Origen of Alexandria is perhaps the single most important Christian thinker of the first three centuries. He was certainly the most prolific, having penned (with the assistance of a secretarial staff, making him all but unique) upwards of a thousand volumes, on many different aspects of Christianity. He was, above all else, brilliant, having mastered the standard classical education of his time by the age of about 15.
Born sometime around 185 CE, Origen genuinely loved to study, and did so from an early age (obviously, given how rapidly he absorbed the standard education of his time). At 18, he entered the Catechetical School in Alexandria, which was a very early seminary with an excellent reputation. He spent quite a few years there as an instructor. He adopted an ascetic lifestyle while at the school, although he didn’t follow any kind of hermitic or monastic rule (there was no such thing in Christianity, at that time).
He ran afoul of his friend and patron, Demetrius the Patriarch of Alexandria, after he’d been ordained by another bishop (Theoclistus of Caesarea in the Levant) which was considered something of a personal betrayal. Demetrius went so far as to accuse Origen of having castrated himself (in accordance with Jesus’ teaching in Mt 19:11-12), and of having said even Satan would ultimately be saved.
Note that, had Origen actually castrated himself, that would have prevented him from becoming being ordained, since at that time priests had to be “unblemished” and physically whole, in line with the requirements for the Hebrew priesthood as found in the Old Testament. Also, he denied asserting Satan could be saved, and there’s nothing else that indicates he might have. Overall, both of Demetrius’s claims are real stretches and not likely true.
Naturally, Origen remained in Caesarea where Theoclistus could keep him safe from Demetrius’s rage. With him was his close friend Ambrose, whom Origen had converted from either Marcionism or Valentinism, and he also was ordained. In addition, Ambrose was also (somehow) incredibly wealthy, and patronized Origen to a degree few other classical Christian instructors have been.
How Origen became friends with someone like Ambrose is something of a tale in its own right. At some point he became associated with a wealthy Gnostic woman. She had patronized a Gnostic sage from Antioch who periodically visited her and lectured in her home (one assumes, his lectures were for people she’d invited in and not only for her).
Why Origen — at the time, an instructor at Christianity’s most famous catechetical school — dallied with a Gnostic woman and a Gnostic sage essentially in her employ, is hard to understand. However, it’s not as improbable as it seems. Around the turn of the 3rd century, the lines between Gnostic sects and other forms of Christianity weren’t always clearly defined (at least not as defined as people like Irenaeus would have liked to think).
Another factor is that, around this time, a very large number of Christians in and around Alexandria were Gnostic, or quasi-Gnostic, or belonged to both a Gnostic congregation as well as a “literalist” one. Anyone like Origen who spent time with other Christians in Alexandria was, literally, bound to rub elbows from time to time with a Gnostic. What’s more, through his entire career, pagans and others found Origen fascinating. He was an unusual kind of Christian scholar; one who’d mastered the various Hellenic academic disciplines as well as any of them had, yet he was still a Christian. He was as much a Hellenic philosopher as he was a Christian theologian.
It was about this time — still in Alexandria — that Origen met Ambrose, converted him, and provided him a Christian education. They were companions ever after.
At any rate, once it was clear Origen wasn’t going to be able to return to Alexandria, Theoclistus agreed to help Origen set up a new school in Caesarea. Here he taught basic Hellenistic topics such as cosmology, then introduced students to theology (mostly Christian theology, of course).
Due to Ambrose’s largesse, Origen had a team of secretaries who took down his words and were able to make copies of them in short order. Yes, I said, “a team.” Not one, not two, not even three, but depending on the day, up to seven! Some checked on the work of others, even as Origen was dictating. They were capable of producing multiple copies of some of his work almost as soon as he’d finished dictating it.
Many of his works are structured, and argued, along the lines of Hellenistic reasoning and rhetoric. Origen’s ambition was to make Christianity compatible with Hellenistic tradition and grant it a sound, logical, well-reasoned basis.
