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Guilty of Genius
This book is part of the Peter Lang Humanities list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.
PETER LANG
New York • Bern • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
Panayiotis Tzamalikos
Guilty of Genius
PETER LANG
New York • Bern • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ὥσπερ καὶ αὐτὸς Ὠριγένης διαβεβαιοῦται ἐν τῷ αὐτοῦ ἐξηγητικῷ τῆς πρὸς Τίτον
ἐπιστολῆς, μὴ εἶναι τῶν Ἀποστόλων μηδὲ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας παράδοσιν, τὸ πρεσβυτέραν
εἶναι τὴν ψυχὴν τῆς τοῦ σώματος κατασκευῆς, ὡς αἱρετικὸν χαρακτηρίζων τὸν ταῦτα
λέγοντα.
[As Origen himself, in his exegesis on the Epistle to Titus, assures, the doctrine
about the soul allegedly being prior to the construction of the body belongs neither
to the teaching of the Apostles nor to the tradition of the Church, and styles ‘heretic’
anyone who teaches such things.]
Barsanuphius and John, Quaestiones et Responsiones ad
Coenobitas, epistle 600.
Ἑκάστη ψυχὴ ἰδίαν ὑπόστασιν ἔχει, ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ λόγῳ ἱσταμένη, καὶ οὐκ ἐν
ἄλλῳ. Καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν ἄλλην ὑπὲρ ἄλλης τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἀποτίνειν.
[Each soul has a hypostasis of its own, since it exists due to logoi pertaining to itself
only, not to any one else; and it is not possible to assert that a soul pays for the sins
of another one.]
Origen, Selecta in Ezekielem, PG.13.817.21–23.
Contents
Preface ix
Abbreviations xxiii
Introduction 1
1 What is a ‘soul’? 39
Conclusion 387
Bibliography 417
Index of Ancient Names 457
Index of Modern Names 465
Preface
This book is a step beyond the analyses made in my Anaxagoras, Origen and
Neoplatonism, using some fundamental conclusions built therein, which confute
current and long-established fallacies. I have struggled to demonstrate that not
only was Origen an anti-Platonist, but also all of the accusations on which his
official condemnation was based were fanciful and rancorous allegations by the
well-k nown perennial species of certain theologians of all eras. Since 1986, when
my PhD at Glasgow University was complete, my claim has been that Origen
was an anti-Platonist in many respects, which appeared as tantamount to arguing
that the earth is flat. For I argued that ‘beginningless creation’ is a tomfoolery laid
at the door of Origen; that he maintained creation out of nothing; that the Stoic
and Aristotelian axioms and phraseology in him are too striking to ignore; and
that he had a clear Eschatology, which I expounded in detail. One just should
imagine what would have happened, if in the ‘synod’ convened at Justinian’s
behest in 553, theologians such as the three Cappadocians and Athanasius were
present and they had been requested to anathematise Origen, given their dis-
tinctive loans from, and respect for, their illustrious predecessor. That is, theolo-
gians who in Origen’s genius saw the future, and opted for acknowledging rather
than denying their own intellectual history. The Nicene formula was meant and
x | Guilty of Genius
supposed to determine and embrace the future; but Athanasius informed that it
also acknowledged the past and was entwined with that.
Plato took up the theory of transmigration of souls from Egypt (just as
Pythagoras, and then Empedocles had done), but hardly did he assimilate the
knowledge he amassed therefrom. For example, he claimed that sinful action
causes man’s soul to transmigrate and ‘fall’ to that of a woman, then to a bird,
then to a fish, and finally to an oyster. However, he never explained what is the
kind of ‘sin’ that a bird could possibly perpetrate so as to incur becoming a fish,
or how could a fish possibly ‘sin’ so as to ‘transmigrate’ to an oyster.1
Part of the persistent allegation that Origen was a Platonist is the banality
that he maintained the theory of transmigration. This fallacy populates hundreds
of ‘works’ that parrot the ancient verdict, but I have always declined to dignify
such balderdash with references –except for a few cases. For example, Henri
Crouzel alleged that Origen ‘succumbed to Plato’s pre-existent soul’ and the ‘the-
ory of pre-existence … is a hypothesis’ ‘that comes from Platonism’, which is ‘the
most vulnerable part of Origen’s thought’. And Marguerite Harl harped on the
same string: to Origen’s theology, ‘the doctrine of pre-existence of souls is abso-
lutely central’ (‘tout à fait central’). But she brought only a knife to a gunfight,
since she simply parroted the sixth-century allegation imposed on a ‘synod’ of
poltroons by a rough-cut barbarian, namely, Justinian.
