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Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer

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Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses School of Theology and Seminary 10-18-2006 Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer Hilary Case OSB College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_papers Part of the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Case, Hilary OSB, "Becoming One Spirit: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer" (2006). School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses. 6. https://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/sot_papers/6 This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Theology and Seminary at DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BECOMING ONE SPIRIT: ORIGEN AND EVAGRIUS PONTICUS ON PRAYER by Hilary Case, OSB Box 7066 St. John’s University Collegeville, MN 56321 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology of Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Monastic Studies SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY Saint John’s University Collegeville, Minnesota October 18, 2006 This Thesis was written under the direction of _____________________________________ Professor Columba Stewart, O. S. B. and ______________________________________ Professor William J. Cahoy Hilary Case, O.S.B. has successfully demonstrated the use of French and Greek in this Thesis. _____________________________________ Professor Columba Stewart, O.S.B. October 18, 2006 BECOMING ONE SPIRIT: ORIGEN AND EVAGRIUS PONTICUS ON PRAYER Origen and Evagrius present a theology of prayer that provided the spiritual foundation for later monasticism, both in the East and in the West. Indeed, the influence of Origen and Evagrius on Christian spirituality is perceptible even today. Yet the works of both writers were repeatedly condemned by ecumenical councils, beginning with the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. In this thesis, I attempt to shed light on this paradox by setting the spiritual works of each writer within the context of the theological controversies of his time. When Origen’s works are seen in relation to the Church’s third-century effort to refute the theologies of Marcion and the Gnostic schools, such aspects of his thought as Platonic mythic cosmology, the pre-existence of souls and subordination within the Trinity come into clearer focus as aspects of his insistence on the importance of freedom against the determinism of the Gnostics. For Origen, God’s grace works with human freedom, and God’s providence allows for human freedom. In On First Principles and in his Commentary on Romans, Origen explores the moral responsibility of the individual soul to make the right choices; these are a challenge even with the help of God. Yet, God is always present, working through Christ and the angels to help the Christian return to holiness. Prayer is a key strategy for the Christian who wants to make progress, as well as the place of meeting for the human spirit with God. Thus, against the Gnostics, Origen is really a de-mythologizer. We also see that his allegorical approach to Scripture exposes the shallowness of the exegesis of Marcion, who sought to cut the Old Testament and much of the New from the Christian canon. Writing a century and a half later, Evagrius systematizes Origen’s cosmology, as well as his concept of freedom and grace. At the same time, against the Eunomian Arians of his day, he reinterprets the Trinity, following his friends and mentors, the Cappadocian Fathers, in his stress on an apophatic approach to the One and the Three. In the trajectory of Origen’s Commentary on Romans, Evagrius further analyzes the machinations of the demons, seriously-fallen spirits who hate and envy both human beings and God, hence work with human cognition and the human heart to prevent the process of prayer and the learning of good moral habits. For Evagrius too, prayer is the meeting “place” between God and the human spirit and finally, the only lens through which created reality can be truly seen. With this theological background in mind, we can see that the points which the Church later judged to be heterodox do not outweigh each writer’s deeply Christian spirituality. This thesis may be duplicated. _________________ Date_____________________ Becoming One Spirit with God: Origen and Evagrius Ponticus on Prayer Table of Contents I. Introduction: The Anthropological Foundations of Prayer: Historical Overview-----------------------------1 II. Chapter One: How Do We Know the One True God? A. Sources of Understanding: Scripture and the Hellenistic Philosophies--------------------- 36 B. One in Divinity and Participation: Origen’s Answer to Marcion and the Gnostics—--- 43 C. One By Nature, Not By Number: Evagrius’s Answer to Eunomius--------------------------- 