Origen also proposed a great many notions previously not part of “literalist” Christianity, which were essentially his way of resolving what he saw as logical conundrums surrounding accepted doctrine. One of these principles was the pre-existence of souls. All human souls had existed from before time began — right along with God — and had been with him since before the dawn of Creation. They’d fallen away from praising him, and thus being in his presence, and had come to dwell in the world, in physical bodies. Jesus himself was one such soul, but had been as close to God as any, had never fallen away or lost interest in the Divine, and whose very existence had become united with God.
Yes, that’s a whiff of Gnosticism you’re picking up. This is one of the main reasons Origen is sometimes viewed — in modern times — as a Gnostic or as a Gnostic sympathizer. In his own time, however, this wasn’t considered outlandish within “literalist” Christian circles. Others had taught similar, related notions. What separated Origen from Gnostics, in spite of this idea, are 1) he considered God the maker of Creation and thus didn’t posit a lesser being (i.e. the Demiurge) who made it; and 2) he didn’t posit any other divine “emanations,” either.
Perhaps his greatest achievement along these lines is On First Principles (sometimes called On the First Principles), essentially a complete Christian theology manual but presented in a manner that fit Hellenistic rhetoric; stating a few simple notions then working outward from those. This is the tome for which Origen is most famous.
Sadly, the version of it that we have, is problematic. Origen had written it originally in Greek, but aside from a few passages, that’s been lost to history. What we have is a Latin translation of it composed around the end of the 4th century, by one Tyrannius Rufinus, but it was modified by him to make it seem less un-orthodox than it was reputed to have been. Other efforts to preserve Origen’s original text, including by St Jerome, have all vanished since, leaving us only with Rufinus’s product.
As for why something Origen wrote could have been viewed as un-orthodox, I’ll get to that shortly.
He also penned a lengthy rebuttal to the pagan philosopher Celsus, who around 170-180 CE had written an extensive and scathing critique of Christianity. This work had been called True Word (or True Discourse, or True Doctrine). It had been widely trafficked in pagan-academic circles. It’s now lost to us, except for Origen’s rebuttal (called Contra Celsum or “Against Celsus”) which included lengthy quotations of True Word, along with Origen’s response to whichever point that was.
Origen also penned a large number of commentaries on scripture and a number of other lectures and homilies. Some have been lost, but a few, such as his commentary on the Gospel according to John are extant. This is a lengthy work in itself, being Origen’s rebuttal to a commentary on the same gospel by the Gnostic/Valentinian sage Heracleon, also written by the latter around the same time as Celsus’s takedown of Christianity. It’s in the course of this commentary that Origen makes his pre-existence of souls concept coincide neatly with “literalist” Christian teachings.
Overall, Origen’s many works were highly respected in his time, were passed around often, and were commented on, in turn. Later generations of theologians studied them and continued his work.
Origen ended up a victim of the persecution of Christians ordered by Emperor Decius in 250 CE. It was his response to a plague that had flashed through the Empire a year before. In short, Decius scapegoated Christians, claiming their refusal to sacrifice to the Roman gods had triggered the plague. Origen was imprisoned, and reportedly tortured. A year later Decius was killed, the persecution ended, and Origen was freed. But his injuries were too much, and he succumbed to them a couple years later.
Although he was an influential Christian in his own time and shortly after, some of Origen's theology was condemned generations after his death. Since then, his writings have been interpreted and reinterpreted in many ways by many people. This is perhaps due to the sheer volume of his writing, as well as his having thought through many issues in a sophisticated, nuanced manner.
Despite his being a famed teacher, due to his occasional wordiness, it’s sometimes almost impossible to know what he was getting at. This leaves the appearance that he stood on two different sides of the same issue.
