Do you need to study theology to know about God?
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. - Matt. 11:25 NRSV
Right now, I'm working on my senior thesis at Ursuline. For my topic, I chose to write about Origen of Alexandria, and through looking at him, how Christian Orthodoxy was shaped. I find him a fascinating character because he was a very early Christian theologian, possibly "the greatest genius the early church ever produced," and yet many of his writings were later destroyed and he was considered a heretic, despite having laid the foundations for systematic theology and inspiring countless Orthodox fathers. Origen lived in a time before the council of Nicaea which defined the boundaries of what Christians needed to believe, and the lines between Greek Philosophy and Christianity were quite blurred, especially in Origen's hometown of Alexandria, Egypt.
The thing I find most fascinating with Origen is his theory of apokatastasis (Greek for "return"). Basically, Origen believed that eventually all beings would return to God - all would be saved. The basis of this theory is a line from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all. (15:28)" There's a lot of theology and philosophy to explain how this would happen that I won't get into right now, but the thing that struck me was this: why were people so threatened by the idea that everyone would eventually "make it in" to Heaven? Why was that such a scandal?
Part of it, I think, is power. As the Church began to gain worldly power, I think it began to be important to have something to hold over people. To be the only channel through which people could be saved from eternal torment after death would certainly bring in high attendance numbers (and tithe amounts) at Mass. And also, I think it's a hard idea for some people to grasp. To think that everyone gets to Heaven at some point means even the worst person we can think of could be saved. Origen would argue, by the way, that it was up to that soul's free will - the Devil could potentially be saved if he chose to return to God. People in Origen's time found this shocking.
As I'm doing my research for this paper, I'm getting bogged down in a lot of theological and philosophical terms that can make my head spin. My initial enthusiasm for Origen was rather dimmed when I read that he was something of an elitist. He thought only a few people could possibly advance spiritually enough to read the Scriptures for all their richness - he believed that there were layers of meaning underneath the text, and much of Scripture was allegorical. Although I applaud the fact that he was no fundamentalist, I'm bothered by any kind of elitism. Privilege plays a big role in who gets to have access to knowledge.
Whenever I get too overwhelmed with information in studying scripture and theology, I remember Matthew 11:25, which I opened this post with. I remember that as wonderful it is to gain knowledge about these subjects, and to wrestle with questions and try to find answers about God, the answers don't come to the most learned. They don't come to whoever has taken the most classes, earned the most degrees, read the most books or written the biggest dissertations. Jesus told us to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven. The truth is found in simplicity, humility, and silent contemplation.
Another figure I've learned about recently that I've become enamored with, from a very different time and place, is Symeon the New Theologian. He lived about 8 centuries after Origen, in Galatia (modern day Turkey). Symeon rejected much of the church authority of his day and felt "contemptuous of ordered scholarship in comparison with personal experience." He wrote this beautiful piece on who the Holy Spirit is sent to:
...Not to lovers of glory,
Not to rhetoricians, not to philosophers,
Not to those who have studied Hellenistic writings...
Not to those who speak eloquently and with refinement...
But to the poor in spirit and life,
To the pure in heart and body,
Who speak and even more live simply.
To be clear, I love theology. I love gaining knowledge. I feel like a sponge eagerly absorbing everything I can when I find a new book or class that interests me. G.K. Chesterton once said, "Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains." I think God gave us brains to be used, after all. We should learn and grapple with things. But I think we also need to know when we are getting in our own way. C.S. Lewis, another great Christian thinker, said "God wants a child's heart and a grownup's head." The key is knowing when to let our brain rest and let our heart take over, and God will speak truths that go beyond words. Even Origen wrote this in his giant treatise on God, De Principiis:
...God is incomprehensible, and incapable of being measured. For whatever be the knowledge which we are able to obtain of God, either by perception or reflection, we must of necessity believe that He is by many degrees far better than what we perceive Him to be.
Even someone with elitist tendencies like Origen realized that no matter how much one has studied or written about God, you can only scratch the surface. I don't know about you, but I find that absolutely wonderful and reassuring. We "see through a glass darkly" now, but someday we will see God in full, and what we see will be far better than anyone has yet imagined.
