New Monograph on Origen’s Philosophy of Freedom by Christian Hengstermann

Recently, a new book on Origen and the metaphysics of freedom by Dr. Christian Hengstermann was published by Aschendorff Verlag. Read an English summary below.

Origenes und der Ursprung der Freiheitsmetaphysik

By Christian Hengstermann

Origenes und der Ursprung der Freiheitsmetaphysik (Origen and the Beginning of Freedom Metaphysics) offers a comprehensive exposition of the first Christian philosophy created by the greatest of the Greek Church Fathers. Reality as such is construed in terms of grades of freedom. For one thing, Origen sets out to refute philosophical and Gnostic determinism, notably its historic Stoic and Valentinian varieties, doggedly insisting on man’s free will with conceptual and exegetical arguments. His highly influential defence of man’s freedom of choice in the On First Principles is in fact the very first Christian philosophical investigation into the essence of human freedom. For another, Origen conceives both of God and the world as the timeless origin and the historical realization of dynamic moral freedom respectively. His deeply original metaphysics culminates in the vision of a blessed “God in all things“ in which divine and human freedom will eventually coincide.

Find more information on the book and the author via this link.