2. Mosaic law and heathen philosophy are not opposed to each other, but simply parts of the same truth. Both prepared the way for Christianity. Jewish law and Greek philosophy are steps in the development of the world which prepare the way for revelation. Christianity is the fulfillment of law and philosophy.
3. He brought all the speculations of the Christians and the culture of the Greeks to bear upon Christian truth, and sought to harmonize the two.
The teachings of Clement gain in importance when we remember the bitter strife in the Church over the use of classic literature, which lasted for centuries, and the scholastic movement a thousand years later, which also sought to harmonize philosophy and religion.
Origen was a pupil of Clement in the catechetical school at Alexandria, and became his successor. Besides being brought up in an atmosphere of culture in his native city, and surrounded by influences that stimulated intellectual growth, he was fortunate in having a man of learning for his father. From him he learned Greek, mathematics, grammar, rhetoric, logic, and a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. He began to teach in the catechetical school when only eighteen years of age, a remarkable fact when one remembers that he had among his students learned pagan philosophers, and that it was very unusual for so young a man to be allowed to teach. He was abstemious in his habits, self-sacrificing, generous, and withal consistent in his life.
Origen's Pedagogy.—1. Never teach pupils anything that you do not yourself practice.
2. The end of education is to grow into the likeness of God.
3. Pupils must be taught to investigate for themselves.
4. The teacher must seek to correct the bad habits of his pupils, as well as to give them intellectual instruction.
Under Origen, the catechetical school at Alexandria reached its highest prosperity, and its decay began soon after his death. Already in the middle of the fourth century its power and influence were practically gone.