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 “restoration of all things” in his paper “Origen of Alexandria and apokatastasis”
- Matthew C. Steenberg wrote an article called “Origen and the Final Restoration” prior to his dissertation 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 of 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.roberthsarkissian.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.” Coptic Orthodox Church Network
- “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 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