Origin of Christian metaphysics

Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian symbolised in a sense two possible roads that Christian philosophy could have taken. Former related positively to pagan philosophy and thought it a possible source for the enlightenment of Christians. He was a clear Platonist, who accepted the idea of an immaterial soul. Latter, on the other hand, was not convinced of pagan philosophy, thinking more about the charismatic experiences of pure believers. If any philosophy was near to his heart, it was Stoicism, where he appropriated the idea of a material soul and a material divinity. In the end, it was the road of Clement of Alexandria which was chosen, while Tertullian’s rigoristic and materialistic thought was left out of the official creed of the church.

Like many early Christian thinkers, Origen made considerable efforts to understand what Bible was saying. Indeed, he considered exegesis of scripture as more worthy of scholarly attention than philosophical research. While thinkers like Tertullian had been very literal in their readings of the Bible, Origen followed the example of Philo of Alexandria and saw biblical stories more as a metaphor. Tales of Old Testament implied in his eyes truths revealed more openly in the New Testament. Thus, the tale of Isaac being saved from a sacrificial death by the appearance of a lamb showed for Origen that even early Israelites were convinced that human death would one day be vanquished by the seeming death of Logos.

Origen also thought that these stories were parables about proper human life. Thus, the story of Abraham fooling a king by introducing his wife, Sarah, as his sister, showed according to Origen that a righteous person (Abraham) can share virtuous life (Sarah) with other people. Similarly, the story of Egyptians selling their land voluntarily to Pharaoh at the time of famine was in Origen’s eyes a warning about weak persons willingly debasing themselves under the yoke of Devil.

The allegorical method of reading Bible pertained not just to stories, but also to laws about the Jewish rituals - for instance, the various sacrificial commands were signs of the sacrifice of Jesus. Indeed, the story how Moses could not enter the promised land, while his follower Joshua - or Jesus, as it was written in the translations of Old Testament at the time - did, was in Origen’s eyes a proof that Jewish law in its literal sense was not enough for salvation, unlike Christianity.

Not just the Old Testament, but also New Testament was not to be read too literally, according to Origen. For instance, Origen thought that the story of Jesus discoursing with Moses and Elijah and afterwards reproaching Peter for suggesting the construction of separate huts for the three was a parable about not separating Jewish law and prophets from gospels.

Although Origen’s interpretation of Jewish rituals as mere symbols of more spiritual events was quite in line with the ideas of first Christians, few of his spiritual readings obscured some tendencies of gospels. For instance, when gospels presented Jesus preaching that one should give money to the poor and not to those who already had riches, Origen suggested that this saying actually meant that we should teach especially those who were spiritually poor, that is, had misconceptions about God and his relation to humans.

With this rather imaginative way to read the Bible, Origen quickly found reasons to appreciate the philosophical tradition. When the Bible told of the skirmishes of Abraham with a king and his two companions and the final signing of peace treaty, this was for Origen a clear sign that the kingly discipline of logic with its two companions, physics and ethics, had battled with Christianity, but would finally find their peace with it. Indeed, one might even find some morsels of wisdom from texts of philosophers, just like Moses could learn something from his father-in-law who served another god.

Although Origen thus appreciated philosophy, he was quite adamant that church was of a much higher nature than any philosophical school. Indeed, although pagans might ridicule Christians for accepting things on faith, no philosophical school had managed to show that the others were wrong and their followers had to simply believe in their teachings. In addition, although Christianity was criticised for being based on mysteries, Origen thought that these mysteries were still much more common knowledge than esoteric teachings of philosophical schools, and indeed, they were mysteries only because understanding them required more effort.

Furthermore, despite the worth of other philosophical treatises, Bible contained in Origen’s opinion the core of philosophy in the form of Salomonic treatises. Salomon’s Proverbs indicated the ways of good life and the corrects method for using reason, thus covering ethics and logic. The essentials of physics, Origen said, were described in Ecclesiastes, which described the futility of all worldly things. Finally, the Song of Songs was to Origen a model for Platonic metaphysics, in which earthly love of a lover toward her beloved served as a symbol for the love leading a person toward the ultimate source of everything, or in religious terms, God.

This God should, according to Origen, be called the God, because to it the word “god” is most properly applied. Indeed, what names to be given for God was quite an important for Origen. Although pagan philosophers were happy to identify e.g. Zeus of Greek mythology with the creator of the universe, Origen thought that Zeus was at most some lesser entity trying to present itself as the highest being in the universe.

