to be the new world in which we are going to the world in which we are the world

[37:59]

in which we are going to be the world going be the new world in going be the new world in we are going to be the new in which we going to be world in which we are going be the new world in we are to be which we are

[39:09]

to be the we are going to be I guess my question is, do you think the industry right now is going to come forward with any improvement? First of all, I'm not sure the official report is. I would be interested to hear the opinion. My doubt is that if the President sits in front of the press for a week or two, I don't know what he's going to come up with. I don't know. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything. I'm probably not going to look at it. I just think that this is good. It's good. It's good. It works. It's interesting. I don't know.

[40:40]

It sounds good. It's good. I'm an institution. There is a sense of history, which works for us, I think, and not only for our position, but for the Christian position. It's good to hear. Thank you. [...] There's a lot that happens in between that, to where the innocence child is not the same as the father. I think that innocence is not the full logic of the image of fatherhood.

[41:52]

What we see against the background of the image of fatherhood, I think that at that time the child was a very human figure. It became related to the son of a man of flesh. At least by that we can see, having lost the grasp of the total history, the grasp of the entire history, then the child is this, and once again, a human being. Look to the image of the image of the father. So that you can see the power of the image of the father. Yes.

[42:54]

Yes. [...]

[43:55]

Yes. [...]

[45:16]

Yes. [...] And he will later on, of course, when he writes about his version, he wants to enter into a more realistic world.

[46:58]

One way to look at this, the question that he raises, the question of mediation is mediation. Mediation is a perfect word in itself. At that point, the depth and fullness of the child in our world is lost and flattens out into an initial state. There is no longer hope when there is an exaggeration of mediation. In relation to God, there is no longer hope. It has somehow been changed. Then we come around to the world's experience of God and mediation. Where the child uses it as an expression of Christianity. Sometimes, this is the point where Christianity short-circuits every moving structure at some stage. Including its own. Including its own institutional structure. It's the spark that leaps through and establishes immediacy.

[48:04]

And somehow makes every structure, everything else, relative, discordant. But it's a lazy process. Questioner 2 has a question. It's very playful in the library. In fact, that laugh in the scriptures is a kind of opening to a whole kind of thing.

[49:06]

So it's a good way to spread it. As you can imagine, it's really a beautiful thing. He's got it. This was chapter 6. In chapter 6, he answers a deep purpose very quickly. This is polemic 2. It's against the Gnostics. The whole chapter is a polemic. And we will see, very quickly, what the very important thing is. Let's go back. You see the objection to these patterns. That to be chosen as infants, to use that term for ourselves, would imply a childish and uncomfortable part of our education. And it was very playful in the kind of, now, what is the Gnostics? If you read Plato's quote, the Gnostic philosopher, he considered it all the same.

[50:13]

He's got some quotes from the Gnostics. And he describes the benignity of the childish part of the birth of existence. And here, he said, stately, regeneration is baptism. Regeneration is baptism. It's not birth. It's rebirth. It's not birth. It's not birth. It links with who was children of the child. We have seen that perfection in a poet who was born of career, eliminated, which is to none better. He is not the new prophet, he knows what a prophet is. Now, this is a kind of thing that you can't possibly say, you know, rational or proven, because it's a problem. He's saying the same thing that he said in the previous chapter, but he's saying it in a different way. It's this immediate, instantaneous fullness, which means a virtue of being given a control over.

[51:13]

A virtue of the incarnation of God's Word, of himself, and our being taken into that condition. So we're taken into perfection immediately as soon as we come in. So there are the matters of perfection, which are simpler, and yet the latter is simpler, where we appear within this perfection, which is the Gnostic. See, that's the spirit of the experience. That's the spirit of the sainthood, that's what it is. Interesting. Yes. I've never seen that. I've never seen that. Would I reprehend you if I proposed to you again? Now, unfortunately, we accept that translation. The reference though, in the next one, is to John 8.35. It's a little complicated. Remember, if you're reading the original, the self-verse, you can never choose the truth.

[52:19]

You can't do the truth. That's the conclusion. But it says, if I remember right, it says that the word itself spoke many words. I don't know what that means. I don't remember what it means. That's only a possibility. At the moment of the Lord's Baptism, there's no version of the word. I don't remember what was said today, but I'll be reading it. Now, milk was emerging. He told me about baptism. What does that mean? He told me about baptism. And he also told me about the beginning of Christ, today, at the time of the Baptism. So, we have a conflation of three or four words. What does that mean?

[53:26]

It's the wordless. It's the nonsense. Is Christ beginning today, already perfect? Or is he just nonsense? Nonsense. I don't know. The beginning of Christ is assumed at the time of the Baptism, because the word was spoken. And in some way, it does. The word of God is resurrection. And he's connecting it to the meaning of the word of baptism for that kind of reason. If Christ is eternal, and his baptism is imperfection, then we all see that he is perfect. Perfect. With three words, his information has been birthed from the Father into man.

[54:30]

And that is the resurrection. Now, this is what you call, for that matter of reason, the second kind of courage. Different kinds of courage, in this case, that they can breed together, in terms of comparative religion. In mythology, in the religious traditions of the world, that's kind of what we call it. Which is a nonlinear kind. There's a connection between different events of some kind, that in one moment of time, you get to a center where you're simultaneously experiencing or participating in one of these things. Now, the most typical example for us is the sacrament of the Eucharist, or baptism. The idea of the sacrament is that when you participate in the sacrament, you participate in the resurrection of Christ. And that's what we call the sacrament of the Eucharist. The sacrament of the Eucharist.

