Origen of Alexandria
Origen's Life and Times
Origen was, according to Eusebius, "not quite seventeen" when Septimius
Severus' persecution of the Christians began "in the tenth year of [his] reign,"
(Ecclesiastical History; tr. Williamson, p. 179) which gives the approximate
date of Origen's birth as 185/6 A.D. He died around the reign of Gallus, which
places his death in 254/5 A.D. Origen lived during a turbulent period of the
Roman Empire, when the barbarian invasions were sweeping across Europe,
threatening the stability of the Roman Empire. His was also a time of periodic
persecution against Christians, notably during the reigns of the Emperors
Severus, Maximin, and Decius, so that Origen's life began and ended with
persecution.
His family was devoutly Christian, and likely highly educated; for his father,
who died a martyr, made sure that Origen was schooled not only in biblical
studies, but in Hellenistic education as well. Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History,
tr. Williamson, p. 182) tells us that Origen was only seventeen when he took
over as Headmaster (didaskalos) of the Christian Catechetical School at
Alexandria. He became interested in Greek philosophy quite early in his life,
studying for a while under Ammonius Saccas (the teacher of Plotinus) and
amassing a large collection of philosophical texts. It is probably around this
time that he began composing On First Principles. However, as he became ever
more devoted to the Christian faith, he sold his library, abandoning, for a
time, any contact with pagan Greek wisdom, though he would eventually return to
secular studies (Greek philosophy), from which he derived no small measure of
inspiration, as Porphyry (recorded in Eusebius) makes quite clear, as he
continued with his ever more sophisticated elucidation of biblical texts.
His Intellectual Heritage: Pagan, Jewish and Christian
Origen's debt to Holy Scripture is obvious; he quotes the bible at great
length, often drawing together seemingly disparate passages to make a profound
theological point. Yet his thought is all the while informed by his Greek
philosophical education, specifically that of the Middle Platonic tradition,
notably the works of the Jewish Platonist Philo of Alexandria and the
Neopythagorean philosopher Numenius of Apamea (fl. 150-176 A.D.). Origen shares
with Philo an insistence on the free will of the person, a freedom that is
direct evidence of humanity's likeness to God - for, like God's Being, human
existence is free from all necessity. From Numenius, Origen likely adopted the
conception of a "second god" proceeding from a first, ineffable being called the
One, "First God," or Father. Numenius referred to this "second god" as Demiurge
or craftsman, and taught that he created the cosmos by imitating the
intellectual content of the "First God." Origen applied this basic notion to his
doctrine of Christ, whom he also called Demiurge (Commentary on John 1.22), and
went on to describe Christ as a reflection of the Truth of the Father, stating
that compared to human beings Christ is Truth, but compared to the Father He is
falsehood (Jerome, Epistle 92, quoting Origen; see also On First Principles
1.2.6).
Another extremely important part of Origen's intellectual heritage is the
concept of apokatastasis or "restoration of all things." This term first
appears, as a philosophical concept, in the writings of the Stoics, whose
materialistic pantheism led them to identify Zeus with the pure, "craftsmanly"
fire pervading and constituting the cosmos. According to the Stoics, this fire
expands and contracts according to a fixed cycle. They called the contraction a
"conflagration" (ekpurôsis), destroying the cosmos, yet only temporarily. This
contraction was described as Zeus returning to his own thoughts, to contemplate
the eternal perfection of his mind/cosmos (the material cosmos being the
expression of his mind, or Logos). The expansion would occur when Zeus once
again expressed his mind in the creation of the material cosmos; this
re-creation or reconstitution of the cosmos is what the Stoics called
apokatastasis. Some Stoics argued that since Zeus is perfect mind, then every
reconstitution of the cosmos will resemble identically the one that preceded it.
This Stoic doctrine was to have an immense influence on the development of the
so-called esoteric traditions in the Hellenistic era, notably the Hermetic
school, Gnosticism, and astrology, with all of which Origen was, in varying
degrees, familiar.
