Friday, October 25, 2019

Joseph Tixeront on Origen's Subordinationst Christology


After noting that, in Origen’s (185-254) Christology, Jesus always pre-existed (something LDS agree with—see my Is Latter-day Saint Christology "Arian"?), Catholic dogmatic theologian Joseph Tixeront (1856-1925) then notes the following:

And still, Origen is frankly subordinationist. True, the Son is of the Father’s substance; He possesses it, but less fully than the Father; it is, as it were, weakened, lessened in Him, since it is communicated and since, besides, the Son is the Father’s instrument. Origen is led to this conclusion by his anxiety to uphold against the Modalists the distinction between the two persons, by the necessity to explain the Biblical texts that set forth the Son as inferior to the Father, and by the need he has of a mediator to account for the creation. His Word is that of Athanasius, and yet still preserves something of that of Philo. He is not ο θεος nor αυτοθεος, but θεος, δευτερος θεος. He is not, like the Father, αυτογαθον, απλως αγαθος, απαραλλακτως αγαθος, but only εικων αγατοθητος (Contra Cels., V, 39; De princip., I, 2, 13; cf. In Joan., VI, 23): He is not absolutely simple, but rather, holding the middle between the one and the complex. He contains the Father’s ideas, the types of the beings that can be brought into reality (συστημα θεωρηματων) (In Joan., II, 12; I, 22, Lomm., I, 41, 42; P.G. XIV, 56): He does not know the Father as well as He is known by Him, and the glory He receives from His Father is greater than the glory He procures to Him (De princip., IV, 35; In Joan., XXXII, 18, Lomm., 473; P.G., XIV, 821). Likewise, His action is less widespread: it exercises itself only on rational beings (επινομα τα λογικαι) (De princip., I, 3, 5; cf. I, 3, 8). In short, He is God, but under the Father (θεον κατα τον των ολων θεον και πατερα) (Contra Cels., II, 9; VI, 60). (Joseph Tixeront, History of Dogmas, Vol. 1: The Antenicene Theology [St. Louis, Miss.: B. Herder, 1910; repr., Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1984], 265-66)

Notice how Origen referred to Jesus as δευτερος θεος ("second God"); God (θεος) without the definite article (an honour only for the Father); and that the Son was not αυτοθεος (i.e., God in an underived sense--again, only the Father is αυτοθεος in the theology of early Christians). For more on Origen (as well as Justin Martyr and Tertullian), see:

A Triad of Early Christians Against the Trinity Being an Apostolic Belief

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