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Sources of Origen's Doctrine of Freedom
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
In Contra Celsum Origen briefly states his approach to constructing a theological system. He says, “… anyone who constructs a Christian philosophy will need to argue the truth of his doctrines with proofs of all kinds, taken both from the divine scriptures and from rational arguments (logois akolouthias). ” Origen here specifies a twofold basis for theology—Scripture and rational argument. He often speaks explicitly of these two in his system. For example, in De principiis II.v.3 he says that he has refuted the heretics by arguments drawn from the authority of Scriptures (ex auctoritate … scripturarum) but it will not be unfitting if he discusses the matter from the standpoint of rational argument (ex ratione … consequentiae=akolouthia). And again at the end of the preface of De principiis, this programmatic statement occurs: Anyone desiring to construct a system out of the articles of faith just listed will do so “… with the aid of such illustrations and declarations as he shall find in the holy scriptures and of such conclusions as he shall ascertain to follow logically from them when rightly understood.”
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References
1. IV.9. Translation from Contra Celsum, Henry Chadwick (trans. and ed.), (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1953), p. 189Google Scholar. All page references to C. Cels. will be to this translation. All Greek and Latin quotes from Origen are from Die Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller der Ersten Drei Jahrhunderte, Vols. XXVIII, XXIX, XXXII, Origenes Werke, Paul Koetschau (ed.) (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung, 1899, 1913).Google Scholar
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3. Translation from On First Principles, G. W. Butterworth (trans.) (London: SPCK, 1936), p. 6Google Scholar. All page refs. to De pr. will be to this translation.
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10. The latter is quoted in De pr. I.i.2 and C. Cels. V.60Google Scholar, but not in connection with freedom.
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19. III.v.4.
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21. III.v.4.
22. IV.iii.9–13.
23. I.v.4–5.
24. III.i.22 and II.ix.7.
25. Forunately De pr. is preserved in Greek in the Philocalia, ch. XXI.
26. De pr. III 3, p. 60.
27. Note that throughout freedom refere to the capapcity of the reason to judge among external impressions. It may be more correct, therefore, to say that Origen's is a doctrine of free mind or reason rather than of free will.
28. De oratione VI. 2.Google Scholar
29. Above, Section I.
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31. Hal Koch lists one part of this myth, 617e, Laws 904bf, and Timaeus 42d as the starting points of Origen' doctrine of freedom. Pronoia und Paideusis (Berlin and Leipzig; Walter de gruyter & Co., 1932), pp. 200f, n.2Google Scholar. Harnack says the system is constructed on the same plan as that of Valentinus in accordance with certain hints of Plato. History of Dogma, Vol. II, N. Buchanan (trans.) (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1961, p. 345Google Scholar. But the two points on which Origen differs from Valentinus, according to Harnack, are (1) in making the fall creaturely rather than within the divine itself and (2) in having an idea of freedom. But these two important points are Platonic and hence Plato affords more than hints.
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57. Koch, p. 43.
58. Ibid., pp. 284f.
59. Amand, p. 293.
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62. Loc. Cit.
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