However, what was ‘most vulnerable’ is the ken of those scholars rather than
Origen’s perspicacity and fecundity of ideas. For that reason, those who keep
abiding by such ancient and modern fatuities will be in for a surprise out of this
book. Origen himself had given fair warning that his theory of soul was ‘superior
to Plato’s one’ which preached that ‘the soul which has lost its wings roams about
until it gets hold of something solid, when it settles down, taking upon itself an
earthly body’ (Cels, IV.40; Plato, Phaedrus, 246c). Furthermore, in reference to
his own theory, notably, concerning ‘the essence and beginnings of the soul’, he
caveated once again that his own theory of soul ‘had nothing to do with Plato’s
transmigration’ since that was ‘a more sublime theory’ (Cels, IV.17). In both
cases, he cared to apprise his readers of the superiority of his own theory over that
of Plato’s (Cels, IV.17: κατ’ ἄλλην τινὰ ὑψηλοτέραν θεωρίαν. Cels, IV.40: μυστικὸν
ἔχει λόγον, ὑπὲρ τὴν κατὰ Πλάτωνα κάθοδον τῆς ψυχῆς).
Of these warning notifications the modern supposedly ‘authoritative’ schol-
ars made absolutely nothing. Things could have not gone otherwise, since those
were theologians that had no idea of philosophy, and it was impossible for them
to make out what Origen meant when he dropped a hint about his own theory.
Consequently, what this ‘more sublime theory’ was about is an issue that
theologians always dodged and apprehensively sidestepped. Given ineptness to
comprehend Origen’s theory, it was deemed more convenient to speak about ‘pre-
existence of souls’ being ‘absolutely central to Origen’s theory’, which was pos-
tulated as his alleged weakness for that matter. In other words, all those scholars
were out of their depth and unqualified to make hair or tail out of Origen’s own
caveating statements banning transmigration. It turned out that they were only
able to ruminate on the basis of ‘a lesson on Platonism for beginners’, and the
ancient myth about the ‘Platonist Origen’ was all they were capable of making out.
Of course, never did Origen have in mind any fanciful ‘primal population
of souls or minds’, nor did he ever maintain any incorporeal and yet independent
individual entities hovering around from place to place. For an accomplished a
philosopher as he was, he knew the fundamentals about the notion of incorporeal,
wherefore spatial transition is interwoven with material existence –an elementary
axiom that Porphyry copied from him to the letter, as demonstrated in Chapter 2.
However, this logically errant (indeed schizophrenic) mythology is what the
uninformed have been claiming about Origen since the sixth century, although
Gregory of Nyssa (and Maximus Confessor, to some extent) took up Origen the-
ory of generation to the letter, as I have discussed in detail in the past.
All of this nonsense persistently laid at Origen’s door is but the measles of
Origenian studies –only this infantile disease has lasted for far too many centu-
ries, and has been eternised by fake ‘authorities’.
Following my study of Origen over a span of decades, I have come to be con-
vinced that the ‘work’ of the aforementioned scholars and their like is but sheer
detriment to Origen’s thought, and, from bad to worse, the scholars that have
been misled by those ‘works’ are legion.
Not long ago, someone from the Midwestern United States who poses as
‘Origen scholar’, reviewing a book of mine ridiculously wrote, ‘I am not certain
that Origen held that the minds or souls are truly incorporeal … everything
(except God) has some kind of materiality, even souls or minds’. This person
had absolutely no idea of Origen’s Aristotelian point of departure, namely, that
no incorporeal can exist apart from a body –although a soul per se is incorporeal
for that matter. Origen’s Aristotelian logic makes an indelible mark throughout
his works, notably, that, to Aristotle, it is the First Immovable Mover alone that
exists as sheer incorporeal; to Origen, it is the Trinitarian God alone that exists
as sheer incorporeal, too. Nevertheless, Aristotle posited the soul (as indeed any
xii | Guilty of Genius
thing’s εἶδος) as incorporeal, and Origen conveniently spoke of the soul being
incorporeal at legion of points. To take those axioms as inconsistent would only
take arrant ignorance and mental darkness.