In Origen's time, Christianity as a religion had not yet developed a system of
theology as a basis of orthodoxy; therefore, in addition to a wide variety of
opinions regarding the faith, there were also various sects, each claiming to
possess the truth of the Christian faith. Foremost among these sects was the
group of schools loosely labelled 'gnostic.' The Valentinian school (founded by
Valentinus, an outstanding teacher and philosopher who was at one point a
candidate for bishop of Rome) was the most philosophically accomplished of the
Christian Gnostic sects. In his Commentary on John, Origen refutes the doctrines
of a Valentinian Gnostic named Heracleon, who had earlier written a commentary
on the same Gospel. While Origen's opposition to Gnosticism precluded any
doctrinal influence, he saw in Gnosticism the value of a system, for it was
precisely by virtue of their elaborate and self-consistent systems that the
Gnostics were successful in gaining adherents. Since there were no non-Gnostic
Christian theological systems in his day, it was up to Origen to formulate one.
This was the program of his treatise On First Principles.
The Philosophical System of Origen
Origen was the first systematic theologian and philosopher of the Christian Church. Earlier Christian intellectuals had confined themselves to apologetic and moralizing works; notable among such writers is Clement of Alexandria (d. 215 A.D.), who, like Origen, found much of value in Hellenic philosophy. Before proceeding with an examination of Origen's system, it must be noted that scholars are divided over the question of whether or not his On First Principles contains a system. Henri Crouzel (1989), for example, has argued that the presence of contradictory statements in certain portions of the treatise, as well as in other texts, is proof against the claim that Origen was presenting a system. Hans Jonas (1974), on the other hand, recognized a clear system in On First Principles and gave a convincing elucidation of such. The reason for this scholarly divide is mostly due to the lack of a precise definition of 'system' and 'systematic'. If one approaches Origen's text expecting a carefully worked-out system of philosophy in the manner of a Kant or a Hegel, one will be disappointed. However, if one reads the text with an eye for prominent themes and inner consistency of such themes with one another, a system does emerge. As John Dillon has pointed out, Origen succeeded in luring away several students of the renowned Platonic teacher Ammonius Saccas to study with him, and, Dillon convincingly observes, this would not have been possible if Origen did not have some system to offer (Dillon, in Kannengiesser, Petersen, ed. 1988, p. 216, and footnote). It must also be pointed out that the text of On First Principles that we possess is not complete. Origen's original Greek is preserved only in fragments, the remainder of the text is extant only in a Latin translation by Rufinus, who was a defender of Origen against posthumous charges of heresy. While Rufinus' translation is, as far as we can tell, faithful in most respects, there is ample evidence that he softened certain potentially troublesome passages in an ill-guided attempt to redeem his beloved teacher. When reading Origen's treatise, then, one would do well to keep this in mind should one stumble across seemingly contradictory passages, for one has no way of knowing what the original Greek might have said.
The Trinity
Origen begins his treatise On First Principles by establishing, in typical
Platonic fashion, a divine hierarchical triad; but instead of calling these
principles by typical Platonic terms like monad, dyad, and world-soul, he calls
them "Father," "Christ," and "Holy Spirit," though he does describe these
principles using Platonic language. The first of these principles, the Father,
is a perfect unity, complete unto Himself, and without body - a purely spiritual
mind. Since God the Father is, for Origen, "personal and active," it follows
that there existed with Him, always, an entity upon which to exercise His
intellectual activity. This entity is Christ the Son, the Logos, or Wisdom
(Sophia), of God, the first emanation of the Father, corresponding to Numenius'
"second god," as we have seen above (section 2). The third and last principle of
the divine triad is the Holy Spirit, who "proceeds from the Son and is related
to Him as the Son is related to the Father" (A. Tripolitis 1978, p. 94). Here is
Origen explaining the status of the Holy Spirit, in a passage preserved in the
original Greek:
The God and Father, who holds the universe together, is superior to every being
that exists, for he imparts to each one from his own existence that which each
one is; the Son, being less than the Father, is superior to rational creatures
alone (for he is second to the Father); the Holy Spirit is still less, and
dwells within the saints alone. So that in this way the power of the Father is
greater than that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and that of the Son is more
than that of the Holy Spirit, and in turn the power of the Holy Spirit exceeds
that of every other holy being (Fragment 9 [Koetschau] tr. Butterworth 1966, pp.
33-34, and footnote).
