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Origen....
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Origen of Alexandria is considered one of the greatest of
all Christian theologians. As a philosopher, he is famous for composing the
seminal work of Christian Neoplatonism, his treatise On First Principles.
Origen lived through a turbulent period of the Christian Church, when
persecution was wide-spread and little or no doctrinal consensus existed
among the various regional churches.
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In this environment, Gnosticism flourished, and Origen
was the first truly philosophical thinker to turn his hand not only to a
refutation of Gnosticism, but to offer an alternative Christian system that
was more rigorous and philosophically respectable than the mythological
speculations of the various Gnostic sects. Origen was also an astute critic
of the pagan philosophy of his era, yet he also learned much from it, and
adapted its most useful and edifying teachings to a grand elucidation of the
Christian faith. Porphyry (the illustrious student of Plotinus), though a
tenacious adversary of Christianity, nevertheless grudgingly admitted Origen's mastery of the
Greek philosophical tradition. |
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Although Origen did go on to compose numerous
biblical
commentaries and sermons, his importance for the history of philosophy rests
mainly on two works, the systematic treatise On First Principles, and his
response to the pagan philosopher Celsus' attack on
Christianity, the
treatise Against Celsus. Since the purpose of this article is to introduce
students and interested laypersons to the philosophy of Origen, it will be
necessary to focus mainly on the treatise On First Principles, which is the
most systematic and philosophical of Origen's numerous writings. |
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In this work Origen establishes his main doctrines,
including that of the Holy Trinity the pre-existence and fall of souls; multiple
ages and transmigration of souls; and the eventual restoration of all souls
to a state of dynamic perfection in proximity to the godhead. He is unique
among Platonists of his era for introducing history into his cosmological
and metaphysical speculations, and his insistence on the absolute freedom of
each and every soul, thereby denying the fatalism that so often found its
way into the more esoteric teachings of the various philosophical and
mystery schools of his day. |
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