Rufinus at points translated ‘minds or souls’, only because he had no inkling
of Origen’s real thought. Nevertheless, as clumsy as Rufinus’ Latin translation is,
at points he could not help rendering Origen’s theory concerning God’s object of
creation as initia, causas, rationes, semina, which were but Origen’s terms, ἀρχαί,
αἰτίαι, λόγοι, σπέρματα. Anyway, I have always argued that the Latin De Principiis
should not be used as a primal source; instead, this should be used and explained
in light of Origen’s extant works in Greek.
Besides, recently, a minor American scholar and unfortunately Origen’s trans-
lator, who unremittingly made Origen a ‘Platonist’ that allegedly maintained a
primeval ‘world’ of ‘souls’, or of ‘intellects’, or of ‘souls or intellects’, and certainly
‘pre-existence of souls’, began to have suspicions about the soundness of such a
folly, and suddenly ‘discovered’ my books and the unsettling theses I have been
expounding and arguing for since 1986. However, he did so in a mood struggling
to deny facts, then to deny that he denied them, and eventually to allege that he
made a point although no hide or hair of this could be found, since, concerning
all of the cardinal points, he remained at a loss.
Consequently, from some moment onwards, I felt that it was not possible for
me to read that blowhard brag any longer. This is why the present book has been
written, and I am delighted that I worked together with the open-minded and
highly erudite Editor Dr. Philip Dunshea, whom I sincerely thank. No less am I
grateful to the Production Manager, Jackie Pavlovic, for her unfailing help and
patience throughout the process of transforming manuscript to a book.
Of course, and since old habits die hard, I have not any illusions that
entrenched convictions could be eradicated easily, no matter what the evidence
I adduce.
In view of such a quality of ‘scholarship’, along with other instances of
human behaviour that I have experienced, I realised that I had enough of raised
eyebrows, which for too long have harped on distortions of Origen’s thought
under the cover of prouptuous ignorance, or condescendence stemming from the
illusion of a fantasised ‘authority’, or the smiling complacent cynicism of vacuous
wry humour, sardonic supercilious sniffiness, or claptrap struggling to save the
remnants of an imperious snootiness which is risible rather than disturbing. Nor
indeed do I care lest my demolition of the hedonistic cradlesong about ‘a pre-
existent world of intellects or souls’ would shock the brazen flouters of Origen’s
true thought and spirit.
Preface | xiii
It is high time we forgot about euphemisms and sought catharsis from the
theatricality of braggart imposture and the concomitant high-and-mighty auto-
latry and lordolatry of some well-k nown pooh-bahs. It is high time for the ram-
bling bloated windbags of both braggart ‘famous’ and petty academia to evanesce
and come to terms with their true stature. For quest for the truth is not a matter
of niceties, especially opposite braggadocios and swelled supercilious heads: it is a
laborious unyielding struggle in order to eliminate contortion, no matter whether
this is owing to the ancient bigotry and subjugation to the imperial caesaropa-
pism, or modern arrant ignorance of philosophy, the field that played a pivotal
role in Origen’s formulations. For if per impossibile were it allowed that philoso-
phy and true theology are different fields (qua non), the case would be definitely
that, first and foremost, Origen was a philosopher.
As a matter of fact, he was a philosopher par excellence, who had been
hailed by eminent Greeks (such as Porphyry and Proclus) for his erudition and
justified renown. But it was Origen himself who wrote that ‘in philosophy,
there are many ones who are fake’ (πολλοὶ ἐν φιλοσοφίᾳ νόθοι). It is this kind
of self-appointed modern spurious ‘philosophers’ and ‘theologians’ that simply
parrot the claims of spiteful prelates of the Late Antiquity and Byzantium, who
crassly strove to present Origen’s ingenious analyses and exposition as igno-
minious failure, such as the allegation that he was a ‘Platonist’, which modern
ignorance turned to the asinine ‘Christian Platonist’, so that ‘the last deception
should be worse than the first’.
