Origen
Origen was born in Alexandria. When his father was martyred, the young Origen wanted to die with him, but his mother hid his clothes so he could not leave the house. After a conflict with the bishop of Alexandria he moved to Caesarea, where he became a famous teacher. He produced some two thousand treatises, organized the first systematic theology, On First Principles, and defended the faith against the pagan philosopher Celsus.1
Busenitz calls his legacy “a mix of both positive and negative contributions.” Origen taught the pre-existence of the soul, held that the Son is of a lesser divinity than the Father, and believed that every creature would finally be saved. He read Scripture on three levels, corresponding to body, soul, and spirit, and prized the spiritual most, an approach that “opened the door to all sorts of imaginative and fanciful interpretations.”2
Tortured in the persecution under Decius, he died a few years later. Despite his errors, he said:3
I want to be a man of the church … to be called … of Christ.4 Origenas quoted by Mark Galli
His Legacy
The Second Council of Constantinople (553) condemned his errors. Yet his allegorical method grew in the Middle Ages into the fourfold sense of Scripture, and he and Gregory of Nyssa were the chief early developers of the ransom theory of the atonement. The Reformers set both aside, insisting on the one natural sense of the text, and on Christ’s death as satisfaction offered to God, not a ransom paid to the devil.5
