Origen’s Philosophy of Freedom in Methodius’ Dialogue On Free Will

Although Origen discussed the issue of free will from a philosophical perspective, whereas Methodius, in keeping with the apologists and Irenaeus of Lyon, considered it as a donum libertatis, and focused more on the concepts of obedience and disobedience, he did not disagree with Origen on the problem of free will. Perhaps, there is a different approach to such an issue. Methodius’ On Free will is a sort of ἐπιστημονικὴ ἀπόδειξις, where the author tries to demonstrate some relevant issues (the problem of free will and the creation of the world), not on the basis of a dossier of scriptural passages, like in Origen, but on a philosophical and demonstrative method. Nevertheless, the real concern was about the creation of the world. Methodius opposed the concept of eternal creation and the pre-existence of matter first in the dialogue On Free Will and then in his Xeno on Created Things. This approach demonstrates that the issue he constantly wondered about is: how come that something that is perfect and not subject to change, that co-existed with God since the beginning, and on which God exerts his power, is subject to change? There are two options: a world that is without beginning would be eternally infinite (like God), timeless and powerful, and a world would be also complete in itself, changeless and everlasting. However, this latter assumption cannot be accepted because of the changeability of the world.