What if Origen dismissed the Platonic Ideas as figments fantasised by human
mind? What if Origen postulated the final abolition of Evil and eschatological
Universal Restoration (let alone creation ex nihilo and a Philosophy of History –
both of which were theories all too alien to Plato), contrary to Plato who had
declared that ‘it is impossible for evils ever to be done away with’? (Theaetetus,
176a). Whereas to Plato souls themselves were a primary beginningless reality
and could exist in themselves as incorporeal ones, to Origen these were but sub-
sequent fallen dilapidated products, which could not exist apart from bodies –
only because Origen dismissed Plato’s anthropological duality body/soul, and
maintained that human being is a tripartite entity comprising body/soul/mind
or nous, and embraced Aristotle’s theory of the ‘mind that comes from with-
out’ (θύραθεν νοῦς) along with the Aristotelian (in fact, Anaxagorean) axiom that
nothing except God can exist in incorporeal form and apart from a body. To
both Aristotle and Origen, the soul is certainly incorporeal, but there is no soul
existing per se as an incorporeal personal entity apart from an appurtenant body.
Origen (just like Aristotle) maintained that, although a soul per se is certainly
xiv | Guilty of Genius
incorporeal, there is no way for this to be a self-existent being: to Aristotle, the soul
is always associated with a body, and the only self-existent incorporeal being is the
First Immovable Mover. Likewise, to Origen, the only self-existent incorporeal
being is the Trinity; rational creatures are always endowed with bodies of differ-
ent kinds (i.e. of different stuff and form). Accordingly, a human being comprises
‘body /soul /mind’, but the ‘mind’ ‘comes from without’ (θύραθεν νοῦς), which is
a distinctive loan, apparently from Aristotle, but ultimately from Anaxagoras. To
Origen, this ‘outside’ is God (for which he appealed to Ecclesiastes, 12:7), notably,
the created Body of Logos.
What could possibly be more un-Platonic than this?
Moreover, Plato expelled Homer from his ideal State (Respublica, 387b; cf.
334a; 377d; 378d; 379c–d; 606–607; etc.), which Origen recalled in Contra
Celsum, VII.54. Contrast to this, Origen cared to make a decision of his own with-
out being swayed by Plato’s opinion: thus, while still a pagan philosopher, ‘he kept
shouting and blushing and very much sweated for a good three days in order to
determine whether Homer’s poetry sufficed to induce to virtuous action’. Finally, he
decided that it did. Proclus reported this by reproducing Porphyry’s narrative (both
of these, in their commentaries on Timaeus), but what matters is also the vocabu-
lary: the ‘pagan’ Origen decided that no one’s speech is more lofty (τίς γὰρ Ὁμήρου
μεγαλοφωνότερος;), whereas the ‘Christian’ Origen wrote that ‘there are many
things in Homer which are full of loftiness of mind’ (μεγαλονοίας πεπληρωμένα,
Contra Celsum, VI.7). Of course, the ‘pagan’ and the ‘Christian’ Origen were but
the selfsame person, who believed that ‘Homer was an admirable poet’ (ὁ ἐν ποιήσει
θαυμαστὸς Ὅμηρος, Contra Celsum, IV.91 & Philocalia, 20.18); actually, ‘Homer
was the best of all poets’ (ὁ τῶν ποιητῶν ἄριστος, Contra Celsum, VII.6).
One more point attesting to the tender philosophical relationship between
Porphyry and Origen comes from Gennadius Scholarius seeking to determine
whether ‘ousia’ is a common genus of both corporeals and incorporeals. Actually,
Gennadius did not engage in too much of reasoning; instead, he wrote, ‘I am
going to say this without argument: as Porphyry believes, the first classification of
ousia is that between the corporeal and the incorporeal.’2 Origen had determined
that the incorporeality of the Deity and that of incorporeal things of the world
(such as notions, theorems, etc.) do not belong to the same ontological order.3 On
the other hand, although both corporeal and incorporeal things of the world do
belong to the same ontological status, this incorporeality is determined by them
both being created. This creaturliness is the element which places both of these in
the same ontological rank. Scholarius explained this to somewhat more extent,
without really deviating from Porphyry: whereas corporeal and incorporeal sub-
stances belong to the same logical genus, they do not belong to the same natural
genus. But this was exactly the classification Origen had made by speaking of
‘corporeals, incorporeals, and the Holy Trinity’.4
Furthermore, Origen’s theory of knowledge was sheer different from the Platonic
one. True knowledge is not any sort of mythological ‘recollection’ (ἀνάμνησις) by
the soul recalling the state of its pure pre-existence contemplating the Good in the
realm of Ideas.5 Instead, knowledge (especially in its most sublime form, i.e. theol-
ogy) is granted by God the Logos, in a context of a personal relationship with any
individual man, and as a dynamic process.
