Become Like the Angels

Introduction

[1] Introduction None today can doubt that Origen of Alexandria (c. ad 185–254), a catechist, presbyter, and confessor of the ancient church, is a foundational figure in the establishment of early Christian theology. Yet, in part due to the posthumous condemnation of certain (supposed) propositions from his works at the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553, his legacy has always remained somewhat ambiguous. The present work is an attempt to explore that legacy, and particularly that element which appears to be at its core: Origen’s teaching about the origin , nature, and destiny of the human person. While this work does not intend to be part of the present attempt at a theological rehabilitation of Origen, neither does it in any way oppose this attempt: it is a sympathetic exploration of Origen’s theological anthropology, with the intention of recovering those elements within it that may be of perennial value. The fact that each of the fifteen Anathemas against Origen issued at the Fifth Ecumenical Council concerns Origen’s theological anthropology, that is, his teaching on the nature of man, itself reveals how central is his teaching on the human soul to his theological legacy.1 Theological anthropology, while often viewed as 1. That is to say, each of the anathemas contains, in its central proposition, a reference to one of the characteristic elements—body, soul, mind, spirit—that Origen believes constitute the human person. Nearly all of them contain the word “soul” (or “mind,” which for Origen is a parallel or even equivalent term). Even those that relate to other theological areas—Christology (the eighth and ninth) and the resurrection [2] Introduction a supplemental field within the larger discipline of theology, is in fact the necessary foundation for all other fields of theology. In the case of Origen, at least, one could hardly offer an assessment of his spirituality, moral theology, exegesis, or ecclesiology without a prior analysis of his anthropology. A theological anthropology was at the core of the kerygma proclaimed by the early Christians—a message about what kind of being man is, and what are his origin and destiny. Celsus, the pagan, anti-Christian polemicist of the second century, recognized right away that Christian doctrine rested upon a certain anthropology, that is, on the assumption that mankind was a unique, privileged being in the universe, and Celsus spent much of his discourse against the Christians railing against just this assumption .2 And, naturally, Origen’s defense Against Celsus rests largely upon a defense of Christian anthropology, that is, what kind of beings Christians believe themselves to be: beings that are created, redeemed , and sustained in existence by a benevolent God. Notwithstanding Origen’s deep interest in anthropology, and the centrality of this topic in his theological system, some are still reluctant to give serious attention to Origen’s views. After all, within the Catholic Church he is one of only a handful of ecclesiastical writers not recognized as saints; he also seems, to the embarrassment of his admirers, to have been anathematized by name by the Fifth Ecumenical Council, as mentioned above. His theology has long been unpopular among theologians, his anthropology even more so, largely due to the condemnation of much of it by the said council. One critical commentator has called Origen’s state of mind “purely intellectualist and idealist,” with “nothing scientific about it,” his psychology one “which assuredly was not based on the study of human nature.”3 Yet, the explosion of new patristics research that accompanied (the tenth), nonetheless relate to anthropological concerns. See The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, ed. Henry R.Percival (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 318–19; cf. Heinrich Denziger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma (London: Herder, 1957), no. 212–28. 2. See Against Celsus 4, 23. 3. Eugène de Faye, Origen and His Work, trans. Fred Rothwell (New York: Columbia University Press, 1929), 28–29. [3] Introduction the rise of the ressourcement (or nouvelle théologie) school in the midtwentieth century also occasioned a fresh look at Origen’s theological legacy, most notably by famed scholars such as Henri de Lubac, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Jean Daniélou, among others. The result was such a dramatic reversal of Origen’s reputation that the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church cites Origen six times, and the Liturgy of the Hours includes numerous selections of his writings.4 Not only have historians...