Christian theology developed in opposition to Greek philosophy and heretical tendencies. The Apologists turned back the objections of the pagan world and presented Christianity as the true philosophy; the anti-Gnostic fathers developed, on the basis of Scripture and tradition, a theology designed to protect orthodoxy from the speculations of Gnosticism and Greek philosophy. But what the Alexandrians offered as a substitute was a systematic world view based on philosophical insight, into which Christianity was inserted and upheld as the highest wisdom.
This was the first attempt to produce an actual synthesis between Christianity and Greek philosophy. Unlike the Apologists, the Alexandrians were not content simply to present the Christian tradition as a superior counterpart to philosophy. And unlike the Gnostics, they did not seek to replace Christianity with a syncretistic doctrine of salvation that abandoned some of the fundamental elements of the Christian faith.
The Alexandrian theologians wanted to preserve the Christian tradition in a faithful manner, and to do so they stood firmly on the Scriptures. At the same time they also possessed a consistent philosophical point of view, into the context of which they sought to insert the content of revelation in such a way as to create a new theological system. They used contemporary philosophy in this manner with the intent that the reality of faith could be set forth as a uniform and comprehensive world view. The purpose of this was not to mix Christianity and philosophy but only to present Christianity as the highest truth. Origen was one of the foremost Biblical theologians of all time, and he wanted to do nothing other than to set forth and interpret the meaning of Scripture. But as a result of his philosophical background he had a tendency to read philosophical and speculative implications into Scripture passages as their deepest meaning. This was done with the assistance of the allegorical method. Because of this, Origen’s system came to bear the imprint of the Greek philosophy that had developed in his time (and previously) at Alexandria, which was the chief center of Greek education in that period. It was, therefore, the basic element of this philosophy which significantly conditioned Alexandrian theology as it was developed by Clement and Origen.
The Platonism of Alexandria
It is usually said that the philosophical background discernible in the theology of Origen is Neoplatonic. This is not completely correct. The actual founder of the Neoplatonic school was Plotinus, a younger contemporary of Origen. This school was founded in 244, after Alexandrian theology had come into being. Most properly, therefore, it must be said that Neoplatonism was a philosophical parallel to the Alexandrian theological system. But Plotinus and Origen both had the same teacher—Ammonios Sakkos. Through him Origen came under the influence of embryonic Neoplatonism. Later research (E. de Faye; Hal Koch, Pronoia und Paideusis) has shown, however, that this influence was not as great as has been supposed. As a matter of fact, Origen was an eclectic. But as far as philosophical schools are concerned, he stood closest to the Platonism which burgeoned forth in Alexandria during the first centuries of the Christian era and which is commonly referred to as Middle-Platonism. This was a continuation of the ancient Academy, but it had transformed classical Platonism into a comprehensive world system in which religion rather than theoretical knowledge was the distinguishing component. The world of ideas as set forth here was not simply the conceptual world, but above all the spiritual world that emerged out of divinity. The fundamental aspects of this system turned up again in both Neoplatonism and the Alexandrian theologians.
“The Alexandrian world scheme” (cf. Anders Nygren’s Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson [London: SPCK, 1953], I, 186–89; the term is from Heinemann’s Plotinus of 1921) was based on the old Platonism, inasmuch as it proceeds from the antithesis between mind and matter, between the world of ideas and the empirical world. This antithesis was fundamental.
Within this “world scheme” God was conceived of as the only One, transcendent over all else. The intelligible world emanated from God in an eternal process. Thought (vους) was the first stage; the subsequent one was the world soul, which is the lowest within the spirit world. As the result of a fall which took place in the spirit world, the human soul was detached and united with the material. The world event is striving to fulfill this purpose, that the intelligent beings which to a greater or lesser degree had fallen away from their original state might, through training and cleansing, arise into the presence of divinity and thus be freed from the shackles of the material world. The goal, in other words, was to bring about an ecstatic reunion with God (ομοιωσις θεω) via this ongoing process of training and cleansing.