Unless I learn by You, I cannot learn by any man. For whom other than God
behoves teaching about God? Therefore, revelation comes from on high, following
willingness accompanied by merit.6
On this, Origen reflects in Stoic terms: the soul reaches its fullness and matu-
rity gradually. To those who struggle to discover Platonism in Origen, it should be
said that nowhere does he consider the soul as something that knows everything
on account of its previous incorporeal life, and now is in need of ‘recollecting’
what it ‘forgot’ following its association with matter. There is no idea of, not even
hint to, ‘recollection’ (ἀνάμνησις). His logic is clearly Stoic, including his notion is
‘completion of logos’ (συμπλήρωσις τοῦ λόγου), but there were differences as to the
exact age at which the ‘completion of logos’ takes place, as discussed in previous
works of mine. Nevertheless, what matters is the idea, namely, one’s rationality is
pervious of improvement and becomes perfect by means of diligent and devout
practice. This is precisely what Origen held. To him, there is no notion of the
souls recollecting any previous life, and no author did ever make more of that
3 See also discussion and references in my Anaxagoras, ‘Three classes of being’, pp. 1389-1401.
4 Origen, Princ, I.6.4; II.2.2.
5 Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 72e: “learning is nothing else than recollection”; likewise, op. cit. 73b-e; 76a; 91e;
92c-d; Philebus, 34c; Phaedrus, 249c: “this [sc. truth] is a recollection of those things which our soul
once beheld, when it consorted together with God, and, by discounting which the things at present we
consider as existing, and truly elevating itself to real being.” Cf. Meno, 81d1-5; 81e4; 82a1-2; 87b5-8;
98a4-5.
6 Origen, frLuc, fr. 163 (addressing God the Logos).
xvi | Guilty of Genius
Stoic idea.7 This is why, in him, also the Stoic idea of ‘progress’ (προκοπή) is abun-
dantly present: this progress has not only a moral character, but also a cognitive
one. The soul explores and learns: it does not strive to ‘recollect’ any pre-existing
knowledge.8 Hence, adhering to reason does not suggest ‘recollection’, far less
subjection to any assumed part of the soul, but obeying to and being guided by
something external 9 (namely, the Reason /Logos), which grants humans their
nous or pneuma as part of their constitution.10
I believe that one of the many respects of which Origen’s thought is unique is
this: since I have argued that his thought constitutes a separate chapter of its own
in the history of Philosophy, I subsequently have been convinced that if an assess-
ment and accurate rendering of his ideas have chances of being correct, this task
should be carried out by philosophers well-informed in Christian theology, not
by Christian theologians having some encyclopedic knowledge of philosophy.
Besides, Greek philosophers of all eras, as well as Aristotle’s commentators,
will be discussed abundantly, all the more so since the Commentators have come
to be taken as a field liable to ‘specialism’ by scholars being spellbound by only
one or a few of them while ignoring all the others.
Since 1986, I have been at odds with virtually the totality of those who are
usually called ‘Origen scholars’, bar, of course, the brilliant Mark Edwards (not
incidentally, also a trained philosopher) and the insightful John Behr. For all
of them fantasised an ‘Origen’ of their own reverie, who supposedly posited a
primeval population of independent ‘incorporeal intellects’ somehow roaming
about or around God. How those ‘incorporeal beings’ were called is highly indic-
ative of the pertinent bemusement. Some scholars fancied this primal reality as ‘a
population of individual souls’. Consequently, when Gregory of Nyssa spoke of
‘scholars of old who treated the question of the first principles’ and they postu-
lated ‘a sort of population of pre-existent souls living in their own realm, in which
the Paradigms of both virtue and evil exist’, Origen’s detractors were cheerfully
quick to triumphantly sing out ‘I got you!’ Actually, the gauche Justinian was
7 Origen, frLuc, 228 & commMatt, 14.7: ἑκάστη ψυχὴ ἐλήλυθε, μετά τινων τοῦ οἰκοδεσπότου νομισμάτων
ἀναφαινομένων μετὰ τῆς τοῦ λόγου συμπληρώσεως καὶ τῆς ἑξῆς τῇ συμπληρώσει τοῦ λόγου ἐπιμελείας καὶ
ἀσκήσεως πρὸς τὰ δέοντα. commMatt, 17.33: καὶ ἐν τῇ συμπληρώσει τοῦ λόγου. schMatt, PG.17.301.21-28
(the same passage, but in different context): τῆς συμπληρώσεως τοῦ λόγου. Cels, I.33; V.42: τὸ σχεδὸν ἅμα
γενέσει καὶ συμπληρώσει τοῦ λόγου διδάσκεσθαι. commRom (I.1-X II.21), fr. 14 & commRom (III.5-V.7),
p. 144: τίνες δ’ ἂν εἶεν οἱ ἐν τῷ νόμῳ, ἢ πᾶς ὁ συμπληρώσας τὸν λόγον ἄνθρωπος; Likewise, commRom (I.1-
XII.21), 36a, & Philocalia, 9.2.
