Calvin R. Stapert’s warning that Christians today are the “unwitting heirs of musical thought that has its roots in secular, naturalistic Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment thought, which was unusually indifferent to—and often hostile toward—Christian thought” is still a significant contribution (2006). Stapert’s thesis is at the heart of why Clement of Alexandria’s (c.150–c.215) musical thought is of great importance for theological studies. Doru Costache also offers insight into the significance of this early Christian voice: “Clement’s musical worldview aspires to a complete Christian representation of reality, a narrative of everything, helping to move cosmology from the outskirts into the center of Christian theology” (2021).
With approximately six hundred references to music in eighty passages across his extant writings, Clement refers to music more than the combination of every first and second-century Christian writer who preceded him. He also provides the Στόμιον πώλων ἀδαῶν (“Bridle of untamed colts”), an early Christian Greek hymn, which is an impressive 64-line tribute to Christ as the Great Teacher (although it is predated by other hymnic passages such as the Valentinian “Summer Harvest” and the elder’s poem recorded by Irenaeus). Clement’s hymn and his many references to music provide a treasury for studies in early Christian musical thought. However, this rich depository has not yet been fully explored. Charles H. Cosgrove noted that “a comprehensive examination of Clement’s statements about music has not yet been offered” (2006) and nearly two decades after Cosgrove’s seminal article, a comprehensive examination of Clement’s musical thought is still unwritten.
Research into Clement’s music has mainly focused on the Christological implications of the “New Song” in the Protrepticus; poetical-theological analysis of the “Hymn to Christ” in the Paedagogus; and Clement’s views on matters of Christian practice such as psalm-singing, use of instruments, and music during social meals. The most striking element of Clement’s musical thought remains largely unexplored, that is, his didactic use of musical imagery to teach Christian doctrine. The purpose of my paper is to assess the current state of scholarship in Clementine music studies and to highlight areas for future scholarship in this important area of research. In doing so, I will argue that Clement’s musical thought is essential to twenty-first-century theology and spirituality for gathered worship and in daily life.