Summary
Origen was the greatest theologian of the centuries before the Arian Controversy but, in the sixth century, was condemned as a heretic.
Apart from Judas Iscariot, no person in church history has been so thoroughly demonized as Arius. For this reason, and because of some similarities to Origen’s theology, many people have claimed that Origen was “the ultimate source of Arius’ heresy.”
The purpose of this article is to determine whether that is so. For that purpose, it identifies the similarities and differences between their teachings.
Similarities
Origen and Arius agree that:
1. Contrary to Sabellianism, the Son is a separate hypostasis (reality).
2. Three divine hupostaseis (realities) exist (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
3. Only one first principle exists. (Only one Being who exists without cause and is the cause of all else)
4. The Father alone exists without cause.
5. If the term ‘creature’ is used for any being who does not exist without a cause, the Son is a creature.
6. The Son is subordinate to the Father. (All theologians before and during Arius’ time described the Son as subordinate.)
7. The Son does not know the Father fully.
8. Contrary to Nicene theology, the Son’s substance is different from the Father’s.
9. Contrary to the Gnostics, the Son is not an issue from the Father.
10. The Son is God (or divine). (All theologians of the first three centuries described the Son as “God.” However, the Greek and Latin words translated as “God” may also be translated as “god.” The question is, in cases such as Origen and Arius who regarded the Son as subordinate to the Father, should theos be translated as “God” or as “god?” See – How should theos be translated?)
11. Contrary to Nicene theology, the Son has been generated by the Father’s will.
Differences
Origen and Arius differed on the following:
1. For Origen, the Son always existed.
For Arius, there was when He was not.
2. For Arius, the Father begot the Son specifically to create.
Origen did not make that connection.
3. For Arius, the Son worships the Father.
Origen avoids such statements.
4. Origen discouraged prayer to the Son.
Arius allowed it.
5. For Origen, Jesus had a human soul.
For the Arians, the Logos took a body without a soul.
Is Arius an Origenist?
As shown above, there were significant differences between Origen and Arius. Where they agree, they agree because both accepted the traditional Logos theology.
Bishop RPC Hanson, in his authoritative book, concluded: “He (Arius) was not without influence from Origen, but cannot seriously be called an Origenist” (RH, 98).
– END OF SUMMARY –
Authors
This article is essentially a compilation of quotes from Bishop Rowan Williams’ 2001 book1Arius, Heresy & Tradition and Bishop RPC Hanson’s 1981 book2The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God – The Arian Controversy 318-381. In this article, I refer to Rowan Williams as RW and Richard Hanson as RH.
Origen
The greatest theologian of the first three centuries
Origen was a third-century theologian and probably the most influential theologian of the first three centuries. “The great majority of the Eastern clergy (at the Council of Nicaea) were ultimately disciples of Origen” (bible.ca). However, the Council of Constantinople, in 553 A.D., declared Origen a heretic. Perhaps, therefore:
Some say that Arius received his theology from Origen.
“From very early on, there were those who saw Origen as the ultimate source of Arius’ heresy” (RW, 131):
Marcellus of Ancyra accused certain leading Arians, including Asterius and Eusebius of Caesarea “of being under the baleful influence of Origen” (RH, 61).
“Marcellus of Ancyra, in attacking Asterius and Narcissus of Neronias, Eusebius of Caesarea and Paulinus of Tyre (certain leading Arians), had accused them of being under the baleful influence of Origen” (RH, 61).
“Epiphanius … declares that the Arians and Anhomoians learnt from Origen” (RH, p61).
“Many scholars have regarded Arian ideas in a vague and wholesale way as an inheritance from Origen’s doctrine” (RH, 62).
Purpose
This article compares Arius’ theology to Origen’s, showing the similarities and differences. This is, therefore, also a summary of their respective theologies.
Similarities
Arius agreed with Origen on the following:
1. Contrary to Sabellianism, the Son is a separate hypostasis.
“One of the features of Origen’s theology that puts him decisively and pretty consistently over against Clement is that insistence on the fact that the Word or Son is an hupothesis” (RW, 131-132), meaning “‘real individual subsistence’, as opposed to existence as a mental construct only” (RW, 132). He argued that “Father and Son are two … in subsistence (hupostasis), but are one in likemindedness, harmony … and … will” (RW, 132). “He deplores those … who confuse the … Father and Son and make them out to be one in hupostasis, as if the distinction between Father and Son (is) … a purely mental distinction which we make” (RW, 132).