8 Origen, frProv, PG.13.29.41-52 &expProv, PG.17.168.49-169.3: the soul can explore and learn by
means of logical systematic enquiry.
9 See the Peripatetic notion of θύραθεν νοῦς (‘mind that comes from without’) espoused by Origen.
Anaxagoras, pp. 594‒598; PHE, p. 165.
10 See COT, pp. ‘The Place of the Logos’, pp. 165–172.
Preface | xvii
as a possible difference between ‘souls’ and ‘intellects’? After all, here is Justinian
and here is his ‘synod’ that thought exactly the same way.
From this point to arguing that Origen maintained ‘transmigration of souls’
appeared all too small a step to take.
Now, if Origen was fully conscious of patently true and inescapable fun-
damental ‘details’, such as that any incorporeal cannot occupy a certain space
or volume, but this is everywhere; or that counting independent incorporeals is
impossible, since individuality is inexorably linked with materiality –this was but
‘minutiae’ that his unfortunate ‘audience’ were all but suspicious of. However,
these and suchlike incommoding ‘details’ had been pointed out by Aristotle,
whose philosophy (via Alexander of Aphrodisias) Origen made abundant use of.
The shenanigan about Origen maintaining (depending on each scholar’s
favourite lullaby) a primeval ‘world of souls’ or of ‘intellects’, or (which is worse)
of ‘souls or intellects’, or ‘pre-existence of souls’, hopefully now will receive a
proper reply once and for all –all the more so since all of this humdrum is but
prolix allegations by people who have no philosophical background, let alone
basic philosophical training, so as to be able to recognise what underlies Origen’s
legion of indomitable formulations. To my experience, once I set out to eradi-
cate entrenched fatuities root and branch already since my Glasgow PhD thesis,
I knew full well that this would earn me enemies who were loath to accept (hence,
they have been in for a surprise) that their ‘works’ on Origen were hopeless and
bootless stuff. But I am not writing to please cliques; I am researching in order to
discover and expound the truth about the real Origen.
Concerning the specific topic of the present book, Origen had caveated that
such matters were impossible to treat unless a clear theory about the soul and the
principles that determine its generation had been laid down and properly grasped
in the first place. But this has never happened to date, until I wrote a couple of
thousand pages in my book on Anaxagoras and Origen.
Grasping Origen’s real thought is a proposition far tougher than it has been
thought to be, not only because of his ingenious and creative constructions,
but also because of his vast heathen background, which is present throughout
his work and imbues thoroughly it, even though he allowed this to make some
explicit mark only in the Contra Celsum. To believe that it is possible to under-
stand, let alone render, his real thought without consummate knowledge of that
background is simply delusion –a delusion though which has played a fatal role
in the present deplorable state of Origenian studies.
This is why the structure of the present book is determined by a series of
methodical steps, which are indispensable for understanding both Origen’s
Preface | xix
theory and the reasons why he declared that this theory was sheer different from
Plato’s one.
Part of the aim of the Introduction to this volume is to bring to light the
representations of Origen by detractors, such as Epiphanius of Salamis and
Antipater of Bostra (both of whom were gladly yet uncritically quoted by John
of Damascus, indeed views that Justinian simply parroted), as well as by present
day scholars, who unfortunately have been taken seriously and fatally misled
modern scholarship. I should, therefore, say a few words about the logical train
of my exposition and its intrinsic permeating line, which both of peer-reviewers
of this book were as erudite as to point out themselves, but perhaps this should
be helpful to others.
