c. 200–253

Clement and Origen: the incarnate Logos and the created soul of Jesus

Both Alexandrians, according to Berkhof, teach that at the Incarnation the Logos assumed human nature in its fullness – body and soul. Clement affirmed the reality of Christ's body against the docetists, but held that he ate only so that his companions would not form a docetic impression; Pelikan writes that his christology had a docetic flavor, though he was not a docetist. Origen taught the created soul of Jesus: one of the rational spirits remained faithful, and its mind was inseparably united with the Logos, like iron and fire, and through it with the body; Christ is "something composite". He also taught the exchange of properties (communicatio idiomatum), which became, according to González, one of the basic tenets of Alexandrian christology.