Origen, Greek Philosophy, and the Birth of the Trinitarian Meaning ofHypostasis

Abstract

Origen, far from being a precursor of “Arianism,” as he was depicted during the Origenist controversy and is often still misrepresented today, was the main inspirer of the Nicene-Cappadocian line.1The Trinitarian formulation of this line, which was represented above all by Gregory of Nyssa, is that God is one and the same nature or essencein three individual substancesand that the Son isto the Father. Indeed, the three members of the Trinity share in the same2This formulation was followed by Basil in his last phase; Didymus, Gregory of Nazianzus from 362 onwards; Evagrius; and numerous later authors.3Origen himself had already maintained both things: that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have the samebut are three differentand Gregory of Nyssa closely followed him.4As I set out to argue, Origen’s thought represented a novel and fundamental theorization with respect to the communality ofand the individuality ofconceived as individual substances, in the Trinity. He influenced not only subsequent Trinitarian theology, but perhaps even “pagan” Neoplatonism. (Likewise, on the christological side, Annewies van den Hoek5has insightfully demonstrated the importance of Origen in asking—and endeavoring to answer—the question of the unification of humanity and divinity in Christ, and Origen’s influence on later formulations.)