This cyclical scheme, which had already appeared in another form among the Gnostics, was fully developed in Alexandrian Platonism and formed the background for the theology of Origen and Clement. They employed this same scheme with certain alterations and additions. Within its frame the doctrine of salvation was set forth.
Clement
In Alexandria, about whose first Christian congregation we know very little, a catechetical school came into being in the middle of the second century, the first Christian institution for higher education. Towards the end of the second century this school experienced an unusual growth and became the matrix of Alexandrian theology. The first well-known theologian associated with the catechetical school in Alexandria was Pantaenus, who was soon overshadowed by his pupil Clement (ca. 150–215), who, in turn, taught Origen. The main features of the theological system proper were developed by Clement, but it was Origen’s utilization of this system which brought it into prominence.
The fundamental aspect of the theology of Clement is the idea of God’s pedagogy. In order that the fallen spirit of man shall be able to ascend to and be reunited with the divine, education is required. This is done through discipline and punishment, through admonition and instruction. This training is the very purpose of the existence of the material world. Clement made this clear in his major books, such as Admonition to the Greeks, The Instructor, and The Miscellanies.
The education of man is accomplished through the Logos, who revealed Himself in a final and definitive way within Christianity. But there was also a preparatory stage, prior to the coming of Christianity, and the same Logos who was manifested in Christ also exerted a pedagogical influence on men in that period. Among the Jews He proclaimed the Law, and among the Greeks it was philosophy which in a comparable fashion prepared the way for the coming of Christ. Greek philosophy, in other words, was a phase in God’s pedagogy, similar to the law of the Jews. Both helped to prepare men for the Incarnation and came out of the same source, the Logos, who appeared to men even before the birth of Christ. As seen from this point of view, philosophy, like the Law, is a vanquished position, inasmuch as Christ has come with the saving knowledge whereby men are brought to faith.
What has now been said is a partial explanation of Clement’s view of Christianity and philosophy. Christianity and philosophy, according to Clement, are not antithetical. Philosophy rather gives expression to the same revelation which was completed later on in Christianity. Therefore philosophy, according to Clement, is able to serve as “a kind of preparatory school for those who obtain faith through proof.”
But the influence of philosophy on Clement was expressed particularly in this, that it led him to conclude that “knowledge” is on a higher level than faith. He therefore distinguished between πιστις and γvωσις. The former, according to Clement, is the simple authoritarian Christian faith, quite literal in nature, and concerned about the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. The latter, on the other hand, is considered to be the higher form of knowledge, which does not believe on the basis of authority but rather evaluates and accepts the content of faith in the light of its own inner convictions. “Knowledge” leads to love, and love impels deeds which would not result from fear. Clement strongly emphasized the claim that knowledge is the higher level on which faith is brought to perfection. Only the “gnostic” could be a perfect Christian. Nevertheless, the difference between faith and knowledge was not considered to be identical with the Gnostic division of mankind into the hylics and the pneumatics. Clement did not think of men as being predestined to the one category or the other. Neither did he conceive of the knowledge to be derived on the higher level as being of a different kind from that which is found in faith. Faith was said to contain everything to a degree. But an external faith is unable to grasp the real meaning of faith, inasmuch as it accepts dogma simply on the basis of authority. “The gnostic,” on the other hand, is able to grasp the meaning of faith, having assimilated it internally. Clement’s challenge to the Christian, therefore, was to proceed from faith to knowledge. Knowledge leads to the vision of God and to a life of love toward one’s neighbor. Clement desired to replace the false gnosis of Gnosticism with the true, Scriptural gnosis of Christianity. The higher knowledge which he taught did not conflict with the external faith based on authority. But Clement’s development of the Christian gnosis was strongly influenced by Platonic philosophy, which formed his base of operation and which served, as he saw it, as a preparatory school to Christianity for those who were to proceed from “naked faith” to the deeper understanding of faith.
The main ideas in the Christian gnosis, as developed by Clement, recurred in the theological system of Origen, and for that reason will not be discussed further at this point.