Chapter 1 builds on my previous book on Anaxagoras in relation to Origen’s
concept of the soul: I demonstrate that this is impossible to grasp unless seen
from the philosophical perspective (e.g. his understanding of the nature of the
soul, mind, etc.), wherefore, one cannot speak about what Origen ‘believed’
while lacking knowledge of ancient philosophy, as well as the marks this made
on the Patristic and Byzantine tradition, and on the contemporary philosophical
tradition nonetheless.
Chapter 2 explores the notion of ‘incorporeal’, which could have been unnec-
essary had scholars consistently ruminated on this –but they did not, which is
why Porphyry wrote a brilliant series of pithy propositions so that his contem-
porary and later intellectuals should come to their senses concerning this issue.
Chapter 3 discusses the issue of identity, which has suffered enormously
nonetheless.
Chapter 4 is about how new souls are generated, a topic which hinges on
Origen’s theory of generation, therefore, on his theory of the Body of the Logos
and of the logoi as generative, cohesive, and dissolving causes, which produce,
maintain, and transform all aspects of reality.
Chapter 5 ponders on how did Origen understand the notion of causality
in relation to souls and human identity, and how do these function ontologi-
cally rather than temporally. The point is that Origen maintained a notion of
antecedent worlds and antecedent causes, but he flatly rejected any notion of
pre-existent souls.
Chapter 6 is about how a soul is related to the body.
Given that Origen dismissed the Platonic duality body/soul, and maintained
the Aristotelian body/soul/mind or nous, Chapter 7 considers the notion of soul
as ‘priest’ serving the mind. This analysis is called for since what scholars, such
as H. Crouzel and M. Simonetti, read in De Principiis was that ‘the mind is the
xx | Guilty of Genius
superior part of the soul’[!] (v. 2, p. 202: ‘C’est-à-dire, νοῦς, mens, intelligence,
partie supérieure de l’âme’), which evinces complete and hopeless ignorance of
Origen’s anthropology.
Chapter 8 is about Origen’s (Anaxagorean, then, Aristotelian) concept of
‘the mind from without’ (θύραθεν νοῦς), which is critical in order to comprehend
why could he have never gone along with the (inconsistent, anyway) Platonic
anthropology and its capricious ramifications, which never managed to stand up
to elementary logical analyses.
The short and the long of it is that the structure of this book aims to show
that determining Origen’s views of the present topic is a tough proposition and
can be carried out by means of sound methodology, not dogmatic proclama-
tions, never mind bigotry, or parroting ancient nonsense, and to this purpose,
knowledge of not only the entire Patristic thought but also Greek philosophy is
impossible to circumvent, let alone evade.
To put this flat out: Origen should be studied by philosophers and by theolo-
gians who have a good command of philosophy (and indeed there are such schol-
ars). For Origen wrote his own chapter in the history of philosophy, of which
theologians have no inkling whatsoever, since among them knowledge of philos-
ophy is an extremely rare commodity. Their general attitude is that Origen was a
virtuous man and a theologian –yet at the end of the day he is a damned heretic,
who was rightly anathematised.
In all of my books, I have tried to call attention to the need for studying pri-
mary sources and deliverance from the distorting glasses, through which scholars
that are venerated as ‘authorities’ saw Origen’s thought, and their unstudious
works keep on tormenting Origenian studies. In this book, I discuss allegations
made by scholars such as H. Crouzel, M. Simonetti, M. Harl, C.P.H. Bammel,
coupled with H. Chadwick’s dangerous translation of Contra Celsum, which (as
I have shown since the years of my PhD thesis) tacitly takes for granted the
old fatuities –let alone the conspicuously shameful case of old, P. Koetschau.
Such people made incredible allegations only because they lacked either the per-
spicacity or the philosophical background, or both, in order to grasp Origen’s
vast erudition, which is abundantly present throughout his exposition and deter-
mines his arguments almost in every line of his oeuvre. But the problem was
that, once Origen had caveated that his theory of soul was superior to that of
Plato’s, the onus he placed upon his readers was to try and fathom what his theory
was about –and it is exactly this that turned out a long row to hoe to his ancient
and modern students alike.
