tinus; in fact
he is characterised by the adoption of the methods and, in a certain
sense, of the axioms current in the schools of Valentinus and traceable
in Neoplatonism. But, as this method implied the acknowledgment of a
sacred literature, Origen was an exegete who believed in the Holy
Scriptures and indeed, at bottom, he viewed all theology as a methodical
exegesis of Holy Writ. Finally, however, since Origen, as an
ecclesiastical Christian, was convinced that the Church (by which he
means only the perfect and pure Church) is the sole possessor of God's
holy revelations with whose authority the faith may be justly satisfied,
nothing but the two Testaments, as preserved by her, was regarded by him
as the absolutely reliable divine revelation.[684] But, in addition to
these, every possession of the Church, and, above all, the rule of
faith, was authoritative and holy.[685] By acknowledging not only the
relative correctness of the beliefs held by the great mass of simple
Christians, as the Valentinians did, but also the indispensableness of
their faith as the foundation of speculation, Origen like Clement
avoided the dilemma of becoming a heterodox Gnostic or an ecclesiastical
traditionalist. He was able to maintain this standpoint, because in the
first place his Gnosis required a guaranteed sacred literature which he
only found in the Church, and because in the second place this same
Gnosis had extended its horizon far enough to see that what the
heretical Gnosis had regarded as contrasts were different aspects of the
same thing. The relative way of looking at things, an inheritance from
the best time of antiquity, is familiar to Origen, as it was to Clement;
and he contrived never to lose sight of it, in spite of the absolute
attitude he had arrived at through the Christian Gnosis and the Holy
Scriptures. This relative view taught him and Clement toleration and
discretion (Strom. IV. 22. 139: [Greek: he gnosis agapa kai tous
agnoountas didaskei te kai paideuei ten pasan ktisin tou pantokratoros
Theou timan], "Gnosis loves and instructs the ignorant and teaches us to
honour the whole creation of God Almighty"); and enabled them everywhere
to discover, hold fast, and further the good in that which was meagre
and narrow, in that which was undeveloped and as yet intrinsically
obscure.[686] As an orthodox traditionalist and decided opponent of all
heresy Origen acknowledged that Christianity embraces a salvation which
is