Origen of Alexandria, reintegration and inferences on evolution
31/05/2006 Filed in: Church
Fathers & Mystics
I suppose that it is appropriate to start a blog named
‘Apokatastasis’ with a piece on one of the greatest
figures of the early Christian Church, and at least its
first systematic theologian and
philosopher, Origen of Alexandria (185-254
AD).
Origen was extremely influential on the development of the early Church in a time of periodic persecutions of Christians in the Roman empire. His own influences apart from Clement of Alexandria are first and foremost the biblical scriptures, as well as platonism and stoicism.
The most striking aspect of his philosophy - I rather use the term theosophy - is the concept of apokatastasis, to which allusions can be found in the scriptures in Colossians 1:19-22, II Corinthians 5:18-20.
The notion of apokatastasis is not restricted to Alexandrian theology, nor to early Christianity. Systems of kin can be found in stoicism and some of its fruit borne in Judaism (e.g. the developments on Tikkun in cabala) as well as in Protestantism where it is usually referred to as universalism. Thus, ‘universalists’ do not constitute a uniform group.
The idea is that all rational beings, all of God’s creation in fact, will be re-united with their source. This entails that there can be no eternal damnation. Consequently, there is no punishment that can’t serve as education. Indeed, history is seen as an evolutionary process through which spirits (i.e. all rational beings) are to progress on the path of knowledge. Knowledge of God, which is love of God, wisdom of God, theosophy (Proverbs 16:16-23). Thus, according to Origen, evil has no existence as an entity; it is simply the absence, the ignorance, of good. Hell, in short, is a school, certainly the toughest of all, for the most stubborn ones, but temporary.... The end of times is therefore the moment when all beings, having first reconciled with God ‘in their heart’, return to divine unity. For Origen, there can be no destruction of God’s creatures, as one may infer from the essential immortality of souls.
A background to these notions is the implicit understanding that creation is in need of some sort of reparation. According to Origen, God eternally manifests himself through his co-eternal Logos by emanating a collectivity of rational beings which he calls logika. The Falls depicted in the Torah (Genesis 1:2 and 3:6) are the cataclysmic events that drew part of Creation away from the divine Presence, the consequences of which are what we may call universe and time, mostly deprived of God’s immediate Presence.
This allows me to point out two important consequences of this system for the individual spirit and for the entire universe. First, the individual spirit has a work of purification to accomplish, in which it must acknowledge its Creator, reconcile with Him and endeavour to re-unite with Him (II Timothy 2:21). In this, he is helped by his guardian angel, and the Logos that manifests itself through prophets, saints, and that ultimately is Christ. The second is that God ordered the universe in such a way that all individual acts work together towards universal reintegration (Colossians 1:19-20). Indeed, no soul will be reintegrated in isolation; all must be saved together, or not be saved at all. This concept will be greatly developed by Martines de Pasqually (circa 1710-1774) and Nicolas Berdyaev (1874-1948).
Finally, we may understand how important, through this line of reasoning, is the historical process of Creation on its way back to its Creator as a collectivity. The material world being the vessel of God-starved beings from the lowest ‘demon’ through to the most righteous man, it is also their step-stone towards divinity, and as such, no more than an episode in the spiritual growth of fallen rational beings. The universe’s transformation, which is a true transmutation, leads necessarily to two major notions that the scientific method has come to study: first, that matter itself is highly ‘mutable’ however ‘solid’ it may behave on a macroscopic scale. Second, that organisms will evolve according to the part they play in reintegration of this universe. To formulate this concept differently, time allows the adaptation of matter as an extension (or an extended phenotype) of souls to fit their function as vessels for the spiritual work of reintegration (II Corinthians 4:6-7). Thus, time and matter are at the same time the barrier imposed on fallen ones and the means of their reintegration (see Genesis 3:23: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.).
I would like to thank Jean-Marc Vivenza for pointing to Origen’s teachings in his latest book on Martinism, “Le Martinisme : L'enseignement secret des Maîtres”, ISBN: 2913826709.
Origen was extremely influential on the development of the early Church in a time of periodic persecutions of Christians in the Roman empire. His own influences apart from Clement of Alexandria are first and foremost the biblical scriptures, as well as platonism and stoicism.
The most striking aspect of his philosophy - I rather use the term theosophy - is the concept of apokatastasis, to which allusions can be found in the scriptures in Colossians 1:19-22, II Corinthians 5:18-20.
The notion of apokatastasis is not restricted to Alexandrian theology, nor to early Christianity. Systems of kin can be found in stoicism and some of its fruit borne in Judaism (e.g. the developments on Tikkun in cabala) as well as in Protestantism where it is usually referred to as universalism. Thus, ‘universalists’ do not constitute a uniform group.
The idea is that all rational beings, all of God’s creation in fact, will be re-united with their source. This entails that there can be no eternal damnation. Consequently, there is no punishment that can’t serve as education. Indeed, history is seen as an evolutionary process through which spirits (i.e. all rational beings) are to progress on the path of knowledge. Knowledge of God, which is love of God, wisdom of God, theosophy (Proverbs 16:16-23). Thus, according to Origen, evil has no existence as an entity; it is simply the absence, the ignorance, of good. Hell, in short, is a school, certainly the toughest of all, for the most stubborn ones, but temporary.... The end of times is therefore the moment when all beings, having first reconciled with God ‘in their heart’, return to divine unity. For Origen, there can be no destruction of God’s creatures, as one may infer from the essential immortality of souls.
A background to these notions is the implicit understanding that creation is in need of some sort of reparation. According to Origen, God eternally manifests himself through his co-eternal Logos by emanating a collectivity of rational beings which he calls logika. The Falls depicted in the Torah (Genesis 1:2 and 3:6) are the cataclysmic events that drew part of Creation away from the divine Presence, the consequences of which are what we may call universe and time, mostly deprived of God’s immediate Presence.
This allows me to point out two important consequences of this system for the individual spirit and for the entire universe. First, the individual spirit has a work of purification to accomplish, in which it must acknowledge its Creator, reconcile with Him and endeavour to re-unite with Him (II Timothy 2:21). In this, he is helped by his guardian angel, and the Logos that manifests itself through prophets, saints, and that ultimately is Christ. The second is that God ordered the universe in such a way that all individual acts work together towards universal reintegration (Colossians 1:19-20). Indeed, no soul will be reintegrated in isolation; all must be saved together, or not be saved at all. This concept will be greatly developed by Martines de Pasqually (circa 1710-1774) and Nicolas Berdyaev (1874-1948).
Finally, we may understand how important, through this line of reasoning, is the historical process of Creation on its way back to its Creator as a collectivity. The material world being the vessel of God-starved beings from the lowest ‘demon’ through to the most righteous man, it is also their step-stone towards divinity, and as such, no more than an episode in the spiritual growth of fallen rational beings. The universe’s transformation, which is a true transmutation, leads necessarily to two major notions that the scientific method has come to study: first, that matter itself is highly ‘mutable’ however ‘solid’ it may behave on a macroscopic scale. Second, that organisms will evolve according to the part they play in reintegration of this universe. To formulate this concept differently, time allows the adaptation of matter as an extension (or an extended phenotype) of souls to fit their function as vessels for the spiritual work of reintegration (II Corinthians 4:6-7). Thus, time and matter are at the same time the barrier imposed on fallen ones and the means of their reintegration (see Genesis 3:23: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.).
I would like to thank Jean-Marc Vivenza for pointing to Origen’s teachings in his latest book on Martinism, “Le Martinisme : L'enseignement secret des Maîtres”, ISBN: 2913826709.