Origen
The circumstances of Origen’s life are rather well known, particularly as a result of the work of Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History, VI). Born in Alexandria in 185, of Christian parents, he revealed enthusiasm for the Christian cause at an early age. In fact, while still a young man he almost died a martyr’s death, as did his father. In the year 203 he succeeded Clement as the head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, and he served there for many years. He enjoyed unusual success as a teacher, but the opposition of the bishop of Alexandria forced him into exile. He went to Palestine, where he founded a school in Caesarea similar to the one in Alexandria and continued his activity. He died in Caesarea in 251—or, according to another source, in Tyre in 254.
As a writer in the field of theology, Origen’s productivity was enormous. Only a portion of his writings have been preserved. His exegetical works consist of commentaries, homilies, and editions of texts. Origen had access to a number of manuscripts which have since been lost. In his greatest work, the Hexapla (“the Sixfold”), Origen placed six different versions of the Old Testament in parallel columns in an effort to determine the correct text. But only a small part of the Hexapla is still extant, and the same is true of his numerous homilies and commentaries. Origen’s theological point of view was expressed most clearly in his great literary battle with Celsus (Contra Celsum) as well as in the work in which he sought to set forth a comprehensive presentation of the Christian faith. The latter has been preserved in a Latin translation by Rufinus (De principiis). It is difficult to imagine the original scope of Origen’s production. Jerome estimated that he produced as many as 2,000 writings.
Early in his career Origen encountered opposition from those who charged him with teaching false doctrine. There were a number of unique points of view embodied in his theology, which was, in a general way, strongly influenced by Greek philosophy. For this reason Origen’s theology became increasingly controversial, and it was finally condemned as heretical by the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553). In spite of this, however, Origen has proved to be an extremely influential theologian. It can be said, as a matter of fact, that he was the founder of the Eastern theological tradition, just as Tertullian was the founder of the Western tradition.
Origen was a Biblical theologian, but as the result of his use of the allegorical method (borrowed from the Platonic tradition) his interpretation of the Bible also permitted the acceptance of the world view which was developed within the philosophical school of Alexandria.
It must be pointed out, however, that Origen did not only allegorize. As the outstanding exegete that he was, he also manifested an understanding of the historical meaning of the texts he worked with. His typological interpretations must also be distinguished from the allegorizing tendency. The former involved the exposition of Old Testament material within the framework of the history of salvation; Origen interpreted this eschatologically, Christologically, and sacramentally. The mystical interpretation, which refers to the Christian’s inner experience, also belongs in this category. These ways of interpreting Scripture have been employed to some extent throughout the entire Christian tradition. What was unusual about Origen was that he also used the allegorical method. This method had been used previously by the Jewish philosopher of religion Philo of Alexandria, who read Platonic philosophy into the Old Testament. On principle, this method is related to the Platonic point of view. It distinguishes between letter and spirit in the same way that Platonism generally distinguishes between substance and idea.
In Origen, allegory is based on the understanding that there is a spiritual meaning in the background of every passage of Scripture. Just as man consists of body, soul, and spirit, so Scripture possesses a literal (or “somatic”), a moralistic (or “psychic”), and a spiritual (or “pneumatic” significance. The latter is always present, and when the literal interpretation appears unreasonable, one must hold strictly to the spiritual.
Furthermore, the allegorical method assumes that all the details in Scripture are symbolic of great, universal spiritual realities, for example, the powers of the soul and cosmological events. The allegorizer, therefore, takes leave of solid historical ground and conceives of Scriptural pronouncements as purely spiritual or idealistic phenomena. This marks the difference between allegory and typology. It is plain that this method was well suited to elicit from Scripture the cosmological ideas which are present in Origen’s theological system. The allegorical method enabled him to create a synthesis between his system’s Christian and Hellenistic ideas.
The rule of faith, according to Origen, is identical with the content of Scripture. He provided a summary in the first part of his De principiis, in which work his theological system is most clearly presented. Here he inserted ideas from the Christian tradition into the framework of the Alexandrian world scheme. Three major themes are found here:
1. Origen described God as the highest spiritual being, as far removed from the material and the physical as is possible. In the light of this, the anthropomorphisms in the Bible must be reinterpreted. They have no literal significance. Corporeality is incompatible with the concept of God. In this Origen is diametrically opposed to Tertullian.
