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