Book Review of Origen's "On Prayer"

Origen’s On Prayer is a thorough treatise on—you guessed it—prayer. Origen himself was a second- to third-century Christian scholar, and “the most prolific and learned of all Christian writers before the Council of Nicaea.”[1] The guy wasn’t kidding around. In On Prayer, he analyzes various kinds of prayers, crushes objections offered against prayer, and gives a deep and lengthy analysis of the Our Father. He generally argues from a solidly Scriptural basis; however, it’s important to keep in mind that he is not doctrinally infallible.

I find parts of the work to be personally inspiring and eye-opening. For instance, Origen points out that “When [devout disposition in the season of prayer] is regularly practiced, how many sins it keeps us from, and how many achievements it brings us to, is known only to those who have given themselves up with some degree of constancy to prayer.”[2] I find this both inspiring for my own sake and reminiscent of the words of St. Alphonsus Liguori: “He who prays is certainly saved. He who prays not is certainly damned.”[3] I also find interesting Origen’s understanding of how God, in answering our prayers, “has with due regard to each movement of our free wills prearranged what also is at once to occur in His providence and to take place according to the train of future events,”[4] and insightful how Origen argued from Scripture that “Give us, this day, our daily bread” referred to our asking for the Living Bread from heaven rather than Earthly bread[5]—though this is certainly not the emphasis given this line by all early Christian scholars.[6]

Thorough and Scriptural as it is, however, On Prayer strays at times from authentic Church teaching. One example is when Origen says we should pray only to God the Father, praying not to the Son but only through Him[7]—whereas Catholic teaching permits and even encourages us to pray to saints. Another instance is when he attempts to say that even those who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit will one day be forgiven.[8] This latter error actually ties in with a seriously inaccurate belief he adopted: that all creatures, even those in hell, would one day “arrive at union with God.”[9] In light of such heretical teachings, however, one should consider this passage, taken from the last paragraph of On Prayer:

Thus, Ambrosius and Tatiana, studious and genuine brethren in piety, according to my ability I have struggled through my treatment of the subject of prayer and of the prayer in the Gospels together with its preface in Matthew. But if you press on to the things in front and forget those behind and pray for me in my undertaking, I do not despair of being enabled to receive from God the Giver a fuller and more divine capacity for all these matters, and with it to discuss the same subject again in a nobler, loftier, and clearer way.[10]

How many can claim to be so humble concerning their own understandings, of prayer or of much of anything else?

However, in light of Origen’s errors, I would recommend On Prayer to those with a firm grasp of authentic Church teaching, since the errors might end up confusing those who are less familiar with Catholic doctrine. Considering Origen’s style, I would also place the book at an advanced reading level (it’s not for the faint-of-reading skill).

For those who would like to try or view On Prayer, below are links both to the full text at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and to the audiobook reading on YouTube. Origen’s thought is represented well in both cases, though I will add that the online full-text version sometimes does not feature quotation marks when Origen quotes Scripture, and the audio reading has two chapters (VII and VIII) out of place (they’re skipped, but read at the end after Chapter XX).

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/origen/prayer.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfOGrCMdONs

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[1] Frederick Copleston, S.J., A History of Philosophy: Volume II: Medieval Philosophy: From Augustine to Duns Scotus (New York, New York: Image, 1993), 27.

[2] Origen, On Prayer, V, at Christian Classics Ethereal Library, www.ccel.org.

[3] Alphonsus Liguori, Necessity and Power of Prayer, 1, Conclusion, at Our Lady’s Warriors, www.ourladyswarriors.org.

[4] Origen, On Prayer, IV.

[5] see Origen, On Prayer, XVII.

[6] see A. Meredith, “Origen and Gregory of Nyssa on The Lord’s Prayer,” Heythrop Journal 43, no. 3 (2002), 352. St. Gregory emphasized what kind of physical sustenance we should ask for (whatever’s actually necessary), as opposed to Origen’s emphasis on it referring entirely to something spiritual.

[7] see Origen, On Prayer, X.

[8] see Origen, On Prayer, XVII; see also Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2^nd ed., at St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church (10 March 2017), at www.scborromeo.org, 1864, for an explanation of what exactly this sin entails and why it’s not forgiven.

[9] see Copleston, History of Philosophy, 28.

[10] Origen, On Prayer, XX.