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125-747: The voluminous Móhē zhǐguān is a comprehensive Buddhist doctrinal summa that discusses meditation and various key Buddhist doctrines which were very influential in the development of Buddhist meditation and Buddhist philosophy in China. It is one of the central texts of Tiantai (and Japanese Tendai ). A major focus of the Móhē zhǐguān is the practice of samatha ( 止 zhǐ , calming or stabilizing meditation) and vipassana ( 觀 guān , clear seeing or insight). Zhiyi teaches two types of zhiguan - in sitting meditation and responding to objects following conditions or practicing mindfully in daily life. Zhiyi uses quotes from all

250-499: A Commentary on the Song of Songs , in which he took explicit care to explain why the Song of Songs was relevant to a Christian audience. The Commentary on the Song of Songs was Origen's most celebrated commentary and Jerome famously writes in his preface to his translation of two of Origen's homilies over the Song of Songs that "In his other works, Origen habitually excels others. In this commentary, he excelled himself." Origen expanded on

375-674: A Christian center of higher education. According to Eusebius, the school Origen founded was primarily targeted towards young pagans who had expressed interest in Christianity but were not yet ready to ask for baptism. The school therefore sought to explain Christian teachings through Middle Platonism . Origen started his curriculum by teaching his students classical Socratic reasoning. After they had mastered this, he taught them cosmology and natural history . Finally, once they had mastered all of these subjects, he taught them theology, which

500-460: A Latin translation of it made by Tyrannius Rufinus in 410. Fragments of some other commentaries survive. Citations in Origen's Philokalia include fragments of the third book of the commentary on Genesis. There is also Ps. i, iv.1, the small commentary on Canticles, and the second book of the large commentary on the same, the twentieth book of the commentary on Ezekiel, and the commentary on Hosea. Of

625-419: A capital offense under Roman law at the time and one which would have made Origen's ordination invalid, since eunuchs were forbidden from becoming priests. Demetrius also alleged that Origen had taught an extreme form of apokatastasis , which held that all beings, including even Satan himself, would eventually attain salvation. This allegation probably arose from a misunderstanding of Origen's argument during

750-440: A charismatic leader who ruled the Christian congregation of Alexandria with an iron fist, became the most direct promoter of the elevation in status of the bishop of Alexandria; before Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria had merely been a priest who was elected to represent his fellows, but after Demetrius, the bishop was seen as clearly a rank higher than his fellow priests. By styling himself as an independent philosopher, Origen

875-526: A collection of excerpts from major works of Biblical commentary written by the Church Fathers. Other fragments of the scholia are preserved in Origen's Philocalia and in Pamphilus of Caesarea 's apology for Origen. The Stromateis were of a similar character, and the margin of Codex Athous Laura , 184, contains citations from this work on Romans 9:23; I Corinthians 6:14, 7:31, 34, 9:20–21, 10:9, besides

1000-567: A debate with the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Candidus. Candidus had argued in favor of predestination by declaring that the Devil was beyond salvation. Origen had responded by arguing that, if the Devil is destined for eternal damnation, it was on account of his actions, which were the result of his own free will . Therefore, Origen had declared that Satan was only morally reprobate , not absolutely reprobate. Demetrius died in 232, less than

1125-531: A definite order of topics, although varying in their arrangement. The first great summist was Peter Lombard (died 1160), author of the Books of Sentences and surnamed "Master of Sentences". The order of topics in the Books of Sentences is as follows: In the first place, the topics are divided into res and signa, or things and signs. "Things" are subdivided into: the object of our happiness, God — to this topic Peter devotes

1250-696: A deliberate attempt by Eusebius to distract from more serious questions regarding the orthodoxy of Origen's teachings. McGuckin also states, "We have no indication that the motive of castration for respectability was ever regarded as standard by a teacher of mixed-gender classes." He adds that Origen's female students (whom Eusebius lists by name) would have been accompanied by attendants at all times, meaning that Origen would have had no good reason to think that anyone would suspect him of impropriety. Henry Chadwick argues that, while Eusebius's story may be true, it seems unlikely, given that Origen's exposition of Matthew 19:12 "strongly deplored any literal interpretation of

