Description

Origen, or Origen Adamantius (184/185 - 253/254), was a scholar, early Christian theologian and Church Father, who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria. He was a prolific writer in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, philosophical theology, preaching, and spirituality. Some of his reputed teachings, such as the pre-existence of souls, the final reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil (the apokatastasis), and the subordination of the Son of God to God the Father, later became controversial among Christian theologians. A later group of Egyptian monks who came to be known as Origenists, and who believed in the preexistence of souls and the apokatastasis, were declared anathema in 553 AD. This condemnation is attributed to the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, though it does not appear in the council's official minutes. For this reason Origen was and is not called a "saint" in either the Catholic or Orthodox churches.