This graded hierarchy reveals an allotment of power to the second and third
members of the Trinity: the Father's power is universal, but the Son's
corresponds only to rational creatures, while the Spirit's power corresponds
strictly to the "saints" or those who have achieved salvation. Such a structure
of divine influence on the created realm is found much later in the system of
the Neoplatonic philosopher Proclus (see J. Dillon, in G. Vesey, ed. 1989).
Souls and their Fall
According to Origen, God's first creation was a collectivity of rational
beings which he calls logika. "Although Origen speaks of the logika as being
created, they were not created in time. Creation with respect to them means that
they had a beginning, but not a temporal one" (Tripolitis 1978, p. 94). Further,
Origen explains that the number of these rational beings is necessarily limited,
since an infinite creation would be incomprehensible, and unworthy of God. These
souls were originally created in close proximity to God, with the intention that
they should explore the divine mysteries in a state of endless contemplation.
They grew weary of this intense contemplation, however, and lapsed, falling away
from God and into an existence on their own terms, apart from the divine
presence and the wisdom to be found there. This fall was not, it must be
understood, the result of any inherent imperfection in the creatures of God,
rather, it was the result of a misuse of the greatest gift of God to His
creation: freedom. The only rational creature who escaped the fall and remained
with God is the "soul of Christ" (Origen, On First Principles 2.6.5; Tripolitis
1978, p. 96). This individual soul is indicative of the intended function of all
souls, i.e., to reveal the divine mystery in unique ways, insofar as the meaning
of this mystery is deposited within them, as theandric (God-human) potentiality,
to be drawn out and revealed through co-operation with God (On First Principles
2.9.2-8). As Origen explains, the soul of Christ was no different from that of
any of the souls that fell away from God, for Christ's soul possessed the same
potential for communion with God as that of all other souls. What distinguished
the soul of Christ from all others - and what preserved Him from falling away -
was His supreme act of free choice, to remain immersed in the divinity.
What are now souls (psukhê) began as minds, and through boredom or distraction
grew "cold" (psukhesthai) as they moved away from the "divine warmth" (On First
Principles 2.8.3). Thus departing from God, they came to be clothed in bodies,
at first of "a fine ethereal and invisible nature," but later, as souls fell
further away from God, their bodies changed "from a fine, ethereal and invisible
body to a body of a coarser and more solid state. The purity and subtleness of
the body with which a soul is enveloped depends upon the moral development and
perfection of the soul to which it is joined. Origen states that there are
varying degrees of subtleness even among the celestial and spiritual bodies" (Tripolitis
1978, p. 106). When a soul achieves salvation, according to Origen, it ceases
being a soul, and returns to a state of pure "mind" or understanding. However,
due to the fall, now "no rational spirit can ever exist without a body" (Tripolitis
1978, p. 114), but the bodies of redeemed souls are "spiritual bodies," made of
the purest fire (see A. Scott 1991, Chapter 9).
Multiple Ages, Metempsychosis, and the Restoration of All
Origen did not believe in the eternal suffering of sinners in hell. For him,
all souls, including the devil himself, will eventually achieve salvation, even
if it takes innumerable ages to do so; for Origen believed that God's love is so
powerful as to soften even the hardest heart, and that the human intellect -
being the image of God - will never freely choose oblivion over proximity to
God, the font of Wisdom Himself. Certain critics of Origen have claimed that
this teaching undermines his otherwise firm insistence on free will, for, these
critics argue, the souls must maintin the freedom to ultimately reject or accept
God, or else free will becomes a mere illusion. What escapes these critics is
the fact that Origen's conception of free will is not our own; he considered
freedom in the Platonic sense of the ability to choose the good. Since evil is
not the polar opposite of good, but rather simply the absence of good - and thus
having no real existence - then to 'choose' evil is not to make a conscious
decision, but to act in ignorance of the measure of all rational decision, i.e.,
the good. Origen was unable to conceive of a God who would create souls that
were capable of dissolving into the oblivion of evil (non-being) for all
eternity. Therefore, he reasoned that a single lifetime is not enough for a soul
to achieve salvation, for certain souls require more education or 'healing' than
others. So he developed his doctrine of multiple ages, in which souls would be
re-born, to experience the educative powers of God once again, with a view to
ultimate salvation. This doctrine, of course, implies some form of
transmigration of souls or metempsychosis. Yet Origen's version of
metempsychosis was not the same as that of the Pythagoreans, for example, who
taught that the basest of souls will eventually become incarnated as animals.
