Today, Origen begins his great work On First Principles by refuting the idea that God is corporeal. Drawing from Scripture, he shows that “light,” “fire,” and “spirit” refer not to bodily realities but to God’s incorporeal and incomprehensible nature, who must be worshipped in spirit and truth. Augustine, reflecting on the “earth invisible and formless” of Genesis, sees it as an image for the raw, unshaped matter from which God formed the beauty of the created world. Aquinas asks whether all human sins come from the devil’s temptation, concluding that while the devil was the original corrupter of human nature, our own disordered desires can produce sin even without his prompting (Deuteronomy 4:24; 1 John 1:5; Psalm 36:9; John 4:21–24; Colossians 1:15; Genesis 1:2; John 8:34).

Readings:

Origen, On First Principles, Book 1, Chapter 1

Augustine, The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 4 (Section 4)

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 114, Article 3

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