Purity of Heart and the Vision of God in Clement of Alexandria

Abstract

This study focuses on some aspects of the church father Clement of Alexandria’s interpretation of the sixth beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”. Clement connects “purity of heart” to the idea of withdrawal from evil and growth in practical well-doing and sees it as an intermediate phase and a process on the way towards the contemplation and knowledge of God. Being firmly placed in the Platonic tradition, the vision of God is of great importance for Clement’s theology. In most instances this vision, or contemplation, is something that occurs in the next life, but he also seems to think that it is something that may be experienced already in this life. Seeing God is then used as a metaphor for insight (gnosis), a knowledge of God that is mystical, or spiritual.