Ryan Haecker: Triadic Circles: On The Trinity as the Systematic Structure of Origen's On First Principles

Origen’s On First Principles has typically been read in four books as a linear sequence of theological topics. Basilius Steidle first recognized that such a fourfold division “dissects” the books “completely contrary” to the original systematic structure, and, proposed an alternative systematic structure consisting in ‘three courses’. His emphasis upon the second 'course' has prompted Gilles Dorival and Marguerite Harl to bipartition the text into two cycles. Brian Daley has, however, argued, against Dorival and Harl, that such a bipartite interpretation cannot account for the concluding chapters on hermeneutics and the final recapitulation. Charles Kannengiesser has similarly distinguished between an internal and external logic, and recommended, against Dorival and Harl, to investigate the structure from such an 'internal' and 'systematic viewpoint' centred on the first principles of the Trinity. The first principles of God, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit may, accordingly, be read as the centre of the three circuits at the systematic centre of On First Principles: Basilius Steidle’s critique of the fourfold division suggested, for Dorival and Harl, a bipartite structure centered on the second cycle; but, because such a structure had been decentered from the first principles, Kannengiesser and Daley have since recommended a tripartite structure centred upon the Trinity. I wish, with Kannengiesser and Daley, to argue, against this bipartite interpretation, that Origen’s On First Principles should be read according to a new trinitarian interpretation, in which the theological topics cycle in three circuits proceeding from and for the first principles of the Trinity.