Origen

Origen was born in Alexandria in 185AD to Christian parents. Wand states ‘Origen was more fortunate that most of the early cn writers in that he had cn parents’. He studied under Clement of Alexandria, using the bible, especially the Septuagint. Septimus Severus martyred his father Leonides in 202AD, and Origen’s mother stopped Origen from seeking martyrdom by hiding his clothes. At 18 years old, Bishop Demetrius appointed him head of a catechetical school. He lived an ascetic lifestyle and studied Hebrew to understand the Bible better and pagan philosophy to answer the pagan critics. In 230AD on a visit to Palestine and Greece he allowed the bishops of Caesarea and Achaea to ordain him as a priest/presbyter.

He wrote around 6000 books, although a great deal of these have been lost, and started writing for Ambrosius in 218AD, a wealthy man. This showed that Ambrosius felt Origen had much to contribute to the development of theology and doctrine in the early church. His work is categorised into 4 headings: biblical, doctrinal, apologetic and practical. Due to his biblical work, he was called ‘father of textual criticism’ as he constructed the Hexapla, a 6 column comparison of the OT as he wanted to provide a reliable guide to the interpretation of the Septuagint as he had discovered in disputes with the Jews it was essential for cns to base their arguments on a text recognised by both sides. Frend comments ‘Cy had at last produced a great biblical and literary critic’. He used an allegorical approach when writing which appealed to higher class in society. He also contributed greatly through production of homilies, exegeses and commentaries.

Origen also made development to the early church through his writings against heresy. He was also called ‘father of systematic theology’, his work ‘On first principles’ was probably the first attempt in the church at a systematic theology. He realised heresy couldn’t be tackled in a bitty fashion, a ‘full statement of cn doctrine’ was needed (foster). It was primarily written against Gnosticism and his aim was to show cy as a comprehensive and intelligible philosophy.

His Apologetical work include ‘Against Celsus’. In it he defends the church from a heretic called Celsus, where he challenges popular accusations and misunderstanding of Cy such as incarnation, resurrection and a religion of the uneducated. As he studied pagan philosophy which was the ‘mother of all heresy’ according to Tertullian, his writing was more effective in defence of Cy. He destroyed Gnosticism and constructed a cn philosophy to provide the kind of people tempted by Gnosticism with a more attractive and acceptable theology.

He also wrote practical works including 'On Prayer' which he taught how to pray, gave the example of Jesus at prayer and the value of prayer. He also work 'Exhortation to Martyrdom'. The development of theology is key to the development of the church and Origen excelled at this.

Origen’s theology and his teaching on the trinity provided ammunition for those within the church who agreed with his views which were that the father and son were two distinct realities and had only preserved a monotheistic standpoint by admitting that the son was in some sense subordinate to the father, God the father stands at the head of the system and his mediator with mankind is the son. He also wrote about creation which included the belief in pre-existence of souls, salvation which was unique as he said even the devil could be saved, redemption, evil which was due to the misuse of man’s free will and eschatology which were based on the idea of universalism on certain texts about the love of God. His writings were classed by some as heretical which forced the church to look more closely at their own beliefs and develop their work. In 553AD he was denounced as a heretic at the council of Constantinople.

To conclude, due to his great skill as a teacher many future leaders of the Eastern Church studied under him and his theology continued to be influential until the 5^th century. Prestiege sums him up by saying ‘The church owes it to Origen that wherever cy is true to itself, it is rational faith’.