The background to this is that “both (Arius and Origen) … see Sabellianism and Valentinianism as the great enemies of orthodoxy” (RW, 143) “The Arians always accuse the pro-Nicenes of confounding the Persons of the Trinity” (RH, 102). In the time of both Origen and Arius, statements were often made that sound as if the Father and Son are a single reality.
2. Three divine hupostaseis (realities) exist.
“Arius stands in the tradition of Origen in so far as he holds to … the substantive and distinct reality of three divine hupostaseis or ousiai” (RW, 143). (“Hupostasis and ousia are … more or less synonymous here, and mean ‘real individual subsistence’, as opposed to existence as a mental construct only” (RW, 132).)
3. Only one first principle exists.
“Arius stands in the tradition of Origen in so far as he holds to … the impossibility of … two … self-sufficient first principles” (RW, 143). In other words, there is only one Being who exists without cause and who is the cause of the existence of all other things.
4. The Father alone exists without cause.
Bishop Methodius of Olympia (died c. 311) wrote, “God the Father alone is ingenerate; the ‘unoriginated origin’,” (RH, 83). In other words, the Father alone exists without cause.
Origen, similar to Methodius, described the Son as “the originated God” (RH 62), meaning that He is divine but He does not exist without cause. He has been caused by the Father. Arius also described the Son as having a beginning:
The Son is “not … co-unoriginated with the Father” (RH, 8).
5. If the term ‘creature’ refers to any being who does not exist without a cause, the Son is a creature.
Origen described the Son as a ‘creature’ who has existed without beginning (RH, 63):
“Origen did … describe the Son both as ‘having come into existence’ and as a ‘creature’. … But at the same time, he declares his belief in the eternity of the Son as a distinct entity from the Father” (RH, 63-64).
Therefore, for Origen, the term ‘creature’ has a very wide meaning and includes any being who does not exist without a cause. In other words, all creatures except God are ‘creatures’.
Arius had a similar wide meaning of the word ‘creature’ when he described the Son as a creature but as “a perfect creature of God … not like one of the creatures” (RH, 7). In Arius’ theology, since the Son created all other creatures, He is the Creator and God of all creatures. It was Arius’ enemies who emphasized that he said that the Son is a creature. See – Did Arius describe the Son of God as a Created Being?
Arianism developed over time and later Arians said: “The Son was begotten, that is made, by God. These Arians … are not happy with the use of the term ‘created’, because this suggests that the Son is to be classified with other created things.” (RH, 102)
6. The Son is subordinate to the Father.
“Origen, with Arius, can be said to have subordinated the Son to the Father” (RH, 64).
Arius’ “main debt to Origen is a subordinationist doctrine of the Son, which he greatly intensifies” (RH, 95).
“But he (Arius) is indebted to Origen’s critics … for the doctrine of the Father’s priority … (namely that) God the Father existed before all things and created all things out of nothing by his unprompted act of will” (RH, 96). (Origen regarded the Son as eternal.)
Hanson goes on to say that all theologians in the Eastern or the Western Church before the outbreak of the Arian Controversy regarded the Son as subordinate to the Father. For example, Bishop Methodius of Olympia (died c. 311) regards the Son as the first of all created things and wholly dependent on the Father (RH, 83).
Hanson also explains that, although both described the Son as subordinate, Origen’s view of the Son was higher than Arius’. In other words, Origen’s Son was more equal to the Father than Arius’ Son (RH, 64). Nevertheless, “subordinationism might indeed, until the denouement (end) of the controversy, have been described as accepted orthodoxy” (RH, XIX).
7. The Son does not know the Father fully.
Arius taught that the Son does not fully know the Father. For example:
“The Logos does not know the Father fully and exactly, ‘nor can he fully see him” (RH, 16).
“That which has a beginning could not possibly comprehend or grasp the nature of him who is without a beginning” (RH, 15).
Origen said much the same thing:
“’It will appear that the text “the Father who sent me is greater than I” (John 14:28) is true in all respects so that in the matter of knowing the Father is known by himself more fully and more clearly and more perfectly than (he is known) by the Son’” (RH, 69).