God, out of goodness and love, created an intelligible world of a purely spiritual kind. This spirit world comes forth from God through all eternity. The Logos, Christ, is a part of this world. Origen rejected the idea that the Logos appeared first of all at the time of creation (cf. the Apologists and Tertullian). In place of this, he asserted that the Logos preexisted eternally in an independent way (“There never was a time when He was not”). The Logos was not created in time; He was born of God in eternity. As Origen conceived it, this birth of the Son in eternity was an emanation analogous to the emergence of the spirit world from divinity (cf. Irenaeus, who presented the same idea apart from this philosophical background). This gave rise to the question: How is the Son related to the Father? On the basis of his teaching of the birth of the Son in eternity, Origen said (a) that the Logos is of the same essence as the Father (ομοουσιος), but also (b) that the Son is nevertheless different from the Father and subordinate to Him. The Son is “the second God.” The Father alone is “not born” (αγεvvητος). Both the homoousios concept and subordinationism are therefore found in the theology of Origen.
2. The spiritual beings experienced a fall, whereby some of them were further removed from their origin than were others. They “cooled off” (ψυχος), so to speak, and became rational creatures, ψυχαι (plural of ψυχη). Thus it was that angels, men, and demons came into existence. The visible world was created as a consequence of the fall, in order to punish and purify man. The world provides the place and the conditions in and by which the divine instruction can take place. Origen, therefore, did not look upon creation as something evil (as did the Gnostics). He actually asserted that God created the visible world, but only for the purpose that man might receive instruction within it. The creation has no independent significance. Existence in the material world is, in part, punishment for rational spirits, but that is not all. For as Origen saw it, earthly things are symbolic of heavenly realities, and in contemplating them, it is hoped that man can be elevated to the heavenly level. Thus it was that the material world was also involved in the providential instruction of the human spirit.
3. Origen conceived of salvation in the following manner. Man is a spirit which has fallen from the intelligible world and has been ingrafted into a body which is animated by a soul. To be saved, man must rise again into the spirit world, there to be reunited with God. This salvation is accomplished through Christ, the Logos who became man. Christ’s soul did not fall from its pure state. His soul entered His body, and thus the divine and human natures were united. But, said Origen, the physical side of Christ was progressively absorbed by the divine so that He ceased being man (cf. Ignatius, who held that Christ remained in the flesh even after the Resurrection).
Origen did teach a doctrine of atonement, but inasmuch as this redemption was important chiefly to those who find themselves on the lower level of faith, as he saw it, the major emphasis was placed on the instruction which Christ imparts relative to the mysteries of the faith. Salvation is not completed until after death. The process of purification continues after death, and as a result of this men are brought to perfection and are reunited with God—first the good men, but also, at last, the evil ones. Everything shall be reunited with its origins (αποκαταστασις παvτωv). But any resurrection of the body is out of the question. Matter will no longer be found, neither will there be men anymore; all shall be brought back to a state of pure spirituality (“You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High”). Another fall, and the creation of new worlds, is a possibility. Here we note the influence of the Greek concept of the cyclical nature of history.
In Origen’s system, typical Platonic ideas were combined with the Christian tradition. Some aspects of this system are completely Hellenistic in nature, and thus have no relation to the Biblical proclamation. This is true, for example, of the idea of the intelligible world’s emanation from out of divinity, of the eventual restoration of all things, and of the cessation of all that is material and physical. In other cases, the Biblical tradition is faithfully preserved. Origen frequently did this, however, by bringing these two points of view into such intimate association that it is impossible to distinguish the Christian element from the Hellenistic. Origen’s method evolved into a uniform, systematic pattern of thought which was both Christian and Hellenistic. The pedagogy concept, for example, is a Greek idea, but Origen used it at the same time to express his Christian convictions. He deliberately chose to present a uniform description of the content of the rule of faith and at the same time provide an answer to the philosophical questions about life which were current in his day.
