As I mentioned in another thread here, the story begins with Clement living in Rome and confronted by a Christian preacher. In one tradition the preacher is Barnabas in the other the missionary is a stranger and Clement goes on to Alexandria to meet Barnabas. But the attraction to this new religion is clearly that Clement - and undoubtedly a great number of readers - wants to know what the will of God is.
Indeed the Homilies begins with Clement defining the ministry of Jesus on his own:
This understanding is strangely consistent in the Clementine Literature as a whole. One might expect that Jesus came into the world to be crucified, or believed to be the messiah or something like that. But this is not POV of the author. Jesus testified to the will of God, what God wants from us, define for us how we are supposed to live.a 'certain one' ... was preaching to the Jews the kingdom of the invisible God, and saying that whoever of them would reform his manner of living should enjoy it. And in order that He might be believed that He uttered these things full of the Godhead, He wrought many wonderful miracles and signs by His mere command, as having received power from God. For He made the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the lame to walk, raised up the bowed down, drove away every disease, put to flight every demon; and even scabbed lepers, by only looking on Him from a distance, were sent away cured by Him; and the dead being brought to Him, were raised; and there was nothing which He could not do.
It isn't about Jesus or the identity of Jesus - who Jesus is - but the message he preaches. Jesus preaches the will of God.
This is reinforced when the unnamed stranger defines who Jesus is to his Roman audience echoing many of the things referenced by Clement earlier:
Even though certain aspects of who Jesus was (= the Son of God) it is interesting to note that Christianity is not yet simply defined as 'believing in Jesus.' Rather Jesus proclaims the will of God.The Son of God has come in Judæa, proclaiming eternal life to all who will, if they shall live according to the counsel of the Father, who has sent Him. Wherefore change your manner of life from the worse to the better, from things temporal to things eternal; for know ye that there is one God, who is in heaven, whose world ye unrighteously dwell in before His righteous eyes. But if ye be changed, and live according to His counsel, then, being born into the other world, and becoming eternal, ye shall enjoy His unspeakable good things. But if ye be unbelieving, your souls, after the dissolution of the body, shall be thrown into the place of fire, where, being punished eternally, they shall repent of their unprofitable deeds.
I think is an important distinction to make sense of a proto-typical faith which gets lost in much of the creed emphasis in writers like Irenaeus. Note that when Clement announces why he is going to Judea it is to know the will of God:
Similarly when he imagines why pagans might regret not becoming Christians it once again is because they will be punished for rejecting the opportunity to learn the will of God:I shall go into Judæa, that I may know if this man who tells us these things speaks the truth, that the Son of God has come into Judæa, for the sake of a good and eternal hope, revealing the will of the Father who sent Him.
Jesus brought knowledge of the will of God to his immediately followers and they too must carry on the legacy of declaring the will of God even if they must pay the ultimately cost for doing so.What, then, will your Grecian multitude say, being of one mind, if, as he says, there shall be a judgment? Why, O God, did You not proclaim to us Your counsel? Shall you not, if you be thought worthy of an answer at all, be told this? I, knowing before the foundation of the world all characters that were to be, acted towards each one by anticipation according to his deserts without making it known; but wishing to give full assurance to those who have fled to me that this is so, and to explain why from the beginning, and in the first ages, I did not suffer my counsel to be publicly proclaimed; I now, in the end of the world, have sent heralds to proclaim my will, and they are insulted and flouted by those who will not be benefited, and who wilfully reject my friendship. Oh, great wrong! The preachers are exposed to danger even to the loss of life, and that by the men who are called to salvation.
Clement requests knowledge from Barnabas of Jesus's preaching the will of God:
All of world history is competed when Jesus 'breaks through the clutter' and reveals the will of God to his contemporaries:But it plainly appeared to me that he was disconcerted. For when I said to him, Only set forth to me the words which you have heard of the Man who has appeared, and I will adorn them with my speech, and preach the counsel of God; and if you do so, within a few days I will sail with you, for I greatly desire to go to the land of Judæa, and perhaps I shall dwell with you all my life
More examples:The will of God has been kept in obscurity in many ways. In the first place, there is evil instruction, wicked association, terrible society, unseemly discourses, wrongful prejudice. Thereby is error, then fearlessness, unbelief, fornication, covetousness, vainglory; and ten thousand other such evils, filling the world as a quantity of smoke fills a house, have obscured the sight of the men inhabiting the world, and have not suffered them to look up and become acquainted with God the Creator from the delineation of Himself which He has given, and to know what is pleasing to Him. Wherefore it behooves the lovers of truth, crying out inwardly from their breasts, to call for aid, with truth-loving reason, that some one living within the house which is filled with smoke may approach and open the door, so that the light of the sun which is without may be admitted into the house, and the smoke of the fire which is within may be driven out.
Now the Man who is the helper I call the true Prophet; and He alone is able to enlighten the souls of men, so that with our own eyes we may be able to see the way of eternal salvation. But otherwise it is impossible, as you also know, since you said a little while ago that every doctrine is set up and pulled down, and the same is thought true or false, according to the power of him who advocates it; so that doctrines do not appear as they are, but take the appearance of being or not being truth or falsehood from those who advocate them. On this account the whole business of religion needed a true prophet, that he might tell us things that are, as they are, and how we must believe concerning all things. So that it is first necessary to test the prophet by every prophetic sign, and having ascertained that he is true, thereafter to believe him in every thing, and not to sit in judgment upon his several sayings, but to receive them as certain, being accepted indeed by seeming faith, yet by sure judgment. For by our initial proof, and by strict inquiry on every side, all things are received with right reason. Wherefore before all things it is necessary to seek after the true Prophet, because without Him it is impossible that any certainty can come to men. Chapter XX. Peter's Satisfaction with Clement And, at the same time, he satisfied me by expounding to me who He is, and how He is found, and holding Him forth to me as truly to be found, showing that the truth is more manifest to the ear by the discourse of the prophet than things that are seen with the eye; so that I was astonished, and wondered that no one sees those things which are sought after by all, though they lie before him. However, having written this discourse concerning the Prophet by his order, he caused the volume to be dispatched to you from Cæsarea Stratonis, saying that he had a charge from you to send his discourses and his acts year by year.
For, by the will of God prescribed at the beginning, punishment righteously follows those who worship Him on account of transgressions; and this is so, in order that having reckoned with them by punishment for sin as for a debt, he may set forth those who have turned to Him pure in the universal judgment.
And the will of the righteous One is that you do no wrong. But wrong is murder, hatred, envy, and such like; and of these there are many forms.