1375-581: A fascination with Origen. The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry heard of Origen's fame and traveled to Caesarea to listen to his lectures. Porphyry recounts that Origen had extensively studied the teachings of Pythagoras , Plato , and Aristotle , but also those of important Middle Platonists, Neopythagoreans , and Stoics , including Numenius of Apamea , Chronius , Apollophanes , Longinus , Moderatus of Gades , Nicomachus , Chaeremon , and Cornutus . Nonetheless, Porphyry accused Origen of having betrayed true philosophy by subjugating its insights to

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1500-570: A few other fragments. Origen composed homilies covering almost the entire Bible. There are 205, and possibly 279, homilies of Origen that are extant either in Greek or in Latin translations. The homilies preserved are on Genesis (16), Exodus (13), Leviticus (16), Numbers (28), Joshua (26), Judges (9), I Sam. (2), Psalms 36–38 (9), Canticles (2), Isaiah (9), Jeremiah (7 Greek, 2 Latin, 12 Greek and Latin), Ezekiel (14), and Luke (39). The homilies were preached in

1625-571: A jar", became the source text for one of the two Hebrew columns in Origen's Hexapla . Origen studied the Old Testament in great depth; Eusebius even claims that Origen learned Hebrew. Most modern scholars regard this claim as implausible, but they disagree over how much Origen knew about the language. H. Lietzmann concludes that Origen probably only knew the Hebrew alphabet and not much else, whereas R. P. C. Hanson and G. Bardy argue that Origen had

1750-419: A matter about Law , Theology or Philosophy most of all. Matters were divided in a more detailed way as it was in the tractatus ( treatise ), since they were divided into quaestiones (questions) and these ones were also divided into articles . The articles had the following structure: Some historians of theology cite Origen 's peri archon as the first summary of Catholic theology. Others consider that

1875-570: A more-or-less complete Syriac translation of the Greek column, made by the seventh-century bishop Paul of Tella, has also survived. For some sections of the Hexapla , Origen included additional columns containing other Greek translations; for the Book of Psalms, he included no less than eight Greek translations, making this section known as Enneapla ("Ninefold"). Origen also produced the Tetrapla ("Fourfold"),

2000-454: A person who was not ordained to preach. The Palestinian bishops, in turn, issued their condemnation, accusing Demetrius of being jealous of Origen's fame and prestige. Origen obeyed Demetrius's order and returned to Alexandria, bringing with him an antique scroll he had purchased at Jericho containing the full text of the Hebrew Bible. The manuscript, which had purportedly been found "in

2125-542: A public disputation, which went so successfully that Beryllus promised only to teach Origen's theology from then on. On another occasion, a Christian leader in Arabia named Heracleides began teaching that the soul was mortal and that it perished with the body . Origen refuted these teachings, arguing that the soul is immortal and can never die. In c. 249, the Plague of Cyprian broke out. In 250, Emperor Decius , believing that

2250-457: A publication now in the public domain :  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Summæ ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Origen Origen of Alexandria ( c. 185 – c. 253), also known as Origen Adamantius , was an early Christian scholar , ascetic , and theologian who was born and spent the first half of his career in Alexandria . He

2375-564: A purge of all those who had supported his predecessor. His pogroms targeted Christian leaders and, in Rome, Pope Pontianus and Hippolytus of Rome were both sent into exile. Origen knew that he was in danger and went into hiding in the home of a faithful Christian woman named Juliana the Virgin, who had been a student of the Ebionite leader Symmachus . Origen's close friend and longtime patron Ambrose

2500-408: A respectable tutor to young men and women. Eusebius further alleges that Origen privately told Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, about the castration and that Demetrius initially praised him for his devotion to God on account of it. Origen, however, never mentions anything about having castrated himself in any of his surviving writings, and in his explanation of this verse in his Commentary on

2625-471: A respected professor of literature and also a devout Christian who practised his religion openly (and later a martyr and saint with a feast day of April 22 in the Catholic church). Joseph Wilson Trigg deems the details of this report unreliable, but admits that Origen's father was certainly at least "a prosperous and thoroughly Hellenized bourgeois". According to John Anthony McGuckin, Origen's mother, whose name