This was the first attempt to produce an actual synthesis between Christianity and Greek philosophy. Unlike the Apologists, the Alexandrians were not content simply to present the Christian tradition as a superior counterpart to philosophy. And unlike the Gnostics, they did not seek to replace Christianity with a syncretistic doctrine of salvation that abandoned some of the fundamental elements of the Christian faith.
The Alexandrian theologians wanted to preserve the Christian tradition in a faithful manner, and to do so they stood firmly on the Scriptures. At the same time they also possessed a consistent philosophical point of view, into the context of which they sought to insert the content of revelation in such a way as to create a new theological system. They used contemporary philosophy in this manner with the intent that the reality of faith could be set forth as a uniform and comprehensive world view. The purpose of this was not to mix Christianity and philosophy but only to present Christianity as the highest truth. Origen was one of the foremost Biblical theologians of all time, and he wanted to do nothing other than to set forth and interpret the meaning of Scripture. But as a result of his philosophical background he had a tendency to read philosophical and speculative implications into Scripture passages as their deepest meaning. This was done with the assistance of the allegorical method. Because of this, Origen’s system came to bear the imprint of the Greek philosophy that had developed in his time (and previously) at Alexandria, which was the chief center of Greek education in that period. It was, therefore, the basic element of this philosophy which significantly conditioned Alexandrian theology as it was developed by Clement and Origen.
The Platonism of Alexandria
It is usually said that the philosophical background discernible in the theology of Origen is Neoplatonic. This is not completely correct. The actual founder of the Neoplatonic school was Plotinus, a younger contemporary of Origen. This school was founded in 244, after Alexandrian theology had come into being. Most properly, therefore, it must be said that Neoplatonism was a philosophical parallel to the Alexandrian theological system. But Plotinus and Origen both had the same teacher—Ammonios Sakkos. Through him Origen came under the influence of embryonic Neoplatonism. Later research (E. de Faye; Hal Koch, Pronoia und Paideusis) has shown, however, that this influence was not as great as has been supposed. As a matter of fact, Origen was an eclectic. But as far as philosophical schools are concerned, he stood closest to the Platonism which burgeoned forth in Alexandria during the first centuries of the Christian era and which is commonly referred to as Middle-Platonism. This was a continuation of the ancient Academy, but it had transformed classical Platonism into a comprehensive world system in which religion rather than theoretical knowledge was the distinguishing component. The world of ideas as set forth here was not simply the conceptual world, but above all the spiritual world that emerged out of divinity. The fundamental aspects of this system turned up again in both Neoplatonism and the Alexandrian theologians.
“The Alexandrian world scheme” (cf. Anders Nygren’s Agape and Eros, trans. Philip S. Watson [London: SPCK, 1953], I, 186–89; the term is from Heinemann’s Plotinus of 1921) was based on the old Platonism, inasmuch as it proceeds from the antithesis between mind and matter, between the world of ideas and the empirical world. This antithesis was fundamental.
Within this “world scheme” God was conceived of as the only One, transcendent over all else. The intelligible world emanated from God in an eternal process. Thought (vους) was the first stage; the subsequent one was the world soul, which is the lowest within the spirit world. As the result of a fall which took place in the spirit world, the human soul was detached and united with the material. The world event is striving to fulfill this purpose, that the intelligent beings which to a greater or lesser degree had fallen away from their original state might, through training and cleansing, arise into the presence of divinity and thus be freed from the shackles of the material world. The goal, in other words, was to bring about an ecstatic reunion with God (ομοιωσις θεω) via this ongoing process of training and cleansing.
This cyclical scheme, which had already appeared in another form among the Gnostics, was fully developed in Alexandrian Platonism and formed the background for the theology of Origen and Clement. They employed this same scheme with certain alterations and additions. Within its frame the doctrine of salvation was set forth.
