Origen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an Idea (review)Joseph W. Trigg

Journal of Early Christian Studies, Volume 1, Number 2, Summer 1993,pp. 224-225 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/earl.0.0125

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224 JOURNAL OF EARLY CHRISTIAN STUDIES

philosophers acting as "therapeutai"surely the first therapists in Western civili-zation, since, Philo says, they "profess a healing art" and "care for the Real."Elizabeth Castelli's translation of Pseudo-Athanasius's "The Life and Activity of theHoly and Blessed Teacher Syncletica" is a fascinating account of one of the earlydesert mothers of whom we have so little written information. Although this hagio-graphy does not offer very much in the way of biographical information, it doesshow us a vivid picture of a charismatic woman who attracted eager female disci-ples. One of the most interesting aspects of it, perhaps, is how early Desert Chris-tians believed that asceticism not only pertained to strict practices and abstinentliving, but to the patient endurance of disease and illness.

I agree with the editor's assertion that this volume "should help to changing thethinking of those who were convinced that asceticism can or must mean one thing."Anyone who begins to read it will necessarily come to an appreciation of the richdiversity of ascetic behaviors and traditions in and outside of Christianity. AsceticBehavior In Greco-Roman Antiquity is, as its title implies, an excellent "source-book." It makes accessible to a wide audience many primary resources that havepreviously been unavailable. It would be a worthy addition to the library of anycollege, seminary, or university. Graduate students, theologians, and patristic schol-ars especially would benefit from it. As James Robinson, Director of the Institute forAntiquity and Christianity, says in the foreword: it is important for all of us to listento these ascetic texts to the extent that "they address us today," questioningandperhaps clarifyingour own approach to askesis in the modern world.

Edward Sellner, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, Minnesota

Alan ScottOrigen and the Life of the Stars: A History of an IdeaOxford University Press, 1991xvi + 189 pp. $49.95.

Beginning with the Pythagoreans, who upheld it, and the Ionians, who denied it,Scott traces to Origen the idea that the stars are rational beings. On the way he dealswith the classical philosophical schools, with Philo, with Hellenistic natural sci-ence, with gnosticism, and with Clement of Alexandria. As in Jean Pepin's Theo-logie cosmique et thologie chrtienne, Aristotle turns out to have a bigger role inthe story than does Plato. In the process, Scott provides us a distinctive perspectiveon Christian attitudes to the natural world and awareness of the natural sciences.He also helps us better understand the world-view ultimately apotheosized inDante's Paradiso. Interestingly, this strand of Origen's thought had a fuller career inthe West, where Ambrose and, at least to some extent, Aquinas accepted it, thanin the East, where Basil and John Philoponus rejected it.

Origen refers to the rational nature of the stars in several works and devotes tothem a chapter (1.7) in On First Principles. There he provides scriptural and philo-sophical arguments that the stars are rational beings. Scripturally, Origen appealsto passages in the LXX like Isaiah 45.12, "I have given precepts to all the stars" andPsalm 148.3 "Praise him, sun and moon, Praise him all stars and light." Most

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importantly, he appeals to Job 25.5, "the stars are not clean in his sight." Theuncleanness of the stars could not have been their original state, since that wouldimply imperfection on God's part. If the stars are not clean, therefore, there musthave been a moral failure on their part. Origen further argues that the stars havebeen, in the words of Romans 8.21, "subjected to futility," their present embodi-ment, on account of their fault. Like the angels, though, they also serve humanity asthey await their deliverance. Philosophically, Origen argues that the stars' motionimplies animation and that their exact observance of rule and plan further impliesrationality.

Scott makes no attempt to distinguish between the Christian and the philosophi-cal elements in Origen's thought on the stars. His work thus witnesses to a consen-sus among students of Early Christianity that Harnack's hypothesis about theHellenization of Christianity, with its implicit assumption that we can distinguishthe biblical tradition from its Greco-Roman cultural context, does not point us touseful questions. In the case of Origen this led to a false dichotomy between acommitted Christian theologian and a Middle Platonist. Scott's extensive discus-sion of the relation between the corporeal vehicle (okhma) Origen envisaged forthe stars and the resurrection body also witnesses to a consensus on Origen'seschatology. Scholars can now agree that Origen's understanding of the Christianhope did not entail the loss of some sort of embodiment that would remain as anessential distinction between the creature and the creator. Whether understandingthis doctrine would have mollified Origen's ancient detractors is another question.They clearly preferred to understand resurrection as the resuscitation of the corpse,as in the story of Lazarus so prominent in early Christian iconography.

Scott shows a solid grasp of classical and Patristic sources and secondary litera-ture. His work testifies to Origen's great interest in and knowledge of the naturalsciences. Without a trace of Augustine's suspicion of curiositas, Origen regardedthe natural world as, like Holy Scripture, an avenue toward the knowledge of God.The book's main limitations are that it does not put Origen's understanding of thestars within a broader theological context than his eschatology and that, by andlarge, it does not deal with exegetical issues. Scott does little to relate Origen'sunderstanding of the stars to his theological system as a whole, of which it is anintegral part. As a result, he perhaps underestimates the importance of gnosticismin moving Origen toward Greek philosophical understandings of the stars. Theview that the stars are rational beings serving humanity provided an alternative tothe gnostic view that they are malevolent powers seeking to keep the divine-humanspirit from escaping the cosmos. It would also have been intriguing if Scott haddealt with the scriptural side of Origen's argument. Why should we take seriouslyOrigen's philosophical arguments while dismissing the arguments from scripturethat he himself gave priority? It may seem arbitrary to us when Origen takes thepersonifications of the stars in the Bible literally, deliberately rejecting their inter-pretation as figures of speech. Nonetheless, Isaiah Berlin reminds us, in an essay onVico, that metaphor and simile "are natural ways of expressing a vision of lifedifferent from ours". We should entertain the possibility that, as an interpreter,Origin was right.

Joseph W. Trigg, St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, Falls Church, Virginia