Hilary between Origen and Augustine

Many features of Hilary’s anthropology appear only in his Psalms commentaries which are known to come from Origen. At the same time, Hilary rewrites Origen when he finds the latter doctrinally questionable; this reflects fourth-century suspicions of Origen’s orthodoxy. In particular, Hilary appears to use Origen’s ideas in terms of the will/human constraint, and fits in with Origen’s views of original sin; he does, however, complement these with his own thought. Finally, it is now possible to assess Augustine’s use of Hilary. Against Julian, Augustine claims that original sin is not a new doctrine, but is found in earlier writers such as Hilary. Although Augustine’s doctrine of original sin differs a little from Hilary’s, his claim is found to be essentially true. Hilary thus provides a stepping-stone between Origen and Augustine and shows continuity in the development of the doctrines of will and original sin.