8. Contrary to Nicene theology, the Son is different in substance from the Father.
The Nicene Creed interprets “begotten” as that the Son came from the substance of the Father. For that reason, the Creed concludes, He is of the same substance as (homoousios) the Father.
The Son is not out of the substance of the Father.
Similar to Arius, Origen would reject the statement that the Son is ‘out of’ the Father’s substance:
“Origen is concerned to avoid all suggestion of anthropomorphic or corporeal ideas in connection with the generation of the Son, as is Arius” (RH, 65).
“Origen never says that the Son comes from the substance of the Father” (RH, 67).
Arius “probably has Origen on his side in repudiating Homoousios, the idea that the Son is ‘out of’ the Father’s substance” (RW, 143).
The Son’s substance is different from the Father’s.
Therefore, Origen would have rejected the idea that the Son is consubstantial with (homoousios) the Father:
Origen said that “The Son is other than the Father in being and essence” (Origen on Prayer – Chapter 10)
“The likelihood of Origen having described the Son as consubstantial with the Father is very slim” (RH, 68).
“It is almost certainly right to conclude that Origen could not have spoken of the Son as homoousios with the Father” (RW, 132).
The word “consubstantial … would have suggested to him that the Father and the Son were of the same material, an idea which he was anxious to avoid” (RH, 68).
Hanson does state that Origen described the Son’s generation as “an imparting of the nature of the Father” (RH, 65-66) but, for the reasons above, “nature” here should not be interpreted as equivalent to “substance.”
9. Contrary to the Gnostics, the Son is not an issue from the Father.
“The favourite Gnostic concept (was) … the ‘issue’ … of beings, from God” (RH, 60). In other words, that beings came out of the being of God. Adolf von Harnack stated that the Gnostics were the first people to use the term homoousios.3Dogmengeschichte, 1:284–85
Both Origen and Arius rejected the view that the Son is produced by the Father as an ‘issue’” (RH, 63).
10. The Son is God (or divine).
Origen described the Son as “the originated God” (RH 62). Arius also described Him as “God:”
“He is only-begotten God and he is different from any others” (RH, 14).
However, remember that the word translated as “God” in the Bible and in the church fathers (Greek theos, Latin deus) is really equivalent to the modern word “god.” It is translated as “God” only when the translator thinks a particular theos refers to the Ultimate Reality. See – How should theos be translated? Therefore, since Origen and Arius think of the Son as subordinate to the Father, when they refer to Jesus as theos, should it be translated as “God” or as “god?” Perhaps it would be appropriate to translate such instances as saying that the Son is ‘divine’.
11. Contrary to Nicene theology, the Son has been generated by the Father’s will.
In Nicene theology, God never made a decision to generate the Son for the Son always exists. In contrast:
“The Arians … reckoned that unless the Son was produced by the Father’s will then he came either by necessity or against God’s will. … say Gregg and Groh … it is good Biblical doctrine, reproduced by Ignatius, Justin, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.” (RH, 90)
Interestingly, Origen was able to describe the Son both as eternal and begotten by the Father’s will. It seems to indicate that Origen thought of the Son as begotten in the infinite reality beyond time.
Differences
Aspects in which Arius deviated from Origen include the following:
1. For Origen, the Son always existed.
For Arius, there was when He was not.
Hanson refers several times to Origen’s teaching that the Son always existed, for example, “Origen’s doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son by the Father” (RH, 65).
To contrast this with what Arius taught, Hanson states that Arius taught that ’there was a time when he did not exist’ (RH, 65, 86). I do not think that that phrase adequately explains what Arius taught. That is how Athanasius, Arius’ fierce opponent, paraphrased Arius’ words (RH, 13). As stated in the Nicene Creed, Arius said, ’there was when he was not’, without the word “time.” See – Did Arius teach there was time when the Son of God did not exist?
The significance is that Arius taught that the Son was begotten before time even existed (“before times and before aeons” (RH, 7)). So, in his view, there was no ‘time’ before the Son was begotten; the Son existed during ‘all time’. It is only in a metaphysical sense, in the incomprehensible infinity beyond our physical universe, that ‘there was when He was not’.
I am not saying that Origen and Arius taught the same in this regard, but I do not support the sharp distinction which Hanson draws between them.