For Origen, some sort of continuity between the present body, and the body in
the age to come, was maintained (Jerome, Epistle to Avitus 7, quoting Origen;
see also Commentary on Matthew 11.17). Origen did not, like many of his
contemporaries, degrade the body to the status of an unwanted encrustation
imprisoning the soul; for him, the body is a necessary principle of limitation,
providing each soul with a unique identity. This is an important point for an
understanding of Origen's epistemology, which is based upon the idea that God
educates each soul according to its inherent abilities, and that the abilities
of each soul will determine the manner of its knowledge. We may say, then, that
the uniqueness of the soul's body is an image of its uniqueness of mind. This is
the first inkling of the development of the concept of the person and
personality in the history of Western thought.
The restoration of all beings (apokatastasis) is the most important concept in
Origen's philosophy, and the touchstone by which he judges all other theories.
His concept of universal restoration is based on equally strong Scriptural and
Hellenistic philosophical grounds and is not original, as it can be traced back
to Heraclitus, who stated that "the beginning and end are common" (Fragment B
103, tr. J. Barnes 1987, p. 115). Considering that Origen's later opponents
based their charges of heresy largely on this aspect of his teaching, it is
surprising to see how well-grounded in scripture this doctrine really is.
Origen's main biblical proof-text is 1 Corinthians 15:25-28, especially verse
28, which speaks of the time "when all things shall be subdued unto him
[Christ], then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all
things under him, that God may be all in all" (KJV, my emphasis). This
scriptural notion of God being "all in all" (panta en pasin) is a strong
theological support for his theory of apokatastasis. There are, of course,
numerous other passages in scripture that contradict this notion, but we must
remember that Origen's strength resided in his philosophical ability to use
reason and dialectic in support of humane doctrines, not in the ability to use
scripture in support of dogmatical and anti-humanistic arguments. Origen
imagined salvation not in terms of the saved rejoicing in heaven and the damned
suffering in hell, but as a reunion of all souls with God.
Important Themes in Origen's Philosophy
While Origen's lengthy treatise On First Principles contains numerous discussions of a wide variety of issues relevant to the Christianity of his day, as well as to broader philosophical concerns, certain key themes do emerge that are of universal and timeless value for philosophy. These themes are: free will; the educational value of history; and the infinity and eternal motion (becoming) of human beings.
Free Will
Origen's conception of freedom, as discussed above, was not the same as modern conceptions. This is not to say that his conception was wrong, of course. For Origen recognized freedom only in reason, in rationality, which is precisely the ability to recognize and embrace the good, which is for him God. Irrationality is ignorance, the absence of a conception of the good. The ignorant person cannot be held responsible for his ignorance, except to the extent that he has been lazy, not applying himself to the cultivation of reason. The moral dimension of this conception of freedom is that ignorance is not to be punished, but remedied through education. Punishment, understood in the punative sense, is of no avail and will even lead to deeper ignorance and sin, as the punished soul grows resentful, not understanding why he is being punished. Origen firmly believed that the knowledge of the good (God) is itself enough to remove all taint of sin and ignorance from souls. A 'freedom' to embrace evil (the absence of good) would have made no sense to Origen who, as a Platonist, identified evil with enslavement and goodness with freedom. The soul who has seen the good, he argued, will not fall into ignorance again, for the good is inspiring and worthy of eternal contemplation (see Commentary on Romans 5.10.15).
Education and History
Origen may rightfully be called the first philosopher of history, for, like Hegel, he understood history as a process involving the participation of persons in grand events leading to an eventual culmination or 'end of history'. Unlike mainstream Christian eschatology, Origen did not understand the end of history as the final stage of a grand revelation of God, but rather as the culmination of a human-divine (co-operative) process, in which the image and likeness of God (humanity) is re-united with its source and model, God Himself (see Against Celsus 4.7; On First Principles 2.11.5, 2.11.7; Tripolitis 1978, p. 111). This is accomplished through education of souls who, having fallen away from God, are now sundered from the divine presence and require a gradual re-initiation into the mysteries of God. Such a reunion must not be accomplished by force, for God will never, Origen insists, undermine the free will of His creatures; rather, God will, over the course of numerous ages if need be, educate souls little by little, leading them eventually, by virtue of their own growing responsiveness, back to Himself, where they will glory in the uncovering of the infinite mysteries of the eternal godhead (On First Principles 2.11.6-7).
