Origen on the Freedom of Choice and the Will
Author: Yip-Mei Loh（Center for General Education, Chung Yuan Christian University, Associate Professor）
Vol.&No.：Vol. 69, No. 1
Date：March 2024
Pages：99-118
DOI：https://doi.org/10.6210/JNTNU.202403_69(1).0005
Abstract：
It is widely assumed that it was Augustine who first formulated a philosophical standpoint on free will; but in this paper I hope to show that it was Origen before him who laid the ground work, as evidenced in the remaining fragments of his works, Peri Archôn and Contra Celsum. Therein, he refers extensively to Plato’s myth in the Republic X, which delved into the relationship between man and choice.
Socrates holds that virtue is knowledge (epistêmê); that is, if one knows what good is, he does good. In brief, knowledge of goodness is necessarily the action of goodness. Likewise, for Origen the choice of the will, being an act of pistis, is related to the act of knowledge.
Origen goes on to rebuke Celsus for propagating the idea that man’s actions are pre-ordained, and that he (man) holds no responsibility for his choices, good or evil. For Origen this is nothing less than heresy.
Herein I will discuss Origen’s concept of the will to try to uphold the premise that he, in his Peri Archôn, disagrees with the premise that the devil’s fall is because of his nature, but because of his free choice of will.
Keywords：Augustine, Choice, ratio, the Septuagint, Will
《Full Text》
References：
- Arendt, Hannah. Vom Leben des Geistes, Piper Verlag GmbH, München/Berlin, 9. Auflage Dezember 1989.
- Augustine. City of God, translated by Philip Levine, London/England: Harvard University Press, 1966.
- Bostock, Gerald. ‘Origen: The Alternative to Augustine?’ in The Expository Times, July 1, 2003, 327-332, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/001452460311401001, Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001452460311401001 (accessed on 26th January 2022).
- Clement of Alexandria. The Stromata, The US: Lighthouse Christian Publishing, 2018.
- Dihle, Albrecht. The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press,1982.
» More
- Arendt, Hannah. Vom Leben des Geistes, Piper Verlag GmbH, München/Berlin, 9. Auflage Dezember 1989.
- Augustine. City of God, translated by Philip Levine, London/England: Harvard University Press, 1966.
- Bostock, Gerald. ‘Origen: The Alternative to Augustine?’ in The Expository Times, July 1, 2003, 327-332, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/001452460311401001, Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001452460311401001 (accessed on 26th January 2022).
- Clement of Alexandria. The Stromata, The US: Lighthouse Christian Publishing, 2018.
- Dihle, Albrecht. The Theory of Will in Classical Antiquity, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press,1982.
- Dodds, E.R. Plato, Gorgias: A revised Text with Introduction and Commentary, Oxford/England: Oxford University Press, 1959.
- Edwards, Julian Mark. Origen against Plato, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2002.
- Frede, Michael. A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought, edited by A. A. Long, foreword by David Sedley, London/England: University of California Press, 2011.
- Hengstermann, Christian. Origenes und Der Ursprung Der Freiheitsmetaphysik, Münster/Germany: Aschendorff Verlag GM, 2016.
- 克里斯多夫‧霍恩（Christoph Horn）。《奧古斯丁—哲學思想導論》，羅月美譯，臺北：五南出版社，2021.05。
- Horn, Christoph. Philosophie der Antike - Von den Vorsokratikern bis Augustinus, München/Deutschland: Verlag C.H. Beck oHG., 2013.
- Horn, Christoph. ‘RICOEUR ON THE CONCEPT OF WILL IN ARISTOTLE AND AUGUSTINE’ in the Revue des Sciences philosphiques et théologiques, 99 (2015): 567-582.
- Horn, Christoph. Augustinus, Verlag C.H.Beck oHG, München, 1995.
- 馬克愛德華斯（Mark Julian Edwards）。《歐利根駁斥柏拉圖》，羅月美譯，臺北：五南出版社，2020.05。
- Irwin, T.H.. ‘Who Discovered the Will?’ In the Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 6, (Ethics 1992): 453-473.
- Loh, Yip Mei. ‘Origen On the Mind’ in the Universitas- Monthly Review of Philosophy and Culture, No. 568 (Vol. 48, no. 09) September 2021.
- Origen. On First Principles, edited and translated by John Behr, Vol. I and Vol. II, the UK: Oxford University Press, 2017.
- Origenes. Contra Celsum, I, II and V, Griechisch-Deutsch, Eingeleitet und Kommentiert von Michael Fiedrowicz, Übersetzt von Claudia Barthold, Freiburg: Verlag Herder GmbH, 2011.
- Plato. Gorgias, translated by W. R. M. Lamb, London/England: Harvard University Press, first published 1925.
- ______. Protagoras, translated by W. R. M. Lamb, London/England: Harvard University Press, first published 1924.
- ______. Statesman, translated by W. R. M. Lamb, London/England: Harvard University Press, first published 1925.
- Ramelli, Ilaria L.E.. ‘Origen in Augustine: A Paradoxical Reception’ in the Numen 60 (2013) 280-307.
- St. Justin Martyr. The First and Second Apologies, translated and edited by Leslie William Barnard, The US: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1997.
- The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English. Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton, London: Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., 1851.
- Van Der Ejik, Ph. J.. ‘Origenes’s Verteudigung des Freien Willens in De Oratione 6, 1-2’, Vigiliae Christianae 42 (1988):339-351.