If there are any now who think that the mind itself and the soul is a body, I wish they would tell me by way of answer how it receives reasons and assertions on subjects of such importance— of such difficulty and such subtlety? Whence does it derive the power of memory? And whence comes the contemplation of invisible things? How does the body possess the faculty of understanding incorporeal existences? How does a bodily nature investigate the processes of the various arts, and contemplate the reasons of things? How, also, is it able to perceive and understand divine truths, which are manifestly incorporeal? Unless, indeed, some should happen to be of opinion, that as the very bodily shape and form of the ears or eyes contributes something to hearing and to sight, and as the individual members, formed by God, have some adaptation, even from the very quality of their form, to the end for which they were naturally appointed; so also he may think that the shape of the soul or mind is to be understood as if created purposely and designedly for perceiving and understanding individual things, and for being set in motion by vital movements. (Book I, Part 7)

It has only been in the last generation that corporeal answers have clearly emerged for Origen's questions regarding the mind. And even today there is plenty we do not know.

But we know in which regions of the brain memory function is found. We understand the physical foundations of intelligence, imagination, and creativity.

Some have even claimed to have found a "God gene".

There remain many mysteries. Human purpose and individual purpose continue to vex us. The difference between knowledge and wisdom is difficult to know.

The power of human relationships to inspire love and hate, beauty and terror, good and evil continues to confound us.

New knowledge requires that Origen's questions (and answers) sometimes be edited. Our knowledge has not - yet - eliminated the value of the questions.