Origen of Alexandria and the Theology of the Holy Spirit Restricted; Files Only
Miller, Micah (Spring 2019)
Abstract
This dissertation is the first comprehensive examination of Origen of Alexandria’s pneumatology. As such, it surveys Origen’s entire corpus in order to elucidate the Spirit’s identity (who the Spirit is) and activity (what the Spirit does). I will argue that Origen finds the Holy Spirit to be dependent on the Father and Son, a relationship that ranks the Spirit below the Father and Son and serves as the foundation for the Spirit’s salvific activity of mediating gifts to believers. I will pursue this thesis in five chapters. In Chapter One, I argue that the Son is dependent on the Father with respect to both his being and his attributes, a schema that ranks the Son below the Father. Furthermore, this relationship informs Origen’s theology of creation, with creative activity beginning in the Father and flowing through the Son to all created beings. Chapter One serves as a foundation for Chapter Two, where I argue that, while Origen groups the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together and considers them to be distinct from creation, he ranks the Spirit below the Father and Son by describing the Spirit’s generation in the same way as all other created beings—by the Father through the Son. In Chapter Three I argue that Origen interprets the traditional understanding of the Holy Spirit as one and seven in terms of a philosophical notion of power, which allows him to explain how the Holy Spirit can be a single being but bestow many different spiritual gifts. I argue in Chapter Four that Origen conceives of the Spirit’s activities as a common operation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a logic that supports his hierarchical understanding of the Trinity and explains how he is able to attribute the Spirit’s activities to the Father and Son. In Chapter Five I argue that the Spirit’s relationship to Christ serves as an archetype for the Spirit’s relationship to humans, whose goal is to increase in the participation of the Spirit until they reach perfection.
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Introductory Remarks and Thesis........................................................................................1
Examination of Scholarship.................................................................................................2
Methodology........................................................................................................................6
Chapter Summary and Outline...........................................................................................11
Chapter One: The Father and the Son............................................................................................13
1.1: The Father’s Auto-X Attributes..................................................................................13
1.2: The Son’s Auto-X Attributes......................................................................................29
1.3: The Son’s Attributes as His Epinoiai.........................................................................43
Chapter Conclusion...........................................................................................................47
Chapter Two: The Father, the Son, and the Generation of the Holy Spirit...................................49
2.1: The Holy Spirit’s Existence........................................................................................49
2.1.1: The Holy Spirit, with the Father and Son....................................................51
2.1.2: The Father, the Son, and the Generation of the Holy Spirit........................58
2.1.2.1: The Generation of the Holy Spirit in PArch.................................59
2.1.2.2: The Generation of the Holy Spirit in ComJn................................60
Origen’s Anti-Monarchian Polemic..............................................60
The Generation of the Holy Spirit..................................................63
The Eternality of the Spirit.............................................................71
The Spirit as Third in Rank of All Things......................................75
Conclusion.............................................................................................................81
2.2: The Holy Spirit’s Attributes.......................................................................................81
2.2.1: The Spirit’s Participation in the Son............................................................82
2.2.2: The Spirit’s Essential Attributes?................................................................87
2.3: Chapter Conclusion.....................................................................................................93
Chapter Three: The Unity and Multiplicity of the Holy Spirit......................................................95
3.1: The Sevenfold Spirit...................................................................................................97
3.2: Power Language and the Sevenfold Spirit................................................................106
Chapter Conclusion..........................................................................................................116
Chapter Four: The Activity of the Holy Spirit.............................................................................117
4.1: The Holy Spirit as the Giver of Gifts........................................................................118
4.1.1: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the Giving of Gifts.........................119
4.1.2: The Gifts of the Spirit and the Son............................................................127
4.2: The Gift of Holiness.................................................................................................134
4.3: The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture........................................................139
Chapter Conclusion..........................................................................................................145
Chapter Five: The Holy Spirit and the Human Person................................................................147
5.1: The Holy Spirit and the Incarnate Christ..................................................................147
5.2: The Holy Spirit and the Saints..................................................................................157
5.2.1: The Moment of the Reception of the Holy Spirit......................................157
5.2.2: The Holy Spirit’s Role in Salvation...........................................................162
5.2.3: The Loss of the Spirit.................................................................................170
Chapter Conclusion..........................................................................................................173
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................174
Appendix A: Primary Source Abbreviations...............................................................................177
Bibliography................................................................................................................................179
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