73 III. Chapter Two: From Image to Likeness: Self-knowledge as the Way to God A. The Heritage of Clement of Alexandria-------------------------------------------------------------115 B. Self-knowledge and Prayer: Origen------------------------------------------------------------------- 131 C. Self-knowledge and Prayer: Evagrius---------------------------------------------------------------- 158 IV. Conclusion: Review and Further Study----------------------------------------------------------------------- 183 I. The Anthropological Foundations of Prayer: Historical Overview Origen and Evagrius both conceive of prayer as “conversation with God.” In our time, conversation with God is presupposed as an aspect of prayer, and programs that train spiritual directors focus on ways of assisting others to converse freely with God. It is possible that we speak of such conversation too easily. For Origen, writing On Prayer in about 230 C. E. and for Evagrius, writing in the 390s, prayer is hardly mere chat. Prayer is a work of the whole heart, a turning of the whole mind to the God who is infinitely transcendent, infinitely holy. We can pray only by the redeeming will of the entire Trinity. We can pray well only after a good deal of moral preparation. Origen and Evagrius were not the first to view prayer as the whole person’s response to redemption. They develop the tradition begun by Clement of Alexandria in Stromateis, Book 7. Clement distinguishes between the outward act of talking to God and the inner cry of the heart: _στιv . _μιλία πρ_ς τ_v Θε_v _ ε_χή.1 Prayer is . converse with God. Though whispering . and not opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward converse. So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven and set the feet in motion . following the eagerness of the spirit directed towards the intellectual essence; and endeavoring to abstract the body from the earth along with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing for better things, we 2 compel it to advance to the region of holiness, magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. 1 Stromateis, 7. 7. 39. 6 - 7. 7. 40. 1. The Greek text is that of Alain Le Boulluec, trans., Clément d’Alexandrie: Les Stromates, 7, SC 428 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1997). 2 In this thesis, I will be using the English translation of Stromateis at http://newadvent.org/fathers/02107.htm. Variations will be my own and will be placed in square brackets. Since this translation uses chapter numbers only, I will supply the section numbers from Le Boulluec’s edition. 7 Paradoxically, for Clement, the whole body is involved in the effort to raise the soul above the realm of physical reality. Body, soul, and spirit are to reach toward the intellectual essence of God with longing and generosity. This prayer is a “conversation” of the entire person as the feet and hands move, the spirit eagerly longs for God, and the soul flies, letting go of its earthly preoccupations. Plato might recognize an echo of his conception of the soul as a charioteer driving two winged horses in Phaedrus, 246a- 248b. Because one of the horses prefers earth, Socrates says, it takes a great deal of self-discipline to rise above the hubbub of earthly opinions to the knowledge of intelligible reality.3 Clement warns that in order to pray, we must be ready to let go of all conflicting desires. Inner “work” is a necessary preparation for prayer, as we shall see. Origen develops this theme, noting that the hands we raise must be “holy”; that is, we must be free of anger and quarreling (On Prayer, 9. 1) so that we can see the Lord’s glory. For him, “conversation” with God flows from the mind’s contemplation of God: “For the eyes of the mind (_φθαλμoί τo_ διαvoητικo_) are lifted up from their preoccupation with earthly things . and they arrive at the sheer contemplation of God and at conversing (_μιλε_v) with Him reverently and suitably as He listens” (Prayer, 9. 2).4 Following Origen and Clement’s definition but abstracting it from their contexts, Evagrius simply states that prayer is “conversation (_μιλία) of the mind with God (De Orat. 3).5 However, he agrees with Clement and Origen that conversation with God depends on the mind’s purification; for without moral readiness, the mind is incapable of “reaching out unwaveringly toward its own Lord, to converse with him . who is above all perception” (De Orat. 3-4). Again, the mind must be willing to get rid of anger and other earthly preoccupations. Otherwise, mundane 3 Phaedrus, trans. Alexander Nehamas and Paul Woodruff, Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997). 4 Rowan Greer’s translation, Origen, The Classics of Western Spirituality edition (Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1979) 99. The Greek refers to Peri Euch_s, ed. Paul Koetschau, Origenes Werke I (J.
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