Christian Alexandrian scholar, theologian, and writer
184 CE
to 254 CE
Origen or Origen Adamantius (184/185 – 253/254), is an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church.
As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls.
Today he is regarded as one of the Church Fathers.
Origen excels in multiple branches of theological scholarship, including textual criticism, biblical interpretation, philosophical theology, preaching, and spirituality.
Some of his teachings, however, quickly become controversial.
Notably, he frequently refers to his hypothesis of the pre-existence of souls.
As in the beginning all intelligent beings were united to God, Origen also holds out the possibility, though he does not assert so definitively, that in the end all beings, perhaps even the arch-fiend Satan, will be reconciled to God in what is called the apokatastasis ("restitution").
Origen's views on the Trinity, in which he sees the Son of God as subordinate to God the Father, become controversial during the Arian controversy of the fourth century, though a subordinationist view is common among the ante-Nicene Fathers.
A group who comes to be known as Origenists, and who firmly believe in the preexistence of souls and the apokatastasis, are declared anathema in the 6th century.
This condemnation is attributed to the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, though it does not appear in the council's official minutes.
Few scholars today believe that Origen should be blamed, as he commonly was in the past, for tentatively putting forward hypotheses, later judged heretical, on certain philosophical problems during a time when Christian doctrine was somewhat unclear on said problems.
