Links to other Origenes sources on the web Below we list important articles available on the web that we believe one should consider when attempting to understand Origenes and his teachings. Although our goal is to recapture the entire body of his work, we are a long distance from being able to offer this. Edward Moore has done fine work in uncovering the true meaning of the of the "restoration of all things" in his paper "Origen of Alexandria and apokatastasis" Matthew C. Steenberg wrote an article called "Origen and the Final Restoration" which draws the opposite conclusion to Moore, but brings out many other areas which require further work and consideration. Please see the discussion on this article. A good primer on Origenes is found at the following link virtualreligion.net. Mahlon H. Smith provides a good understanding to the impact Origenes had on early Christianity. He brings out a key point of Origenes; that Origenes saw the scriptures as mainly a spiritual work that only correlates with physical events coincidentally. Reincarnation is the mechanism by which the "restoration of all things" occurs but it has been downplayed in modern interpretations of the bible. Reincarnation and the Bible provides a thorough discussion of the subject. "A central philosophical figure of this particular phase of Church History, the individual who contributed more perhaps than any other person to the true health and vigor of the living Church, was Origen -- philosopher, scientist, saint." www.wisdomworld.org Origenes' interpretation of the scriptures was based on the Hexapla; his systematic comparison of the bible translations of his time, but “No copy of the entire Hexapla, on account of the immense labour and expense involved, seems ever to have been made…” www.newadvent.org Origenes brought the great school of Alexandria to full blossom. "Truly was Alexandria "the mother and mistress of churches" in the benign sense of a nurse and instructress of Christendom, not its arrogant and usurping imperatrix:" www.ccel.org He moved the Christian school to Caesarea in 231/232 AD, protecting the school's knowledge from Aurelian's destruction. "Origen's literary productivity was enormous. His accomplishments as an exegete and student of the text of the Old Testament were outstanding." www.island-of-freedom.com "Origen was the most prolific Christian writer of antiquity. St. Epiphanius declared that Origen had written 6000 works-scrolls of undoubted value and of varied lengths." www.stmarystlouis.bizland.com "Rufinus' Apology in Defence of Himself" In this letter and the following two, we understand the difficulties that existed in attempting to translate Origenes' texts once they had been declared heretical. "Translation of Pamphilus' Defence of Origen" "The Peroration of Rufinus Appended to His Translation of Origen's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans" "Origen put forth theories on the end times which earned him a posthumous condemnation by the Church." www.preteristarchive.com "Origen reasoned in the 4th book of his treatise On First Principles that, if the Bible is inspired by God, then it cannot be irrelevant, unworthy of God, or simply crude. If it ever appears to be in error then we have obviously missed its deeper meaning." www.earlychurch.org.uk "What, then, was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the Christian world, in the age of Origen, and some centuries after? It was in brief this: There were at least six theological schools in the church at large. Of these six schools, one, and only one, was decidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal punishment." Dr. Beecher from hellbusters.8m.com "To have formed Origen is perhaps Clement's chief title to fame." Philip Hughes
|  “In his handling of the text Origen is at his best because here appears most lambently that quality of sweet reasonableness which was so characteristic of him (and so deplorably lacking in Jerome). It is the same sweet reasonableness which won the lifelong devotion of Ambrosius, evoked the eulogies of Gregory Theodorus, (later known as Gregory Thaumaturgus) and more than once enabled Origen to succeed in the task, which would have been considered impossible a century later, of winning large bodies of heretics back to the orthodox faith by argument alone without abuse or violence.”
-R.P.C. Hanson- |