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2750-491: A retrospective assumption based on the similarity of their teachings. Origen rarely mentions Clement in his writings, and when he does, it is usually to correct him. Eusebius claims that, as a young man, following a literal reading of Matthew 19:12, in which Jesus is presented as saying "there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuch for the sake of the kingdom of heaven ", Origen either castrated himself or had someone else castrate him in order to ensure his reputation as

2875-496: A short time in Arabia with the governor before returning to Alexandria. In the autumn of 215, the Roman Emperor Caracalla visited Alexandria. During the visit, the students at the schools there protested and made fun of him for having murdered his brother Geta (died 211). Caracalla, incensed, ordered his troops to ravage the city, execute the governor, and kill all the protesters. He also commanded them to expel all

3000-503: A smaller, abridged version of the Hexapla containing only the four Greek translations and not the original Hebrew text. According to Jerome's Epistle 33, Origen wrote extensive scholia on the books of Exodus , Leviticus , Isaiah , Psalms 1–15, Ecclesiastes , and the Gospel of John. None of these scholia have survived intact, but parts of them were incorporated into the Catenaea ,

3125-519: A sum which netted him a daily income of four obols . He used this money to continue his study of the Bible and of philosophy. Origen studied at numerous schools throughout Alexandria, including the Platonic Academy of Alexandria , where he was a student of Ammonius Saccas . Eusebius claims that Origen studied under Clement of Alexandria , but according to McGuckin, this is almost certainly

3250-506: A superficial understanding of the language but not enough to have composed the entire Hexapla . A note in Origen's On the First Principles mentions an unknown "Hebrew master", but this was probably a consultant, not a teacher. Origen also studied the entire New Testament , but especially the epistles of the apostle Paul and the Gospel of John , the writings which Origen regarded as

3375-410: A systematic manner the apparent contradiction among the conflicting opinions presented. Besides this method of exposition, the twelfth-century summists adopted dialectic definitely as a means of elucidating, not only philosophical, but also theological truth. Finally the summists adopted more or less unanimously a fixed division of the field of theology and philosophy, and adhered more or less closely to

3500-421: A wealthy man named Ambrose from Valentinian Gnosticism to orthodox Christianity. Ambrose was so impressed by the young scholar that he gave Origen a house, a secretary, seven stenographers , a crew of copyists and calligraphers, and paid for all of his writings to be published. When he was in his early twenties, Origen sold the small library of Greek literary works that he had inherited from his father for

3625-430: A woman. In his early twenties Origen became less interested in work as a grammarian and more interested in operating as a rhetor-philosopher. He gave his job as a catechist to his younger colleague Heraclas . Meanwhile, Origen began to style himself as a "master of philosophy". Origen's new position as a self-styled Christian philosopher brought him into conflict with Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria. Demetrius,

3750-414: A word appears in the scriptures along with all the word's known meanings, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he did this in a time when Bible concordances had not yet been compiled. Origen's massive Commentary on the Gospel of John , which spanned more than thirty-two volumes once it was completed, was written with the specific intention not only to expound the correct interpretation of

3875-466: A year after Origen's departure from Alexandria. The accusations against Origen faded with the death of Demetrius, but they did not disappear entirely and they continued to haunt him for the rest of his career. Origen defended himself in his Letter to Friends in Alexandria , in which he vehemently denied that he had ever taught that the Devil would attain salvation and insisted that the very notion of

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4000-450: A year later at the age of sixty-nine. A later legend, recounted by Jerome and numerous itineraries, places his death and burial at Tyre , but little value can be attached to this. Origen was an extremely prolific writer. According to Epiphanius , he wrote a grand total of roughly 6,000 works over the course of his lifetime. Most scholars agree that this estimate is probably somewhat exaggerated. According to Jerome, Eusebius listed

4125-453: A young age but was prevented from turning himself in to the authorities by his mother. When he was eighteen years old, Origen became a catechist at the Didascalium or School of Alexandria . He devoted himself to his studies and adopted an ascetic lifestyle. He came into conflict with Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria , in 231 after he was ordained as a presbyter by his friend Theoclistus,

4250-568: Is certainly true, because Eusebius, who was an ardent admirer of Origen, yet clearly describes the castration as an act of pure folly, would have had no motive to pass on a piece of information that might tarnish Origen's reputation unless it was "notorious and beyond question." Trigg sees Origen's condemnation of the literal interpretation of Matthew 19:12 as him "tacitly repudiating the literalistic reading he had acted on in his youth." In sharp contrast, McGuckin dismisses Eusebius's story of Origen's self-castration as "hardly credible", seeing it as