Clement
In Alexandria, about whose first Christian congregation we know very little, a catechetical school came into being in the middle of the second century, the first Christian institution for higher education. Towards the end of the second century this school experienced an unusual growth and became the matrix of Alexandrian theology. The first well-known theologian associated with the catechetical school in Alexandria was Pantaenus, who was soon overshadowed by his pupil Clement (ca. 150–215), who, in turn, taught Origen. The main features of the theological system proper were developed by Clement, but it was Origen’s utilization of this system which brought it into prominence.
The fundamental aspect of the theology of Clement is the idea of God’s pedagogy. In order that the fallen spirit of man shall be able to ascend to and be reunited with the divine, education is required. This is done through discipline and punishment, through admonition and instruction. This training is the very purpose of the existence of the material world. Clement made this clear in his major books, such as Admonition to the Greeks, The Instructor, and The Miscellanies.
The education of man is accomplished through the Logos, who revealed Himself in a final and definitive way within Christianity. But there was also a preparatory stage, prior to the coming of Christianity, and the same Logos who was manifested in Christ also exerted a pedagogical influence on men in that period. Among the Jews He proclaimed the Law, and among the Greeks it was philosophy which in a comparable fashion prepared the way for the coming of Christ. Greek philosophy, in other words, was a phase in God’s pedagogy, similar to the law of the Jews. Both helped to prepare men for the Incarnation and came out of the same source, the Logos, who appeared to men even before the birth of Christ. As seen from this point of view, philosophy, like the Law, is a vanquished position, inasmuch as Christ has come with the saving knowledge whereby men are brought to faith.
What has now been said is a partial explanation of Clement’s view of Christianity and philosophy. Christianity and philosophy, according to Clement, are not antithetical. Philosophy rather gives expression to the same revelation which was completed later on in Christianity. Therefore philosophy, according to Clement, is able to serve as “a kind of preparatory school for those who obtain faith through proof.”
But the influence of philosophy on Clement was expressed particularly in this, that it led him to conclude that “knowledge” is on a higher level than faith. He therefore distinguished between πιστις and γvωσις. The former, according to Clement, is the simple authoritarian Christian faith, quite literal in nature, and concerned about the fear of punishment and the hope of reward. The latter, on the other hand, is considered to be the higher form of knowledge, which does not believe on the basis of authority but rather evaluates and accepts the content of faith in the light of its own inner convictions. “Knowledge” leads to love, and love impels deeds which would not result from fear. Clement strongly emphasized the claim that knowledge is the higher level on which faith is brought to perfection. Only the “gnostic” could be a perfect Christian. Nevertheless, the difference between faith and knowledge was not considered to be identical with the Gnostic division of mankind into the hylics and the pneumatics. Clement did not think of men as being predestined to the one category or the other. Neither did he conceive of the knowledge to be derived on the higher level as being of a different kind from that which is found in faith. Faith was said to contain everything to a degree. But an external faith is unable to grasp the real meaning of faith, inasmuch as it accepts dogma simply on the basis of authority. “The gnostic,” on the other hand, is able to grasp the meaning of faith, having assimilated it internally. Clement’s challenge to the Christian, therefore, was to proceed from faith to knowledge. Knowledge leads to the vision of God and to a life of love toward one’s neighbor. Clement desired to replace the false gnosis of Gnosticism with the true, Scriptural gnosis of Christianity. The higher knowledge which he taught did not conflict with the external faith based on authority. But Clement’s development of the Christian gnosis was strongly influenced by Platonic philosophy, which formed his base of operation and which served, as he saw it, as a preparatory school to Christianity for those who were to proceed from “naked faith” to the deeper understanding of faith.
The main ideas in the Christian gnosis, as developed by Clement, recurred in the theological system of Origen, and for that reason will not be discussed further at this point.
Origen
The circumstances of Origen’s life are rather well known, particularly as a result of the work of Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History, VI). Born in Alexandria in 185, of Christian parents, he revealed enthusiasm for the Christian cause at an early age. In fact, while still a young man he almost died a martyr’s death, as did his father. In the year 203 he succeeded Clement as the head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, and he served there for many years. He enjoyed unusual success as a teacher, but the opposition of the bishop of Alexandria forced him into exile. He went to Palestine, where he founded a school in Caesarea similar to the one in Alexandria and continued his activity. He died in Caesarea in 251—or, according to another source, in Tyre in 254.
