In manner of life Origen was a Christian; in his thought he was a Greek. He was the Christian Philo, although he was a rival to the neo-Platonic philosophers. His Christian theology competed with the philosophical systems of his time. It was founded on both Testaments, and it also united in a peculiar way toward a practical end the theology of both the Apologists and the Gnostics. He was convinced that Christianity could be expressed only as a science, and that any form of Christianity without scientific expression is not clear to itself. Although the church was offended at some of his doctrines, it made his philosophical principle and his theory of development its own. In trying to state Christianity in terms of intellectual knowledge, Origen did not make the mistake of burying its principles under philosophy or mythology, as was the case with the Gnostics. The Gnostics had created a new Christianity; Origen developed Christianity from within itself. He was an orthodox traditionalist, a strong Biblical theologian and idealistic philosopher. He maintained that there were several ways of interpreting the Scriptures (allegorical interpretation). The masses see only the somatic or outward meaning as it has been developed in history. A deeper or moral interpretation gives a psychical meaning to the Gospel truth. More profound still is the spiritual interpretation, which gives to the Gospels a pneumatic or spiritually esoteric meaning. Christianity is superior to all other religions because it is a religion for all classes, even for the common man. Christianity is the only religion which, without being polytheistic, can have its truth in mythical dress. The aim of Origen was less to show how the world came to be, than to justify the ways of God to men in the world’s creation and history. The central principle in his teaching is spiritual monotheism. God is an unchanging spirit, the author of all things, and He transcends human knowledge. What distinguishes Him most is the absolute causality of His will. He is essentially creative, and this creative activity is co-eternal with Himself. God can have no dealings with changing individuals directly, since although creative He is unchanging. He has direct connection only with the eternal revelation of His own image, the Logos. The Logos is a person, a special hypostasis, the perfect likeness of God with nothing corporeal about him. He is not _the_ God, but still God, yet a second God, with no sharing of divinity.[47] The Holy Spirit bears the same relation to the Logos as the Logos to the Father. In his relation to the world the Logos is the Idea of Ideas, the norm according to which things are created.