‘Philosophy is a preparation, making ready the way for him who is being perfected by Christ.’84 Clement was so concerned to stress the Christian progress in holiness that he saw each individual’s journey as continuing after physical death: ‘after he has reached the final ascent in the flesh, he still continues to advance’.85 He spoke of these further advances in afterlife in terms of the cosmic hierarchies which would have been familiar to gnostics, but he also spoke of this progress as a fiery purging – not the fires of Hell, but (borrowing a concept from Stoicism) a fire of wisdom.86
This is sounding awfully new age