As a writer in the field of theology, Origen’s productivity was enormous. Only a portion of his writings have been preserved. His exegetical works consist of commentaries, homilies, and editions of texts. Origen had access to a number of manuscripts which have since been lost. In his greatest work, the Hexapla (“the Sixfold”), Origen placed six different versions of the Old Testament in parallel columns in an effort to determine the correct text. But only a small part of the Hexapla is still extant, and the same is true of his numerous homilies and commentaries. Origen’s theological point of view was expressed most clearly in his great literary battle with Celsus (Contra Celsum) as well as in the work in which he sought to set forth a comprehensive presentation of the Christian faith. The latter has been preserved in a Latin translation by Rufinus (De principiis). It is difficult to imagine the original scope of Origen’s production. Jerome estimated that he produced as many as 2,000 writings.
Early in his career Origen encountered opposition from those who charged him with teaching false doctrine. There were a number of unique points of view embodied in his theology, which was, in a general way, strongly influenced by Greek philosophy. For this reason Origen’s theology became increasingly controversial, and it was finally condemned as heretical by the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553). In spite of this, however, Origen has proved to be an extremely influential theologian. It can be said, as a matter of fact, that he was the founder of the Eastern theological tradition, just as Tertullian was the founder of the Western tradition.
Origen was a Biblical theologian, but as the result of his use of the allegorical method (borrowed from the Platonic tradition) his interpretation of the Bible also permitted the acceptance of the world view which was developed within the philosophical school of Alexandria.
It must be pointed out, however, that Origen did not only allegorize. As the outstanding exegete that he was, he also manifested an understanding of the historical meaning of the texts he worked with. His typological interpretations must also be distinguished from the allegorizing tendency. The former involved the exposition of Old Testament material within the framework of the history of salvation; Origen interpreted this eschatologically, Christologically, and sacramentally. The mystical interpretation, which refers to the Christian’s inner experience, also belongs in this category. These ways of interpreting Scripture have been employed to some extent throughout the entire Christian tradition. What was unusual about Origen was that he also used the allegorical method. This method had been used previously by the Jewish philosopher of religion Philo of Alexandria, who read Platonic philosophy into the Old Testament. On principle, this method is related to the Platonic point of view. It distinguishes between letter and spirit in the same way that Platonism generally distinguishes between substance and idea.
In Origen, allegory is based on the understanding that there is a spiritual meaning in the background of every passage of Scripture. Just as man consists of body, soul, and spirit, so Scripture possesses a literal (or “somatic”), a moralistic (or “psychic”), and a spiritual (or “pneumatic” significance. The latter is always present, and when the literal interpretation appears unreasonable, one must hold strictly to the spiritual.
Furthermore, the allegorical method assumes that all the details in Scripture are symbolic of great, universal spiritual realities, for example, the powers of the soul and cosmological events. The allegorizer, therefore, takes leave of solid historical ground and conceives of Scriptural pronouncements as purely spiritual or idealistic phenomena. This marks the difference between allegory and typology. It is plain that this method was well suited to elicit from Scripture the cosmological ideas which are present in Origen’s theological system. The allegorical method enabled him to create a synthesis between his system’s Christian and Hellenistic ideas.
The rule of faith, according to Origen, is identical with the content of Scripture. He provided a summary in the first part of his De principiis, in which work his theological system is most clearly presented. Here he inserted ideas from the Christian tradition into the framework of the Alexandrian world scheme. Three major themes are found here:
- Concerning God and the transcendental world;
- Concerning the fall into sin and the empirical world;
- Concerning salvation and the restoration of the finite spirits.
1. Origen described God as the highest spiritual being, as far removed from the material and the physical as is possible. In the light of this, the anthropomorphisms in the Bible must be reinterpreted. They have no literal significance. Corporeality is incompatible with the concept of God. In this Origen is diametrically opposed to Tertullian.
