Friday, June 2, 2023

David Bentley Hart on the Christology of Clement of Alexandria and Origen

  

For Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215 CE), for instance, the Logos is truly the divine Son and is unique—in fact is the divine “monad” (Stromateis V.ii.14.21; V.xiv.136.1-4; VII.ii.5.5.)—but the Father alone is God in the absolutely proper and transcendent sense, incomprehensible, a unity beyond the mere singularity of any monad, ineffable and inaccessible and yet embracing the whole of reality. (Stromateis II.ii.6.1; V.i.1.3; V.x.65.2; V.xii.78.3; V.xii.81.3; Paidagogos I.viii.71.1.) Thus the Father is known to creation only through his Logos, who is his inseparable image, his mind or reason, his power and counsel and activity, at once containing the divine ideas or thoughts in himself and animating creation with them; the Logos is the teacher of wisdom to creatures and the high priest of creation; he is the governor and origin of all subordinate realities. (Protreptikos X.xcviii.3; XII.c.xx.1-5; Stromateis V.i.8.18; V.ix.56.3; VII.i.2.2; VII.ii.5.5.) Origen (c. 184-c. 253 CE), too, accorded to Father alone a fully transcendent divine unity, and the status of being “God himself” (αυτοθεος), and that of being alone “ingenerate” (αγεννητος). (De principiis I.i.6; Contra Celsum VII.xxxviii; In Iohannem II.ii.16; II.x.75) Between the transcendent oneness of the Father and the diversity of created things, the Logos stands as a mediator, the Father’s express image, and indeed a δευτερος θεος. (Contra Celsum II.lxiv; V.xxxix; In Iohannem I.xx.119; VI.xxxix.202.) The Son and the Spirit (the latter being the greatest of those being that have their existence through the Son) (In Johannem II.x.75.) transcend all inferior realities; but the Father in turn transcends them to at least as great a degree. (In Iohannem XIII.xxv.151.) Hence, while the Son may be called θεος, he is not properly called ο θεος, and is necessarily accorded lesser honor than is the father. (In Isaiam II.ii.13ff.; Contra Celsum VII.lvii.) (David Bentley Hart, Tradition and Apocalypse: An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2022], 115-16)

 

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