Ryan Woods - Pedagogy and Poetics in the Stromateis

In a provocative comparison developed throughout strom. VII, Clement designates the gnostic instructor the “third divine image”.  Hence, Clement’s conception of “cosmic pedagogy” assumes mimetic and even mediatorial dimensions: in assimilating his pupils to the Word, the instructor deports himself in conscious imitation of Christ.  Regarding the Stromateis itself as a specimen of this strategy, the text becomes a universe in which Clement as steward (oikonomos) organizes the materials and “speaks” in a dispensation (oikonomia) conducive to virtue in his pupils.  The enigmatic literary form of the Stromateis, therefore, reflects an attempt to reproduce Christ’s teaching and providential ordering of the cosmos in a text.  Moreover, the distinctive content of this instruction--mystery, eclecticism, and allegory--take on altered significance when one locates it within the matrix of this pedagogical conceit.