4375-630: Is highly esteemed by moralists and economists. The "Compendium theologicæ veritatis" of Hugh Ripelin of Strasburg (d. 1268) is the most widespread and famous manual of the Middle Ages. The chief manual of confessors is that of Paul of Hungary composed for the Brothers of St. Nicholas of Bologna (1220–21) and edited without mention of the author in the "Bibliotheca Casinensis" and with false assignment of authorship by Raymund Duellius . The "Summa de Poenitentia" of Raymond of Pennafort , composed in 1235,

4500-559: Is likely that these works contained much theological speculation, which brought Origen into even greater conflict with Demetrius. Origen repeatedly asked Demetrius to ordain him as a priest, but Demetrius continually refused. In around 231, Demetrius sent Origen on a mission to Athens. Along the way, Origen stopped in Caesarea, where he was warmly greeted by the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem, who had become his close friends during his previous stay. While he

4625-429: Is made up of emptiness , conventional existence, and the middle way between the first two, a simultaneous and integral affirmation of both. Contemplating a mental moment with regard to this truth or "threefold contemplation within one moment of mental activity" (yixin sanguan) is seen as the highest form of contemplation and as the ultimate form of realization. It leads to universal salvation (du zhongsheng) because through

4750-508: Is now generally recognized as anachronistic . According to Eusebius, as a young man, Origen was taken in by a wealthy Gnostic woman, who was also the patron of a very influential Gnostic theologian from Antioch , who frequently lectured in her home. Eusebius goes to great lengths to insist that, although Origen studied while in her home, he never once "prayed in common" with her or the Gnostic theologian. Later, Origen succeeded in converting

4875-572: Is unknown, may have been a member of the lower class who did not have the right of citizenship . It is likely that, on account of his mother's status, Origen was not a Roman citizen. Origen's father taught him about literature and philosophy as well as the Bible and Christian doctrine. Eusebius states that Origen's father made him memorize passages of scripture daily. Trigg accepts this tradition as possibly genuine, given Origen's ability as an adult to recite extended passages of scripture at will. Eusebius also reports that Origen became so learned about

5000-464: The Hexapla , the first critical edition of the Hebrew Bible, which contained the original Hebrew text, four different Greek translations, and a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew, all written in columns, side by side. He wrote hundreds of sermons covering almost the entire Bible , interpreting many passages as allegorical . Origen taught that, before the creation of the material universe , God had created

5125-618: The Philosophumena attributed to Hippolytus of Rome , and the Commentary on Job by Julian the Arian have also been ascribed to him. Origen writes that Jesus was "the firstborn of all creation [who] assumed a body and a human soul." He firmly believed that Jesus had a human soul and abhorred docetism (the teaching which held that Jesus had come to Earth in spirit form rather than a physical human body). Origen envisioned Jesus' human nature as

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5250-487: The Epistle of James as authentic with only slight hesitation. He also refers to 2 John , 3 John , and 2 Peter but notes that all three were suspected to be forgeries. Origen may have also considered other writings to be "inspired" that were rejected by later authors, including the Epistle of Barnabas , Shepherd of Hermas , and 1 Clement . "Origen is not the originator of the idea of biblical canon, but he certainly gives

5375-452: The Mahayana sutras available in China at the time and tries to include all doctrines into his meditation system. The text is founded firmly on scripture, every key assertion of the text is supported by sutra quotations. In the Móhē zhǐguān , Zhiyi also discusses several key Buddhist doctrines in its exposition of meditative praxis. A major doctrinal view of the work is that of the superiority of

5500-522: The New Testament . The information used to create the late-fourth-century Easter Letter , which declared accepted Christian writings, was probably based on the lists given in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History HE 3:25 and 6:25, which were both primarily based on information provided by Origen. Origen accepted the authenticity of the epistles of 1 John , 1 Peter , and Jude without question and accepted

5625-510: The Septuagint , and the Greek translations of Theodotion (a Jewish scholar from c. 180 AD), Aquila of Sinope (another Jewish scholar from c. 117–138), and Symmachus (an Ebionite scholar from c. 193–211). Origen was the first Christian scholar to introduce critical markers to a Biblical text. He marked the Septuagint column of the Hexapla using signs adapted from those used by