Against Tertullian, Origen noted that God must be immaterial, because all material objects need sustenance and cannot be eternal. Thus, whenever Bible ascribed a body to God or spoke of him as being made of some type of matter (e.g. pneuma or breath/spirit), this was just a metaphor. God is the ground of all life and it is figuratively called light, because it is devoid of any touch of impurity, and just like we never see the true light or Sun, but only its emissions, similarly, Origen suggests, we can be aware only of the effects of God’s power. Despite God being the most powerful being, Origen still thought that God’s powers had limits, because he thought all things must have their limits.

Because of its purity and goodness, Origen points out, God is only source of positive things, while he cannot be source of any negations. Thus, lack of goodness - in other words, evil - is not based on God. This still does not mean, Origen clarifies, that material world would not be work of God - even corporeal things have their own perfection. Indeed, God had made the world into an organic unity, in which all things were connected and eventually served the needs of rational beings.

God as such would be beyond human mind, but something called Logos could lead humans to the knowledge of God. Sometimes Origen seems to go even so far as to suggest that Logos is nothing else, but a name for the general capacity to know God - whatever this capacity or Reason is, it is for Origen definitely something higher than ordinary perception of earthly realities. When looked from another viewpoinr, Logos would be just the revelation or “word” of God about God itself and about the relation of other beings to God, since without the help of God humans could not truly know God. Still, at other places Origen makes it clear that Logos is a separate being - it is like a smaller model, through which the vastness of God can be represented.

This Logos, says Origen, has existed always, but is still dependent on God - Logos is like an image of God and always connected to its source. Although God and Logos are distinct, Origen says, they still are unified, just like a married couple is unified and still retain their individuality. Because of its close connection to God, Logos could also be called a God, although Logos certainly isn’t the God. Indeed, following the Gospel by John, Origen said that God has created everything else through Logos. Just like the God, Logos can also be called light, but it is not completely pure, but more like a spark emitted by the true source of light and a ray shining in darkness. That is, Logos can enter a state containing impurities - it can become embodied.

The purpose of the embodiment of Logos was, according to Bible, to perfect the work of God. This statement was somewhat problematic for Origen, since all works of God should be perfect. Origen’s solution was that due to some voluntary transgression a number of other entities had turned themselves away from God and thus become imperfect. The persons who now existed in the fallen state had originally existed in a different place - perhaps in immaterial fashion or perhaps in some more perfect region, with more perfect bodies, made out of the same substance as stars. Then, because of having become tainted by sin, they had been, as it were, thrown down to the earthly human existence. This falling could also be described figuratively as opening of their eyes, since it meant the beginning of sensory perception to these persons. Thus, they required Logos to perfect them, to cleanse them from earthly impurities and to return them to their original state.

The embodied or incarnate state is necessary for Logos to first reach human beings. And just like Logos is only an image of the God, the body of Logos - the person called Jesus - is just an image of the Logos, although for the majority of humankind Jesus is the closest they can come to the real Logos. At first, this Jesus was still something distinct from Logos, and like all rational entities, lived in a state of perfection, before arriving to the material world. Yet, unlike other rational entities, Jesus was supposedly in constant connection with Logos. After becoming materialised, Jesus lived a perfect life and suffered for others, thus becoming completely identified with Logos. In fact, when Origen appears to equate Logos with reason in general or with revelation of the God, then this identification of Jesus with Logos becomes a simple statement about Jesus being intimately aware of the God - and in this sense every human being who could share in this awareness is united with the God.

Logos could be called God, because it still was quite close to God. Some people think of forces of nature as gods, which is a step further from the proper use of the word. Still, Origen noted, these worshipers of natural forces can still recognise traces of true divinity in them. For instance, many animals show traces of acting in quite rational manner, although they do not have a reason of their own, because God has made them. It even makes some sense, according to Origen, to worship Sun, Moon and planets, because they are, as many philosophers of the day said, living and rational beings, moving freely through the heavens. Of course, Origen noted, if we asked the planets themselves, they would tell us to worship their creator - they are more perfect than earthly beings, but still far from the God. Indeed, stars had probably also sinned, although not as badly as human beings. In their current state they helped humans by giving them light and warmth.

The final and the most incorrect step away from the truth is to call mere human built images gods, which is complete folly. Indeed, Origen noted, from time to time some maleficent beings occupied such idols, in order to lure humans away from the knowledge of true God. These maleficent beings or demons were, as some Platonists of the time supposed, gaseous entities. They had also fallen from the immaterial or heavenly realm, because of turning away from the God, but their fate was bleaker than that of humans, who in their fleshly state could at least strive for moral perfection, while demons did not have even the will to redemption. Origen suggested that the demons might require incense and sacrificial fumes for their sustenance and that through some unknown natural mechanism they were perhaps linked to names of pagan gods, arriving whenever someone mentioned them. Despite being opponents of the God, Origen supposed demons would still get their chance to perfect themselves.