Right now, I'm working on my senior thesis at Ursuline. For my topic, I chose to write about Origen of Alexandria, and through looking at him, how Christian Orthodoxy was shaped. I find him a fascinating character because he was a very early Christian theologian, possibly "the greatest genius the early church ever produced," and yet many of his writings were later destroyed and he was considered a heretic, despite having laid the foundations for systematic theology and inspiring countless Orthodox fathers. Origen lived in a time before the council of Nicaea which defined the boundaries of what Christians needed to believe, and the lines between Greek Philosophy and Christianity were quite blurred, especially in Origen's hometown of Alexandria, Egypt.
The thing I find most fascinating with Origen is his theory of apokatastasis (Greek for "return"). Basically, Origen believed that eventually all beings would return to God - all would be saved. The basis of this theory is a line from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all. (15:28)" There's a lot of theology and philosophy to explain how this would happen that I won't get into right now, but the thing that struck me was this: why were people so threatened by the idea that everyone would eventually "make it in" to Heaven? Why was that such a scandal?
Part of it, I think, is power. As the Church began to gain worldly power, I think it began to be important to have something to hold over people. To be the only channel through which people could be saved from eternal torment after death would certainly bring in high attendance numbers (and tithe amounts) at Mass. And also, I think it's a hard idea for some people to grasp. To think that everyone gets to Heaven at some point means even the worst person we can think of could be saved. Origen would argue, by the way, that it was up to that soul's free will - the Devil could potentially be saved if he chose to return to God. People in Origen's time found this shocking.
As I'm doing my research for this paper, I'm getting bogged down in a lot of theological and philosophical terms that can make my head spin. My initial enthusiasm for Origen was rather dimmed when I read that he was something of an elitist. He thought only a few people could possibly advance spiritually enough to read the Scriptures for all their richness - he believed that there were layers of meaning underneath the text, and much of Scripture was allegorical. Although I applaud the fact that he was no fundamentalist, I'm bothered by any kind of elitism. Privilege plays a big role in who gets to have access to knowledge.
Whenever I get too overwhelmed with information in studying scripture and theology, I remember Matthew 11:25, which I opened this post with. I remember that as wonderful it is to gain knowledge about these subjects, and to wrestle with questions and try to find answers about God, the answers don't come to the most learned. They don't come to whoever has taken the most classes, earned the most degrees, read the most books or written the biggest dissertations. Jesus told us to become like little children in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven. The truth is found in simplicity, humility, and silent contemplation.
Another figure I've learned about recently that I've become enamored with, from a very different time and place, is Symeon the New Theologian. He lived about 8 centuries after Origen, in Galatia (modern day Turkey). Symeon rejected much of the church authority of his day and felt "contemptuous of ordered scholarship in comparison with personal experience." He wrote this beautiful piece on who the Holy Spirit is sent to:
...Not to lovers of glory,
Not to rhetoricians, not to philosophers,
Not to those who have studied Hellenistic writings...
Not to those who speak eloquently and with refinement...
But to the poor in spirit and life,
To the pure in heart and body,
Who speak and even more live simply.
To be clear, I love theology. I love gaining knowledge. I feel like a sponge eagerly absorbing everything I can when I find a new book or class that interests me. G.K. Chesterton once said, "Theology is simply that part of religion that requires brains." I think God gave us brains to be used, after all. We should learn and grapple with things. But I think we also need to know when we are getting in our own way. C.S. Lewis, another great Christian thinker, said "God wants a child's heart and a grownup's head." The key is knowing when to let our brain rest and let our heart take over, and God will speak truths that go beyond words. Even Origen wrote this in his giant treatise on God, De Principiis:
...God is incomprehensible, and incapable of being measured. For whatever be the knowledge which we are able to obtain of God, either by perception or reflection, we must of necessity believe that He is by many degrees far better than what we perceive Him to be.
Even someone with elitist tendencies like Origen realized that no matter how much one has studied or written about God, you can only scratch the surface. I don't know about you, but I find that absolutely wonderful and reassuring. We "see through a glass darkly" now, but someday we will see God in full, and what we see will be far better than anyone has yet imagined.
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