[55:32]

And if you meditate on these mysteries, there is a kind of direct, there's an axis that calls you to them. This is typical of, for instance, the Eucharist, or the Eastern Christian Eucharist. The range of that kind of structure, that you see the connection of mysteries in a geometrical way, which have this relationship. It's not quite a book. This is what you call the Eastern Christian Eucharist. The most instinctive is the relationship between the different mysteries. Between baptism, baptism of Christ, and the resurrection. And there's a great insistence on baptism of Christ. In spite of the fact that there's baptism, there's no way you can deny it. It's the only way you can deny it. It's the only way you can deny it. It's amazing how much of that is in baptism.

[56:36]

You can think of terms that are linear, or you can think of terms that are linear. Right. The initial state was already a perfection. So, at that point, there wasn't any place to go, in a sense. And that's when it goes. And yet, there's a truth that nothing happens in the other part, because there's no progression. Because remember, who was perfect from the start? Why did he have to be born at that time? Okay, for us. But for us, then, this is true. Because there's a line that goes between the mysteries. And that's what is interesting. It shows the line that goes between our baptism, and our identity, as it were.

[57:59]

And the central mysteries. The central mystery pertaining to this program. And then, strung along that line, are the sequential, historical movements of powerful things. There's birth, there's baptism, there's birth, there's resurrection. And then, our baptism. And it's all at once. It's what they demand. But it takes a lot of patience, to bear with the weather, until it became necessary. And that's what those things are all about. Their performance is going to be better. Yes. Somehow, it's real in the life of Christ, because of man. He went through those stages.

[59:01]

Even, Luther, he grew in wisdom and grace. He's the Word of God, and he grows in wisdom and grace. For us, and in himself, nevertheless. But it's real, in his hand. It's in the hand of man. It's better than it was for us. Because, effectively, we've been meant for us. So, it's all there. Yes. [...] Somehow, he enters into a world, and leaves it. God leaves the very beginning and the very end of the world, and takes the next world. In the world of man. It's incredible. Yes. Jesus is in the world.

[60:04]

Between the, in himself, and for us, is Jesus. The experience of these things, in himself, for us. They're all in us. It's part of the time. It's a sequence. But the details of the wisdom here may disconcert you. But the actual thought underneath this world, no addition is needed to this knowledge, because it's God. And he can be superior to the world, or a teacher, or the only teacher. But it seems like, at lots of points, it's the wisdom exposed to the human mind, isn't it? And what do you talk about in practice? He was perfect, or was he the perfect human being? Simultaneously, was baptism for John, or was he the perfect one? Whether he was said to be perfect, it's incredible, isn't it?

[61:07]

It's an obedience to the faith, and it's an expression. And he's completely the human experience, isn't he? The human being is perfect. He is perfect. He is perfected by the washing of our physical being, the center of the world, the center of the spirit, such as the face. He wants it to be exactly the same as it is at the physical level. And, as a matter of fact, all else would be the same. This is the process of progression, which is not temporary. Which, in some way or some other, has to be the same as for us. It's not just for the mind. It's for everything. Being baptized will illuminate it. Illuminating it in the sun's beam is simply and perfectly being the perfect human being in the world. And that's all it means. And this is all baptism.

[62:10]

This work is ready for grace, and this will be ready for illumination. Illumination. Illumination. Illumination. How does that work? That's what it is. There's a market for illumination in the world. There's a market for illumination in the world. Therefore, in order for the work to be successful, we need to be perfect, good, and receptive. Learning that we are receptive. We need to be perfectly human for the first time. That's a particular choice for completing this course.

[63:19]

It's not necessary that you can always see where you are in the world. It's something that we can accept. We're afraid of the kind of imperfection in the world we are in. As we struggle to face the world. Where is that imperfection? It's unimportant. We think of perfect as completion. To hold yourself up to perfection is to hold yourself up to perfection. So completion is a human perfection. Which is the most important. I have a question. So you can say, God has traced out the life of people at certain stages, at certain points. But non-Christians, Now, please submit,

[64:31]

for you to be able to go to heaven, that I was born a Christian, and Jesus was born a Christian. The same as we do. Possibly. You see the difference? Because he had not yet gone through a total restoration. And that's what we received. The totality of the wisdom of God. Before the death and resurrection of Jesus. We received this from our salvation. But we didn't receive that yet. We received a totality,

[65:33]

and yet no one is there. You can see the world. We can look at the world and know who we are. So who are we in spirit, and who are we in wisdom? Completion. Jesus did not. Him. Rejoin. So that man, Jesus, had to be born. So it's the underground that grows. The underground that grows, and then the underground also some kind of, a certain kind of spontaneous. As a matter of fact, the tradition is very spontaneous, but something really happens. It's always built in a way, that when you look at the spirit, the spirit, there is a movement. The movement. This is something that is very subliminal.

[66:59]

The way in which he was born. It was physically impossible. It was not easy for him. And I think that's the truth. He was born. [...] It's like we never heard of Shambhala. So, we had to leave Shambhala, to go into the present moment. And then, he was born. Because that began to develop into a distribution of experience, with other people, and so forth. And they really carried on with the tradition.

[68:06]

I want to say, I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you finish this video. That's always a good way to finish. Next time I'll try to take a social break. Next time I'll finish this video. I want to get to the point where I can say, I'm going to finish this video. I'm going to finish this video. I'm going to finish this video.

[68:36]

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