Eternal Motion of Souls
A common motif in Platonism during, before, and after Origen's time is salvific stasis, or the idea that the soul will achieve complete rest and staticity when it finally ascends to a contemplation of the good. We notice this idea early on in Plato, who speaks in the Republic (517c-d, 519c-e) of a state of pure contemplation from which the philosopher is only wrenched by force or persuasion. In Origen's own time, Plotinus developed his notion of an 'about-face' (epistrophê) of the soul resulting in an instant union of the soul with its divine principle, understood as an idealized, changeless form of contemplation, allowing for no dynamism or personal development (see Enneads 4.3.32, 4.8.4, for example). Influenced indirectly by Plotinus, and more directly by later Neoplatonists (both Christian and pagan), the Christian theologian St. Maximus the Confessor elaborated a systematic philosophical theology culminating in an eschatology in which the unique human person was replaced by the overwhelming, transcendent presence of God (see Chapters on Knowledge 2.88). Origen managed to maintain the transcendentality of God on the one hand, and the dynamic persistence of souls in being on the other. He did this by defining souls not by virtue of their intellectual content (or, in the Plotinian sense, for example, by virtue of their 'prior' or higher, constitutive principle) but rather by their ability to engage in a finite manner with the infinite God. This engagement is constitutive of the soul's existence, and guarantees its uniqueness. Each soul engages uniquely with God in contemplating divine mysteries according to its innate ability, and this engagement persists for all eternity, for the mysteries of the godhead are inexhaustible, as is the enthusiastic application of the souls' intellectual ability.
Origen's Importance in the History of Philosophy
Throughout this article, Origen's importance has largely been linked to his melding of philosophical insights with elucidations of various aspects of the Christian fatih. Yet his importance for Hellenistic philosophy is marked, and though not quite as pervasive as his influence on Christian thought, is nevertheless worth a few brief remarks. His role in the formation of Christian doctrine is more prominent, yet, because of its problematical nature, will be treated of only briefly.
Hellenistic Philosophy
Origen's debt to Hellenistic (Greek) philosophy is quite obvious; his influence on the development of later pagan philosophy is - at least from the perspective of most contemporary scholarship - rather less obvious, but it is there. His trinitarian doctrine, for example, consisted of a gradation of influence beginning with the Father, whose influence was of the most general, universal kind, binding together all things; the influence of the Son extended strictly to sentient beings; the Holy Spirit's influence extended only to the 'elect' or saints who had already achieved salvation (Dillon, in D.J. O'Meara, ed., 1982, p. 20; see also On First Principles 1.3.5). This conception found later expression in Proclus' Elements of Theology (Proposition 57), where he elucidates this formulation: "Every cause both operates prior to its consequent and gives rise to a greater number of posterior terms" (tr. Dodds). For Origen, the pre-existent souls, through their fall, gave rise to a history over which both the Father and the Son came to preside, while the Holy Spirit only enters into human reality to effect a salvific re-orientation toward God that is already the result of an achieved history. The Holy Spirit, then, may be understood as the final cause, the preparatory causes of which are the Father and Son, the mutual begetters of history. A bit later, the pagan philosopher Iamblichus reversed this Origenian notion, claiming that the influence of the divine became stronger and more concentrated the further it penetrated into created reality, extending in its pure power even to stones and plants. In this sense, the Holy Spirit, limited as it is (according to Origen) to interaction with the saints alone, gives way to the universal power of the Father, which extends to the furthest reaches of reality. Iamblichus saw no reason to divide the divinity into persons or emanative effects; rather, he saw the divinity as operative, in varying degrees, at every level of reality. At the lowest level, however, this power is most effective, imparting power to plants and stones, and providing support for the theurgical practice advocated by Iamblichus (Olympiodorus, Commentary on Alcibiades I, 115A; Psellus, Chaldaean Expositions 1153a10-11; Dillon, ed. O'Meara 1982, p. 23).