Some modern writers have gone as far as to assert that Origen was not the proponent of “orthodoxy” he appears to have been, but rather a Gnostic. As I’ve already noted, there is something to this; some of what he said does, in fact, coincide with Gnosticism. Still, it remains quite a stretch to call Origen a Gnostic. Contrary to this view, for instance, and as I noted above, Origen was known to have converted some Alexandrian Christians out of Gnosticism. Also, his commentary on John was intended as a critique of Gnostic (specifically, Valentinian) exegesis.
Origen’s memory was attacked on two notable occasions, after his death. The details of how these attacks played out can be a bit mind-numbing, so I’ll keep these stories as brief as possible.
Near the end of the 4th century, the heresy-hunter Epiphanius of Salamis (on Cyprus) had included critiques of Origen’s theology in two of his works (Panarion and Ancoratus). His chief objection to Origen was his subordinationism — i.e. the notion that, within the Godhead, the Son is subordinate to the Father. Epiphanius believed this subverted the doctrine of the Trinity (despite the fact that Origen had died more than a century before the Trinity doctrine had been fleshed out). He also objected to the manner in which Origen approached some of his arguments, proposing notions then building toward a case for them. Epiphanius believed this was engaging in speculation by Origen, which the faithful — supposedly — cannot do.
It appears Epiphanius got little traction for his campaign against Origen, since he spent at least a couple of decades campaigning against him. He tried to get other hierarchs to condemn him, but couldn’t, until Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, finally did so, and convinced Pope Anastasius I to go along with him. Their reasoning? Origen had supposedly taught that God was incorporeal. (You may notice that’s not what Epiphanius had said about Origen. And you’d be right.)
This led to the expulsion of Origenist monks from Alexandria, a few of whom John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople, leapt to defend. He did so by arranging to get the Emperor Arcadius to turn on Theophilus, and he did, calling him to Constantinople to answer for what he’d done. Theophilus managed to turn the entire affair around — likely by bribing some of the hierarchs who’d been called to witness this audience and some of the court officials. Chrysostom, not Theophilus, ended up being deposed in 403 CE.
After that, surprisingly, it was crickets where Origen was concerned. Epiphanius died almost at the same time Chrysostom was dethroned, and without him to keep agitating against Origen, everyone else just let the matter drop. That included Theophilus, who’d succeeded in destroying a rival who’d been a much greater concern than some long-deceased theologian.
By the way, one of the clerics in attendance when Chrysostom was deposed, was Cyril of Alexandria. He’s another character who’s mentioned elsewhere on this site.
The second condemnation of Origen was even stranger than the first, if you can believe it. Mainly this is because it was less about him than it was about his followers, who’d consumed his considerable output and continued theological studies along the lines he’d set down.
The chief objection, this time, was a result of Origen’s teaching of the pre-existence of souls. Subsequent Origenist Christians had delved into the ramifications of it. Mainly, they had somehow decided that all those pre-existent souls were, ultimately, of equal nature. That meant that Jesus and human beings were all on equal footing.
And a lot of “literalist” Christians simply wouldn’t tolerate that. Origen himself had taught no such thing … but he became the target of condemnations nevertheless. A formal denunciation of both Origen and his followers was issued and ratified by none other than Emperor Justinian I in 543. A subsequent general Council consented to this decision and its statement included citations of Origen’s objectionable teachings — none of which happened to have been written by him (they’d been penned, instead, by his follower Evagrius Ponticus).
Yes, you read that right. The Church’s “official” condemnation of Origen quoted him as having written things he never actually wrote. (Hey, I warned you that this whole affair was strange, didn’t I?)
As it happens, Origen has never been formally rehabilitated — despite the brazen ridiculousness of the charges of “heresy” leveled against him posthumously.
Because of this, a famous and devout Christian who was effectively martyred has never formally been sainted. And Christianity’s first true theologian has never been declared a Doctor of the Church. It’s astounding that nothing has been done about this, despite (for example) efforts the Roman Catholic Church has undertaken over the past 25 years or so to rehabilitate Galileo Galilei.
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