Thursday, July 14, 2016

ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by ORIGEN

https://www.amazon.com/First-Principles-Origen/dp/0870612794#immersive-view_1468494585583 "2. But if it is impossible by any means to maintain this proposition, namely, that any being , with the exception of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, can live apart from a body, then logical reasoning compels us to believe that, while the original creation was of rational beings, it is only in idea and thought that a material substance is separable from them, and though that substance seems to have been produced for them or after them, yet never have they lived or do they live without it; for we shall be right in believing that life without a body is found in the Trinity alone. Now as we have said above , material substance possesses such a nature that it can undergo every kind of transformation. When therefore it is drawn down to lower beings it is formed into the grosser and more solid condition of the body and serves to distinguish the visible species of this world in all their variety. But when it ministers to more perfect and blessed beings, it shines in the splendor of 'celestial bodies ' (1 Cor 15:40) and adorns either the 'angels of God' or the 'sons of the resurrection ' (cf. Lk 20:36; Mt 22:30) with the garments of a 'spiritual body' (1 Cor 15:44). All these beings go to make up the diverse and varied conditions of the one world ." P.102, "The perpetuity of bodily nature," ON FIRST PRINCIPLES by Origen (2013)