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Origen

c. 185–253

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Scripture has layers of meaning beneath the literal one, souls existed before birth, and he hoped that in the end all of them would return to God.

Placement

Hellenistic, Roman & Late Antique · West Asia & North Africa · Religion, Metaphysics

Alexandrian Church Father: the first systematic Christian theology, a threefold sense of Scripture and the hope that all souls return to God.

Key ideas

  • Threefold sense of Scripture
  • Pre-existence of souls
  • Apokatastasis (restoration of all)

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Influence

Influenced by 2

  • Plato

    influenced by

    Porphyry reports that Origen was always reading Plato; On First Principles takes up Platonic themes such as God’s incorporeality and the soul’s ascent (Eusebius, Church History VI.19). Eusebius, Church History VI.19 (Porphyry, Against the Christians); Origen, On First Principles I.1; IEP “Origen of Alexandria”

    Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO

    Plato › 428–348 BCE

  • Philo of Alexandria

    influenced by

    Origen took over Philo’s allegorical reading of Scripture and used his exegesis, naming him only occasionally; Philo’s works survived through Origen’s library at Caesarea. D. T. Runia, Philo in Early Christian Literature (1993); IEP “Philo of Alexandria”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Philo of Alexandria › c. 20 BCE – 50 CE

Influenced 2

  • John Scotus Eriugena

    influenced

    Eriugena took up Origen’s doctrine of the return of all things to God in Periphyseon V, qualifying it with Augustinian elements. John Scottus Eriugena, Periphyseon V; D. Heide, ‘Ἀποκατάστασις: The Resolution of Good and Evil in Origen and Eriugena’, Dionysius 33 (2015); SEP “John Scottus Eriugena”

    Evidence: AI draft

    John Scotus Eriugena › c. 815–877

  • Erasmus of Rotterdam

    influenced

    Erasmus recommended Origen as an interpreter of Scripture in the Enchiridion (1503) and took up his spiritual exegesis; his edition of Origen appeared in 1536. Erasmus, Enchiridion militis christiani (1503); Origenis opera (Basel, 1536); SEP “Desiderius Erasmus”

    Evidence: AI draft

    Erasmus of Rotterdam › c. 1466–1536

Criticism

Criticized by 1

  • Porphyry

    criticised by

    Porphyry accused Origen of reading Greek philosophy into the Jewish scriptures by allegory and of trading a Greek education for a ‘barbarian’ creed. Porphyry, Against the Christians, in Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica VI.19.4–8

    Evidence: AI draft

    Porphyry › c. 234–305

Works

Position

Origen created the first systematic Christian theology. His On First Principles tells a story of departure and return: rational beings created by God fell away from him through negligence and became angels, humans or demons according to the depth of their fall; the visible world is a school that educates them back to God. Because freedom is never lost, he hoped for the restoration of all (apokatastasis). Scripture, like a human being, has body, soul and spirit – a literal, a moral and a spiritual sense. Some of his teachings were condemned centuries later, yet his influence remained immense.

Life & context

Origen was born around 185 in Alexandria to Christian parents; his father died a martyr around 202. While still young he took charge of instructing converts and lived a strictly ascetic life. After a conflict with his bishop he settled in the early 230s in Caesarea in Palestine and founded a school there. Tortured in the Decian persecution, he died around 253, probably in Tyre.

Further main works

  • Commentary on the Gospel of John (begun c. 230)
  • Against Celsus (Contra Celsum, c. 248)

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made

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