However, Williams sides with Hanson on this point when he says:
“It is just as plain that Arius and Origen are fundamentally at odds over the eternity of the Son and the quasi-necessity of the Son to the Father” (RW, 143).
2. For Arius, the Father begot the Son specifically to create. Origen does not make that connection.
“Origen … anticipates developed fourth-century orthodoxy in this at least, that he … has some notion of this relation as existing for its own sake, not as a means for connecting the One [God] and the Many [the created beings]” (RW, 143-4).
“Arius … remained firmly within the tradition which saw the distinct subsistence of the Second Hypostasis as connected to God’s purpose as creator – a tradition with reputable ancestry in the Apologists, and probably … in Clement” (RW, 144).
3. For Arius, the Son worships the Father.
Origen avoids such statements.
“Arius in the Thalia sees the Son as praising the Father in heaven; Origen generally avoids language suggesting that the Son worships the Father as God” (RH, 144). While Arius thought of the Father and Son as two separate Beings, Origen saw a much greater connection between them which eliminated the need for prayer, as we know it:
“Origen … does not for a moment allow that the Son might be an ‘object’ to us in isolation from his relation to the Father. … But this also implies that he (the Son) cannot ‘pray’ to the Father in any sense resembling that in which we pray, as all our praise and worship is in and through him. Arius’ insistence on the Son as an individual existing at God’s will and receiving grace ironically makes it easier for him to treat the Son as both object and subject of worship.” (RH, 144)
4. Origen discouraged prayer to the Son.
Arius allowed it.
“While Origen notoriously discouraged prayer to the Son (Christian prayer should be made in the Son to the Father), Arius and his followers apparently allowed it” (RH, 144).
As stated by the quote above:
Arius saw some distance between Father and Son, and since the Son is divine, we might pray to Him.
For Origen, the Father and Son are closely related. “Origen … anticipates developed fourth-century orthodoxy in this at least, that he comes close to saying that the Father-Son relationship is intrinsic to the divine life as such” (RW, 143-4). Consequently, we pray to the Father “in and through” the Son.
5. For Origen, Jesus had a human soul.
For the Arians, the Logos took a body without a soul.
A striking difference between Origen and the Arians is that, for Origen, Jesus had a human soul “whereas Arius’ contemporaries and successors … denied that the incarnate Word had any human soul at all” (RH, 65):
“The Son assumed … a body without a human mind or soul. This is one of the salient doctrines of Arianism” (RH, 97-98).
The Lucians were known for this teaching. Epiphanius explained why this was important for the Arians:
“Lucian and all the Lucianists deny that the Son of God took a soul [i.e. a human soul), ‘in order that … they may attach human experiences directly to the Logos.” (RH, 80)
To explain: In Nicene theology, at His incarnation, the Logos took on a human soul. That soul acted as a buffer between the Son of God and His human experiences. In other words, the Son of God did not suffer the pain of His body and He did not die.
In contrast, the Arians argued that, for people to be saved, God had to suffer. However, God cannot suffer. But He produced a reduced God who is able to suffer and even die. Nevertheless, to ensure that He experiences the pain of His suffering and death, He had to assume “a body without a human mind or soul.” For example, the Arians said:
“The Gentiles and the peoples crucified the God of the four comers of the earth” (RH, 109).
“Is the Son the immortal God? … No, he is not (i.e. he is the God who can do the dying whereas the Father cannot)” (RH, 109).
Consequently, the Arians criticized the pro-Nicenes for having a Christology which does not comply with the principles of soteriology (how people are saved).
In the few pages that have survived of his writings, Arius wrote nothing about soteriology (RH, 96). However, more recently, “Gregg and Groh maintain emphatically that … that the Arian Christ was specifically designed to be a Saviour” (RH, 96).
CONCLUSIONS
“Arius probably inherited some terms and even some ideas from Origen, … he certainly did not adopt any large or significant part of Origen’s theology” (RH, 70).
“He was not without influence from Origen, but cannot seriously be called an Origenist” (RH, 98).
Williams agrees:
“But in other respects, the confident ancient and modern judgment that Arius represents a development within an ‘Origenist’ theological school cannot be sustained in any but a radically qualified sense. (RW, 148)
Other Articles
- 1Arius, Heresy & Tradition
- 2The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God – The Arian Controversy 318-381
- 3Dogmengeschichte, 1:284–85