(Nie)obecność idei upadku w preegzystencji w pierwszej homilii Orygenesa o Księdze Rodzaju

Abstract

The idea of the fall in pre-existence is one of Origen’s best-known concepts. According to his hypothesis, God created all spiritual beings, rational and free, before the beginning of time. Those beings turned away from God and fell as a result. Their fall gave rise to the creation of the material world. Origen thus explains the fact that, even before they deserve to be punished or rewarded, people do not have equal conditions for living from the moment they are born. The idea of the fall in pre-existence helped Origen to reconcile that inequality with the recognition of God’s omnipotence and justice. It also provided a vital point for his polemics against the Gnostics. The theory, however, does not appear in his first homily on the Book of Genesis, providing a commentary on the biblical description of creation – a text where a reference to the fall in pre-existence would be well-grounded. It praises the creation of the material world and man as the crown of creation. The homily presents the distinction between the inner and the outer man, which is typical of Origen, however, it contains no hints to the fall as the cause for creating the sensuous world and the outer man. One of the reasons for such absence might be that Origen did not perceive his theory as vital for the spiritual growth of Christians, he only used it as an element of polemics with the Gnostics. As Origen stressed himself, his thought was always open and searching, thus such inconsistency and selectivity of his approach to the idea of the fall in pre-existence does not seem unusual. If this is a correct conclusion, then the idea of the fall in pre-existence is distinctly different from the Western concept of the original sin.