Origen (d. 254 CE) demonstrates that Stoic theories on impression (phantasia) and anthropology can be adjusted to engage the Christian understanding of an immaterial and eternal God. In particular, Origen applies the concepts related to the impression (phantasia) to defend his view of rational human freedom in opposition to gnostic deterministic anthropologies. As prior studies have shown, Origen grants primacy to Scripture and the Rule of Faith, but as I show, he does not hesitate to integrate and transform foreign philosophical concepts. While some scholars have dismissed Origen's use of Stoic concepts on the impression as typical of his time, another scholar has argued that Origen transforms the concept by linking it to the Christian view on sin. My thesis is that Origen appropriates and transforms the Stoic concepts related to the impression and first movement in agreement with shifts established by the previous Alexandrian thinkers Philo and Clement to address materialistic theologies of God and gnostic deterministic anthropologies.;My thesis has implications on three levels. At the first level, Origen's non-Stoic use of the Stoic concepts is compatible with an established interpretation available in Alexandria as it appears in the works of Philo and Clement. On the second level, Origen's application of the concepts reveals how they assist his theological mission to defend the immateriality and transcendence of God along with the equality of all human beings in relation to God. At the third level, Origen applies the Stoic concepts more faithfully in his Alexandrian works where he addresses mainly gnostic teachings while in Caesarea he focuses more on materialistic theologies. In Alexandria Origen applies the philosophical concepts related to impression in accordance to the originating school of thought while for the most part in Caesarea he alters the concepts to give priority to the biblical narrative.;Key Words: Origen, Alexandria, Philo, Clement, Early Christianity, Caesarea, third century, philosophy, Stoicism, theory of knowledge, first movement, phantasia, impression, katalepsis, apprehension, making decisions, morality, Christian anthropology, gnostic theology, materialistic theology.
展开▼