Christianity
Origen's ideas, most notably those in the treatise On First Principles, gave
rise to a movement in the Christian Church known as Origenism. From the third
through the sixth centuries this movement was quite influential, especially
among the monastics, and was given articulate - if excessively codified form -
by the theologian Evagrius Ponticus (ca. 345-400 A.D.). It is to be noted that
the spirit of philosophical inquiry exemplified by Origen was largely absent
from the movement bearing his name. A far more creative use of Origen's concepts
and themes was made by Gregory of Nyssa (d. ca. 386 A.D.), who adopted Origen's
doctrine of apokatastasis or "restoration of all things." Gregory was also
responsible for articulating more clearly than did Origen the notion that
redeemed souls will remain in a state of dynamic intellectual activity (see
Gregory of Nyssa, Catechetical Oration, esp. Chapters 26 and 35). After the
posthumous condemnation of Origen (and Origenism) in the fifth century, it
became increasingly difficult for mainstream theologians to make use of his
work. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th or 6th Century A.D.) drew upon
Neoplatonic philosophy, especially Proclus (411-485 A.D.) and Iamblichus (ca.
240-325 A.D.), and though he followed in Origen's footsteps in this use of pagan
wisdom, he never mentioned his predecessor by name. In the seventh century,
Maximus the Confessor (ca. 580-662), who may be called the last great Christian
Neoplatonist, set about revising Origen's doctrines in a manner more acceptable
to the theological climate of the early Byzantine Church. Maximus changed the
historicism of Origen into a more introspective, personal struggle to attain the
divine vision through asceticism and prayer, the result being a total
subsumption of the person by the godhead. This was Maximus' vision of salvation:
the replacement of the ego by the divine presence (see L. Thunberg 1985, p. 89;
also Maximus, Chapters on Knowledge 2.88). While there is much that may be
called brilliant and even inspiring in Maximus' philosophical theology, this
loss of the centrality of the person - as unique, unrepeatable entity - in the
cosmic process of salvation led to the loss of a sense of co-operation of
humanity and God, and sapped Christianity of the intellectual vigor that it
displayed in the period leading up to the establishment of a theocratical
Byzantine state.
Thankfully, Origen's legacy was not lost. He was an inspiration to the
Renaissance Humanists and, more recently, to certain Existentialist Christian
theologians, notably Nicolas Berdyaev (1874-1948) whose insistence on the
absolute autonomy and nobility of the person in the face of all objectifying
reality is an echo across the ages of the humanism of Origen. Berdyaev himself
admits Origen's influence on his thought (as well as that of Gregory of Nyssa)
and insists that the doctrine of hell and the eternal suffering of sinners is
not compatible with authentic Christianity. He also places a great importance on
history, and even broaches a modern, de-mythologized conception of
metempsychosis in terms of a universal, shared history of which all persons are
a part, regardless of their temporal specificity. History, according to Berdyaev
(and in this he follows Origen) binds all of humanity together. No soul will be
saved in isolation; all must be saved together, or not be saved at all. Berdyaev
wrote numerous works, a few of the most important are Slavery and Freedom (Eng.
tr. 1944), The Beginning and the End(Eng. tr.1952), and Truth and Revelation
(Eng. tr. 1962).
Concluding Summary
Origen was an innovator in an era when innovation, for Christians, was a luxury ill-afforded. He drew upon pagan philosophy in an effort to elucidate the Christian faith in a manner acceptable to intellectuals, and he succeeded in converting many gifted pagan students of philosophy to his faith. He was also a great humanist, who believed that all creatures will eventually achieve salvation, including the devil himself. Origen did not embrace the dualism of Gnosticism, nor that of the more primitive expressions of the Christian faith still extant in his day. Rather, he took Christianity to a higher level, finding in it a key to the perfection of the intellect or mind, which is what all souls are in their pure form. The restoration of all souls to a purely intellectual existence was Origen's faith, and his philosophy was based upon such a faith. In this, he is an heir to Socrates and Plato, but he also brought a new conception into philosophy - that of the creative aspect of the soul, as realized in history, the culmination of which is salvation, after which follows an eternal delving into the deep mysteries of God.
