Origen’s doctrine of the pre-existence
of souls is intimately connected with his idea of a universal restoration (αποκαταστασις). the present visible world was preceded by
another. The pre-existent human souls are spirits who fell away from God in the
preceding world and are therefore now enclosed in material bodies. The sins committed
by the soul in the preceding world explain the different measure of graces
which God bestows on every one and the diversity of men here on earth. It is interesting
to see how Origen fits this doctrine into the etymology of the word psyche (ψυχη), which he derives from ψυχεσθαι, ‘to grow cold.’
We have therefore to see if,
perchance, as we have said is declared by the name itself, it was called ψυχη, i.e., anima, because it has waxed
cold from the fervor of just things and from participation in the divine fire,
and yet has not last the power of restoring itself to that condition of fervor
in which it was at the beginning. Whence the prophet also appears to point out
some such state of things by the words: ‘Return, O my soul, unto thy rest’ (Ps.
114,7). From all this it appears to be made out, that the understanding (ψυχη), falling away from its status and dignity,
was made or named soul; and that, if repaired and corrected, it returns to the condition
of the understanding (νους).
Now, if this be the case, it seems to
be that this very decay and falling away of the understanding (νους) is not the same in all, but that this
conversion into a soul is carried to a greater or less degree in different
instances, and that certain understandings retain something even of their
former vigor, and others again either nothing or a very small amount. Whence some
are found from the very commencement of their lives to be of more active
intellect, others again of a slower habit of mind, and some are born wholly obtuse,
and altogether incapable of instruction (De princ. 2,9,3-4 ANF).
It is not more in conformity with
reason, that every soul, for certain mysterious reasons (I speak now according
to the opinion of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Empedocles, whom Celsus frequently
names), is introduced into a body, and introduced according to its deserts and
former actions? (Contra Cels. 1,32 ANF) (Johannes Quasten, Patrology,
4 vols. [Westminster, Md.: Christian Classics, Inc., 1992], 2:91-92)
For more on the differences between Origen's theology of the preexistence of souls and Latter-day Saint theology, see:
