Lived in Alexandria, an ancient city located on the Mediterranean coast of north-central Egypt, in the first half of the third century, the great Neoplatonic philosopher, one of the foremost Christian scholars, ascetics and theologians, Origen of Alexandria, also known as Origen Adamantius, who wrote a monumental work entitled Apocatastasis, which can be translated as conciliation, reconstitution or restitution, or synthesis.
In this work, Origen affirmed that all human creatures' evolution is conditioned by positive and negative factors. The positive factor is historically represented by Christ and the negative one by the Antichrist. These evolutionary factors, apparently contrary, have a complementary function towards a harmonious synthesis, a higher evolution.
The book Apocatastasis, with only a single manuscript, was burned by order of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the time, and Origen was dismissed from the post of master of the catechumens (candidates to Christianity) and neophytes (the newly converted to Christianity). And with that, he peacefully retired to Palestine, where he continued to live as a Christian philosopher and mystic.
Nothing could be known about its content if it weren't for some notes written by his disciples about the teachings of the master, which have been preserved to this day.
According to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of that time and theology to this day, Christ and Antichrist are irreconcilable; the Antichrist must be destroyed so that Christ can triumph. Origen, however, as a logical and profound thinker, defends bipolarity, both of the sidereal macrocosm and the hominal microcosm. His thought is what today can be called Universal Philosophy, that is, the human Self in need of its ego for evolution; that the Essence must permeate all Existence, bringing about the convergence towards the grand synthesis of the integral man. In its existential part, the Universe is in permanent fluidic evolution; it is a dynamic process rather than a static state.
Thus, man also participates in this bipolarity for his evolution, needing both the positive and the negative, the Christ synthesis and the Antichrist antithesis, pros and cons.
Origen knew that the breath of God in Genesis and the hissing of the serpent are the two spiritual and mental factors of evolving man. Man's perfection, or self-realisation, does not consist in affirming his Christ (Self) and denying his Antichrist (ego), but rather in establishing a perfect harmony and balance between these two factors of his evolving nature, as a kind of unfinished symphony.
The entire Universe's harmony consists of the balance between the centripetal and centrifugal forces of the Cosmos. These forces cannot be neutralized because this harmony is necessary since it consists of a complementary synthesis between these two struggling antitheses.
In the sidereal macrocosm, these two forces are automatically balanced. However, free will must establish the harmonious balance between the Self and the ego in the human microcosm, between Christ and the Antichrist.
To teach such truth in a primitive environment like that of the third century – and even in the present 21st century – is reckless. The great truths are food for the spiritually adults, but they can be poison for the spiritually immature, as Paul of Tarsus well warned in the first century to the Christians of Corinth: “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not prepared.”
Origen wanted to offer solid food to the immatures of his time, to the catechumens and neophytes of Alexandria, it seems. For this reason, the ecclesiastical hierarchy took the defence of the spiritually immature, burning the monumental work of Origen. Even today, catechism and Sunday school children must be told that Christ must exist and the Antichrist must die.
However, all of humanity's spiritual masters emphasize, almost unilaterally, the positive pole of the Self and fight the negative pole of the ego.
Why?
Because, in evolving humanity, the negative and peripheral pole of the ego develops first and threatens to impede the awakening of the positive pole of the Self. Ego-consciousness is an inheritance, a cradle gift, which theologians call original sin, attributing it to Adam, from whom humanity would have inherited, and until these days, it is not known under what logic and justice it is attributed.
The conquest of the spirituality factor (of rationality) in man is a duty of conscience that man is reluctant to accept, as one has the impression that his intellectuality must be older and come first.
Since, as Eastern philosophy says, the ego is the worst enemy of the Self, this ego does its best to prevent the awakening of the Self, that is, the reason, Logos, spirit.
It is theologians’ pure illusion that baptism can nullify the so-called original sin. The only factor capable of overcoming the sinful ego is the redeeming Self if it can prevail against the ego. John the Baptist wisely said: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy Spirit”, referring to the awakening of the Christlike Self in man.
Given this, all spiritual masters emphasize the need for the spiritual Self and repress the domination of the mental ego – which is perfectly acceptable in the face of evolving humanity.
The Christ Jesus always commanded the Antichrist to stand at the rear as a docile servant and would not tolerate it at the front as an arrogant lord, but he never nullified or expelled it.
The book of Origen is more Christlike than Christian if by that word is meant the dominant clerical theology. Origen wrote it for future humanity.
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