Analogically with the hierarchy of what to mean by god, Origen offers a similar hierarchy of what one should mean by Logos or reason. We already saw Origen’s notion of people taking embodied Jesus as Logos, although he was only an image of Logos - thus, what Logos was to God, Jesus was to Logos. One step further are proper philosophers, who follow what is commonly called reason, which then should be analogically a creation of Logos, just like forces of nature are creation of the God. Finally, there are people who follow their own fabrication of what reason should be (Origen especially mentions Epicureans), which is then as erroneous form of behaviour as worship of idols.

The route to perfection for human beings lies then, Origen said, in following Logos and through it finding knowledge of God. Against gnostics, Origen noted that there was nothing in the essence of people who followed this route that distinguished them from other human beings. In other words, all human beings could in principle still find perfection, which was then more a matter of choice than birth. Human being had two forces or tendencies drawing them to opposite directions, toward animal life and toward heavenly life, and human being had to make a choice, which path to take. Following Paul, Origen noted that all one needed for salvation was faith in Logos, which would cleanse human being of all imperfection. Even after finding faith one still had to live a decent life, lest one not fall back into a state of sin. This decent life meant going against the way of the world, which often held as profitable what was really something that one should not do.

In comparison to Logos, Origen speaks very little of the role of the so-called Holy Spirit. If the God had power over all existing things and if Logos was meant to speak to all rational beings, Spirit was, according to Origen, supposed to come in contact with people who behaved perfectly in accordance with the guidance of Logos. Spirit thus gave these holy persons, for instance, visions of life in the immaterial realm. In a sense, then, Spirit provided an access to Logos, because it gave people even more perfect wisdom, just like Logos provided an access to the God and so made people even more perfect beings, although being as such had already been granted to them by the God.

In addition to Spirit, a number of lesser entities or angels helped people to find the proper life. Angels, just like demons, Origen supposed, had material, gaseous or starlike bodies. Just like all other things below Logos and spirit, Origen suggested, angels were not without their faults, although they had managed to retain a position higher than humans. Angels and their evil counterparts - the demons - tried to entice humans to follow one of the forces inherent to human personality, angels guiding humans toward perfection and demons toward imperfection.

Origen took it for granted that human beings and indeed all living entities had a power to direct themselves and were not just moved by mere external forces, like mere material, non-living objects. As rational entities humans also have, according to Origen, a power to decide what they would do. Thus, he said, rational entities are accountable for their actions. He was also sure that this capacity for free choice did not contradict God’s power to know all events beforehand - God just has used his pre-knowledge to fashion the events so that free entities will get their just deserts for all their choices. For instance, Origen noted, God knew from the beginning of the world that a certain person would pray for him and organised the events so that this prayer was to be heard. Of course, a precondition for this was that the person in question should pray for the right things, for example, for a salvation from the imperfect, earthly realm or for a help in finding true wisdom.

Somewhat revolutionary in Christian teachers was their willingness to share their teachings with anyone, even if they were not learned or had not lived a perfect life, because, as Origen noted, Logos became flesh for everyone’s sake. Yet, Origen also defended Christianity that it was not meant merely for sinners or weak-minded, but that its teachings should also be heard by wise and virtuous. Indeed, Origen was of the opinion that all believers were not on the same level, but that there were distinctions in their understanding of the truths shared by Logos. Some could only consume easily graspable statements from the Bible, just like some could only eat milk and vegetables. The proper meat or the mysteries hidden behind the allegories were to be revealed only to those with the capacity to handle them. Even these wise people should not brag about their skills of understanding, since in comparison with Logos, Origen noted, all reason was wanting.

Origen even suggested that the truths now shared by Logos were not the most important ones, but only those that were useful for the fallen state of human. Once a human being had completed the proverbial Passover - transition from the earthly state of sin to the perfect state - she was instructed to burn away the means by which she had carried herself over to the other side.

Although the persons in the immaterial or heavenly realm were thus wiser than persons in the material or earthly realm, they still retained the capacity of free choice and might choose to turn away from the God and fall again - this relapse was something that could happen even to angels. This meant, Origen noted, that after this material world had fulfilled its purpose of serving rational entities during their fallen state, another material world might have to be created. Indeed, Origen speculated, a whole series of material worlds might have existed before this one, because God certainly had not been idle before the creation of this world. Origen wasn’t sure whether this cycle of new worlds would continue indefinitely long or whether after uncountable ages a state would be reached, in which all rational entities would follow God’s plan perfectly. Yet, this state of God being found in everything was the ultimate goal of all creation - the end towards which everyone strove.