Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–254 AD) was one of the most brilliant and controversial early Christian theologians. He developed a highly speculative system that blended biblical interpretation with Platonic philosophy. One of the central ideas in his cosmology is what is often called the Fall of the Intellects (or the fall of the rational beings / logikoi).
In Origen’s view, before the creation of the material world, God created a fixed number of pure, incorporeal rational beings — pure intellects or minds (noes or logikoi). These beings were equal, free, and existed in direct contemplation of God.
Their fall occurred through the misuse of free will. Origen describes it with the Greek concept of koros — a kind of satiety, weariness, or cooling of love toward God. The intellects grew distracted or bored with the pure vision of the divine and turned away. This “cooling” is etymologically linked in Origen’s thought to the word for soul (psyche), which he associated with psychein (“to cool”).
Degrees of the Fall
The severity of each intellect’s turning away determined its subsequent state:
- Those who fell the least remained closest to God and became angels.
- Those who fell further became human souls, which were then clothed in material bodies as a form of discipline and education.
- Those who fell the most became demons (including, in some of Origen’s more radical suggestions, the devil himself).
The material world and physical bodies were not part of the original creation of pure spirits. Instead, they were a secondary, remedial creation by God — a kind of school or hospital designed to help the fallen intellects recover through experience, suffering, and moral struggle.
Purpose and Ultimate Goal
For Origen, the entire cosmic drama is pedagogical. Embodiment and the history of the world exist so that the fallen intellects can freely choose to return to God. He taught a doctrine of universal restoration (apokatastasis), in which all rational beings would eventually be purified and restored to their original state of contemplation. Some of his writings even left open the possibility that the devil could ultimately be saved — a point that later became highly controversial.
Sources and Later Fate
This teaching appears most clearly in Origen’s major speculative work On First Principles (De Principiis / Peri Archon), especially in Books I and II, as well as in fragments of his biblical commentaries.
The idea of the pre-existence of souls and their fall was eventually condemned as heretical. It was formally rejected at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD as part of the broader condemnation of “Origenism.” Despite this, Origen’s influence on later Christian thought (especially through figures like Gregory of Nyssa and Evagrius Ponticus) remained profound.