Origen. A Different Kind Of Hero

One Page Of Origen is better than ten pages of Augustine!
So said Erasmus. Here is a man who was the major theological thinker of his time, and one who influenced many famous writers who came after. Eusebius was a devotee as was Jerome. He held controversial views on the trinity and incurred the wrath of those who came to power long after his death, but the important thing about Origen was that he was among the first the tackle and seek understanding of who God was and is and what our response should be to him. Today he is almost unknown outside the field of theology. There are those who argue he deserves to be better known. I would count myself among their number

Origen was born in Alexandria around AD185 to parents who were Christians. This was in the reign of Commodus the unworthy son of Marcus Aurelius Origen’s parents had been born pagans, but had converted. Anti-Christian writer Porphyry claims that Origen was born and raised as a pagan, and had studied pagan teachings. Whatever his upbringing he became in the view of Jerome, the most important Christian thinker since the apostles.
Origen was born in troubled times for the empire. Emperors came and went in quick succession. There were threats from outside of the empire. The Saxons were testing the borders on the Rhine and the Persians were doing the same on the Euphrates.
Origen was a fanatic from an early age. When his father was arrested during the persecution of Septimius Severus (AD202-3) Origen wrote to him urging him to be strong in his faith. His father was martyred. There is a story in some traditions recorded by Eusebius that Origen was only stopped from offering himself for martyrdom when his mother hid his clothes. His father’s death changed the economic status of the family who were left in poverty. However Origen came under the patronage of a wealthy lady who provided for him. She appears to have been a dilettante who also counted among her friends Paul the Gnostic Bishop. Origen risked his friendship with her by refusing to pray with Paul at one of her salons. As the persecution continued Clement was forced to flee Alexandria. His place as head of the catechetical school was given to Origen, who was still only eighteen. Bishop Demetrius made this appointment. Around this time Origen decided to sell the non-Christian part of his library and teach only Christian studies. At this early stage of his life he is reputed to have castrated himself so that he could teach female catechumens. Taking his instruction from a literal interpretation of Matthew.
(Matt 19:12) Although it is by no means clear that this actually happened and some scholars attribute it to his enemies attempts to stop him being ordained.

Origen wrote only one book on prayer that was called De oratione or Peri Euches . The book was dedicated to Ambrose and an unknown lady called Tatiana, who some scholars contend was Ambrose’s sister. The book is believed to have been written in Alexandria around the years 233/234, and is the oldest surviving scientific book on Christian prayer.
“John O’Meara says that it is not merely a treatise on prayer; it is a prayer in itself. For the spirit of Origen which, as Erasmus says, is everywhere aflame, is burning here with such intensity as to make it impossible for the reader to remain untouched. J.W. Trigg says, "It is the first clear and thoroughgoing exposition, within the Christian tradition, of prayer as the contemplation of God rather than as a means of achieving material benefits." ”
This is Origen’s only book on prayer, but one shouldn’t draw the conclusion that he wasn’t interested in the subject. The opposite is the case. He saw prayer as the prime element to a deep spiritual life in God. While he only wrote once on the subject per se, he scattered his thoughts on prayer throughout his work. His works often open in close in prayer calling on the names, Father, Logos and Christ. He held the view that no theologian could ever attain a deep knowledge of scripture without a disciplined prayer life.

He instructed his pupil Gregory that to know was never enough, instead one needs to seek a deeper understanding of divine things and that could only be achieved through prayer. “The general thrust of Origen’s view on prayer was that it was a means of obtaining God’s grace and was conductive in the soul’s spiritual perfection in becoming more like God.”
He talked about the purification of the person and the need to forgive those who had angered one. He said that forgiveness is the greatest of all perfections. Commenting on Matt 5:22 he said that only those who have forgiven their neighbours can truly converse with God.

He also talked about how the body should be when praying. He said this was important, as the body was the outward appearance of the soul’s attitude to prayer. He said the best method of praying was to stand with one’s arms outstretched and eyes raised heavenwards. Although he made allowance for those who were sick and said it was acceptable for them to pray while sitting or lying down. He said that one may pray anywhere, but advocated that a special place in one’s house should be laid aside for prayer. In choosing such a place there was a need to make sure that one could pray uninterrupted and also to ensure that nothing untoward had happened in that place.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “(Page 119)
Like Paul (Thes 5:17) he urged that we should pray without ceasing.
Origen was concerned about what we should pray for. He said it would be foolish to pray for the sun to rise as this has already been fixed, but to pray for a person was fine as God would have already foreseen the situation and would know that people would be praying into the situation and could be influenced by human prayer. It is believed he took this situation to rebut the fatalists who said that God was in charge and had decided before time the amount of grace he would shower on any situation. In doing this Origen took a blue sky thinking approach to the subject and in doing so made a giant theological step by suggesting a human partnership with God in shaping our destiny through prayer.

Origen stated that: “Our wills are free and consequently subject to commendation or condemnation”
He goes on to say that we pray to Our Father, a name not known for God in the Old Testament. Only those who have a sense of adoption through the Spirit can recite the prayer properly as children of God. We should say our Father who are art in heaven because our conduct should be heavenly not earthly.
There was some controversy in his thinking as he saw the trinity differently to what has become the accepted view. He speculated that God was the highest of the three, with Jesus being created by him. He saw the Holy Spirit as being lesser to Jesus and in-fact being created by Jesus. So there was a hierarchy in the trinity in his thinking. He also said that we should pray to the Father, as Jesus himself prayed to the Father and to pray to Jesus was an affront to the Father. He went onto say that to pray to Jesus was ignorance. Jesus prayed to the Father for man and on behalf of man.
He seems to have changed his view on this and indeed prayed to the Logos and to Christ, although how much of this was revisionism after his death is still debated among scholars.

While other church fathers like Tertullian had written about prayer, Origen was the first to write a formal commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. In doing so he started a literary tradition that runs through history to today.
While some of his ideas about posture and standing while praying are long outdated and the idea of facing east would seem strange to many Christians of the 21st century, but his basic ideas and teachings about why we pray make as much sense today as they did when he wrote them. Even today when many of us engage in a conversational prayer life with God we can still ask ourselves why we pray. Origen’s teaching about the divine / human synergy is as good an explanation as one could wish for in an answer. It’s sad that many who copied and expounded his thinking have been raised to sainthood while he remains unknown to the public at large. He is the anti-hero of theology, an original thinker who was an outsider all his life and in many ways seemed happy to be so.












Bibliography


Henri Crouzel translated by A.S. Worrall, Origen (Edinburgh T&T Clark Ltd 1989)

J.A.McGuckin, The Westminster Handbook To Origen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press)

Raymond Banks, The Early Church, The Christian Church to Ad325. (Newtownards: W&G Baird Ltd 2003)

Hans Kung, Great Christian Thinkers ( London SCM Press Ltd 1994)

http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/patrology/schoolofalex2/chapter16.html
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http://books.google.com/books?id=wSIeAC3PNdgC
Dec 1st 2008
http://www.ecatholic2000.com/fathers/origen.shtml
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