L’anthropologie tripartite d’Origène

Abstract

Origen’s Tripartite Anthropology. Beginning with the definition of the human being as composed of body, soul, and spirit, this study aims to highlight Christian anthropology through the lens of Origen’s thought. As a reader of the Holy Scriptures, the Alexandrian tried to shed light on the tripartite nature of the human being as a distinctive mark of Christianity. In doing so, he positions himself in contrast to the Platonic perspective. Whereas bipartite anthropology focuses attention on the body-soul relationship through the soul’s life-giving function, in the tripartite approach, the human pneuma plays a decisive role. It is the essential and vital element that accounts for the individual and personal dimension of the human being, created by God and redeemed by Christ, the incarnate Word, whose dual nature (human and divine) becomes the principle through which the unified dimension of the human person is redefined.