spect, monistic, but, as
the material world, though created by God out of nothing, merely appears
as a place of punishment and purification for souls, a strong element of
dualism is inherent in the system, as far as its practical application
is concerned.[707] The prevailing contrast is that between the one
transcendent essence and the multiplicity of all created things. The
pervading ambiguity lies in the twofold view of the spiritual in so far
as, on the one hand, it belongs to God as the unfolding of his essence,
and, on the other, as being created, is contrasted with God. This
ambiguity, which recurs in all the Neoplatonic systems and has continued
to characterise all mysticism down to the present day, originates in the
attempt to repel Stoic pantheism and yet to preserve the transcendental
nature of the human spirit, and to maintain the absolute causality of
God without allowing his goodness to be called in question. The
assumption that created spirits can freely determine their own course is
therefore a necessity of the system; in fact this assumption is one of
its main presuppositions[708] and is so boldly developed as to limit the
omnipotence and omniscience of God. But, as from the empirical point of
view the knot is tied for every man at the very moment he appears on
earth, and since the problem is not created by each human being as the
result of his own independent will, but lies in his organisation,
speculation must retreat behind history. So the system, in accordance
with certain hints of Plato, is constructed on the same plan as that of
Valentinus, for example, to which it has an extraordinary affinity. It
contains three parts: (1) The doctrine of God and his unfoldings or
creations, (2) the doctrine of the Fall and its consequences, (3) the
doctrine of redemption and restoration.[709] Like Denis, however, we may
also, in accordance with a premised theory of method, set forth the
system in four sections, viz., Theology, Cosmology, Anthropology,
Teleology. Origen's fundamental idea is "the original indestructible
unity of God and all spiritual essence." From this it necessarily
follows that the created spirit after fall, error, and sin must ever
return to its origin, to being in God. In this idea we have the key to
the religious philosophy of Origen.

The only sources for obtaining a knowledge of the truth are the Holy
Scriptures of both Testaments. No doubt the speculations of Greek
philosophers also conta