Abstract

The Author, taking account of the deficiencies of the surviving documentation on the doctrinal thought of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and considering the primacy of oral communication, nevertheless rejects the conclusion of a recent article on Origen’s doctrine of the Logos. There are no concrete data in the work of the Alexandrian theologian to support the hypothesis that he engaged in controversy with radical supporters of the doctrine of the Logos, who – as Arians ante litteram – separated the Son from the divinity of the Father. Moreover, one cannot ascribe to Origen’s age the debate against those who supported the Son as being homoousios with the Father. According to extant documentation, this question is not raised before the dispute of the two Dionysiuses. In order to attempt reconstruction of the theological reasoning in the early Church, while at the same time avoiding hypotheses which, however intriguing they may seem, are simplynot well-founded, analysis must confine itself to the extant documents.