God, out of goodness and love, created an intelligible world of a purely spiritual kind. This spirit world comes forth from God through all eternity. The Logos, Christ, is a part of this world. Origen rejected the idea that the Logos appeared first of all at the time of creation (cf. the Apologists and Tertullian). In place of this, he asserted that the Logos preexisted eternally in an independent way (“There never was a time when He was not”). The Logos was not created in time; He was born of God in eternity. As Origen conceived it, this birth of the Son in eternity was an emanation analogous to the emergence of the spirit world from divinity (cf. Irenaeus, who presented the same idea apart from this philosophical background). This gave rise to the question: How is the Son related to the Father? On the basis of his teaching of the birth of the Son in eternity, Origen said (a) that the Logos is of the same essence as the Father (ομοουσιος), but also (b) that the Son is nevertheless different from the Father and subordinate to Him. The Son is “the second God.” The Father alone is “not born” (αγεvvητος). Both the homoousios concept and subordinationism are therefore found in the theology of Origen.
2. The spiritual beings experienced a fall, whereby some of them were further removed from their origin than were others. They “cooled off” (ψυχος), so to speak, and became rational creatures, ψυχαι (plural of ψυχη). Thus it was that angels, men, and demons came into existence. The visible world was created as a consequence of the fall, in order to punish and purify man. The world provides the place and the conditions in and by which the divine instruction can take place. Origen, therefore, did not look upon creation as something evil (as did the Gnostics). He actually asserted that God created the visible world, but only for the purpose that man might receive instruction within it. The creation has no independent significance. Existence in the material world is, in part, punishment for rational spirits, but that is not all. For as Origen saw it, earthly things are symbolic of heavenly realities, and in contemplating them, it is hoped that man can be elevated to the heavenly level. Thus it was that the material world was also involved in the providential instruction of the human spirit.
3. Origen conceived of salvation in the following manner. Man is a spirit which has fallen from the intelligible world and has been ingrafted into a body which is animated by a soul. To be saved, man must rise again into the spirit world, there to be reunited with God. This salvation is accomplished through Christ, the Logos who became man. Christ’s soul did not fall from its pure state. His soul entered His body, and thus the divine and human natures were united. But, said Origen, the physical side of Christ was progressively absorbed by the divine so that He ceased being man (cf. Ignatius, who held that Christ remained in the flesh even after the Resurrection).
Origen did teach a doctrine of atonement, but inasmuch as this redemption was important chiefly to those who find themselves on the lower level of faith, as he saw it, the major emphasis was placed on the instruction which Christ imparts relative to the mysteries of the faith. Salvation is not completed until after death. The process of purification continues after death, and as a result of this men are brought to perfection and are reunited with God—first the good men, but also, at last, the evil ones. Everything shall be reunited with its origins (αποκαταστασις παvτωv). But any resurrection of the body is out of the question. Matter will no longer be found, neither will there be men anymore; all shall be brought back to a state of pure spirituality (“You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High”). Another fall, and the creation of new worlds, is a possibility. Here we note the influence of the Greek concept of the cyclical nature of history.
In Origen’s system, typical Platonic ideas were combined with the Christian tradition. Some aspects of this system are completely Hellenistic in nature, and thus have no relation to the Biblical proclamation. This is true, for example, of the idea of the intelligible world’s emanation from out of divinity, of the eventual restoration of all things, and of the cessation of all that is material and physical. In other cases, the Biblical tradition is faithfully preserved. Origen frequently did this, however, by bringing these two points of view into such intimate association that it is impossible to distinguish the Christian element from the Hellenistic. Origen’s method evolved into a uniform, systematic pattern of thought which was both Christian and Hellenistic. The pedagogy concept, for example, is a Greek idea, but Origen used it at the same time to express his Christian convictions. He deliberately chose to present a uniform description of the content of the rule of faith and at the same time provide an answer to the philosophical questions about life which were current in his day.
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