SOURCE: "Origen the Pagan," in Origen: Life at Alexandria, B. Herder Book Co., 1944, pp. 186-208.

In this essay, Cadiou explains the purported identification of Origen 's thought with pagan Neoplatonism, the problems that follow upon such an identification, and the facts about Origen's reception of Neoplatonism.

The comparative study of the two systems of thought justifies us in the assertion that the Platonism which Origen acquired at Alexandria in the beginning of the third century was the decisive factor in the development of his philosophy. Thirsting for its teachings on the origin of the soul, the hierarchy of spirits, the role of providence, and the genesis of created things, he sought from it far more than the ordinary student who was content to find in it a sufficient number of commonplaces for his religious studies. In arriving at this conclusion about the source of his system of thought...