Preface | xxi
its own merit) printed Koetschau’s unschooled interpolations that he had taken
up from all sorts of detractors and calumniators –wherefore, Butterworth’s book
(along with his own atrocious comments) misled some generations of scholars.
If, to some, reading and studying primary sources appears far too hard a
proposition and probably impossible to carry out, and having recourse to second-
hand entrenched follies of old seems a more convenient practice, then, the best for
them to do is abandon and stay away from Origen’s works and thought altogether.
As for myself, over many years, I have read ‘reports’ by ‘readers’ craving to enforce
references to their ‘work’ under the pretext of foisting ‘guidance to modern schol-
arship’. To this purpose, on the one hand, they demanded from publishers not to
reveal their names, while, on the other, they ‘signed’ their reports by anxiously
demanding references to their own works, and declaring themselves ready to
assent to publication only if they read my work again, in order to make sure that
their ‘works’ have been referenced. Never did I cave in to such a blackmailing,
which unsuccessfully went underground by means of taking refuge to anonym-
ity, and none of such a quality of ‘readers’ did ever manage to impede a single
book of mine from being published.
In this treatise, as it happened with my previous ones, I will not dignify such
presumptuousness with references, far less would I converse with trespassers that
are infesting the Origenian studies. I am not in the least interested in offering
either the facility, which is priggishly styled ‘guidance to modern scholarship’, or
the enjoyment of truffle hunting from a concomitant ‘reference preying’. I know
that this is not the way things are supposed to be done. But I am not doing things
the way they are supposed to be done, nor do I dignify the trite practice that
strives to conceal ignorance of the glorious world of ancient philosophers and of
the Commentators by means of ‘mutual’ (or, reciprocal) ‘references’ backhand-
edly exchanged between modern authors. Instead, ample space will be given pri-
marily to exposition and discussion of ancient scholars, which is a methodology
that I have prescribed and defended in my book on Anaxagoras.
Opposite this throng, I know of no true scholar who would not be happy,
indeed eager, to see the pestilent characteristics that scourge Origenian studies
being chucked out not only from the specific field, but also from the cultural
physiognomy of any genuine quest for the truth.
For as Shakespeare’s Edgar said upon the conclusion of King Lear, when the
tragedy had been consummated, The weight of this sad time we must obey, speak
what we feel, not what we ought to say. The oldest hath borne most.
Abbreviations
Origen
Greek Authors
Christian Authors
Other Volumes
1 The sole source for them all was Justinian’s allegation and the condemnation by ‘his’ synod. Cf.
George Monachus, Chronicon, p. 629: κατὰ Ὠριγένους καὶ τῶν τὰ ἐκείνου ἀσεβῆ δόγματα διαδεξαμένων
Διδύμου καὶ Εὐαγρίου τῶν πάλαι ἀκμασάντων καὶ τῶν ἐκτεθέντων παρ’ αὐτοῖς κεφαλαίων, ἐν οἷς ἐληρώδουν
προϋπάρχειν τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν σωμάτων, ἐξ Ἑλληνικῶν ὁρμώμενοι δογμάτων τὴν μετεμψύχωσιν δοξάζοντες.
Chronicon Breve, PG.110.780.14–20. Peter III (Patriarch of Antioch, tenth-eleventh century), Epistulae
Quattuor, epistle 1, lines 85–91. Likewise, Photius, Bibliotheca, Cod. 8, p. 3b; Epistulae et Amphilochia,
epistle 284, line 676. The following authors simply copied this text: Symeon Metaphrastes, Chronicon,
p. 127. George Cedrenus, Compendium Historiarum, v. 1, p. 660; more or less paraphrased by Michael
Glycas, Annales, p. 504. Nicolas Mesarites, Renuntiatio Rerum Politicarum et Ecclesiasticarum, p. 53.
Gennadius Scholarius, commAnim, 2.1.2; Contra Plethonis Ignorationem De Aristotele, Book 2, p. 82.
Philotheus Coccinus, Confessio Fidei, lines 194–197. Joseph Calothetus, Orationes Antirrheticae Contra
Acindynum et Barlaam, oration 2, lines 809–824. Pachomius Rhusanus, Syntagma, oration 5, pp. 156;
270. Anonymous, Scholia in Lucianum (Rabe), comm. on Lucian’s Βίων Πράσεις, verse 3.
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