Origen's doctrine of subordination

Abstract

The first chapter discusses Origen's conception of the way in which the Word of God fulfils the Father's creative purpose, and ends by pointing out the difficulties thus arising in distinguishing creation from redemption. The second chapter discusses the way in which the Word of God reveals God's nature to human beings, and points out the consequent minimising of the importance of the Incarnation. The third and fourth chapters discuss the gifts bestowed on the Son by the Father, some for Himself, and others to be passed on to human beings, and enlarge especially on His power of judgement and the chastisement He has to administer in order to confer sanctification on human beings. The two sections of the fifth chapter contain a detailed survey of Origen's conception of the Incarnation, and show how his attitude veers between an acceptance of traditional doctrine and the idea that the Divine Word employed a separate soul to act as His representative. The conclusion is that although Origen's own doctrine leaves much to be desired as an explanation of the humanity of the Word of God, such criticisms are also applicable to traditional doctrine. The sixth chapter discusses the human and Divine aspects of Christ's personality, and tries to show that in Origen's view it is only the human-Jesus whose sacrifice is accepted by God and who is thus taken into fellowship with God. There follows a discussion of the distinction made by Origen between the disciple who knows his Master from the outward point of view and the one who attains to the knowledge of the invisible Word of God. In the final chapter there is a discussion of the way in which Christ reconciles human beings to the Father, and the question is raised why it was that Origen supposed the final destiny of human beings to be contemplation rather than action