5750-490: The bishop of Caesarea , while on a journey to Athens through Palestine. Demetrius condemned Origen for insubordination and accused him of having castrated himself and of having taught that even Satan would eventually attain salvation, an accusation which Origen vehemently denied. Origen founded the Christian School of Caesarea, where he taught logic , cosmology , natural history , and theology, and became regarded by

5875-400: The civil law schools of Occitanie specially regarding Justinian's Institutiones . The teaching of Theology and Philosophy during the Middle Ages had two different ways: lectio and disputatio : These two school methods originated their literary forms: There are more or less sixty extant summae in this field, including: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

6000-427: The ransom theory of atonement in its fully developed form, although Irenaeus had previously proposed a prototypical form of it. According to this theory, Christ's death on the cross was a ransom to Satan in exchange for humanity's liberation. This theory holds that Satan was tricked by God because Christ was not only free of sin, but also the incarnate Deity, whom Satan lacked the ability to enslave. The theory

6125-485: The "Four samādhis " ( Chinese : 四種三昧 ; pinyin : sizhǒng sānmèi ) and the "ten modes of contemplation". The "twenty-five skillful devices" are preparatory practices which include keeping the five precepts , being in a quiet place, adjusting food intake and posture as well as restraining desire in the five senses and restraining the five hindrances . The four samadhis are designed for beginners who wish to practice meditation intensively. They are: After

6250-434: The 12th century, and popularized in 13th century Europe. In its simplest sense, they might be considered texts that 'sum up' knowledge in a field, such as the compendiums of theology , philosophy and canon law . Their function during the Middle Ages was largely as manuals or handbooks of necessary knowledge used by individuals who would not advance their studies any further. It was a kind of encyclopedia that developed

6375-462: The Devil attaining salvation was simply ludicrous. It was like a spark falling in our deepest soul, setting it on fire, making it burst into flame within us. It was, at the same time, a love for the Holy Word, the most beautiful object of all that, by its ineffable beauty attracts all things to itself with irresistible force, and it was also love for this man, the friend and advocate of the Holy Word. I

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6500-504: The Gospel of Matthew was universally regarded as a classic, even after his condemnation, and it ultimately became the work which established the Gospel of Matthew as the primary gospel. Origen's Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans was originally fifteen books long, but only tiny fragments of it have survived in the original Greek. An abbreviated Latin translation in ten books was produced by

6625-418: The Gospel of Matthew , only eight have survived in the original Greek (Books 10–17), covering Matthew 13.36–22.33. An anonymous Latin translation beginning at the point corresponding to Book 12, Chapter 9 of the Greek text and covering Matthew 16.13–27.66 has also survived. The translation contains parts that are not found in the original Greek and is missing parts that are found in it. Origen's Commentary on

6750-450: The Gospel of Matthew , written near the end of life, he strongly condemns any literal interpretation of Matthew 19:12, asserting that only an idiot would interpret the passage as advocating literal castration. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, some scholars have questioned the historicity of Origen's self-castration, with many seeing it as a wholesale fabrication. Trigg states that Eusebius's account of Origen's self-castration

6875-557: The Greek texts of two previously unknown works of Origen. Neither work can be dated precisely, though both were probably written after the persecution of Maximinus in 235. One is On the Pascha . The other is Dialogue with Heracleides , a record written by one of Origen's stenographers of a debate between Origen and the Arabian bishop Heracleides, a quasi-Monarchianist who taught that the Father and

7000-541: The Italian philologist Marina Molin Pradel had discovered twenty-nine previously unknown homilies by Origen in a twelfth-century Byzantine manuscript from their collection. Prof. Lorenzo Perrone of Bologna University and other experts confirmed the authenticity of the homilies. The texts of these manuscripts can be found online. Origen is the main source of information on the use of the texts that were later officially canonized as

7125-667: The Latin translation of Rufinus, is addressed to friends in Alexandria. The second is a short letter to Gregory Thaumaturgus , preserved in the Philocalia . The third is an epistle to Sextus Julius Africanus , extant in Greek, replying to a letter from Africanus (also extant), and defending the authenticity of the Greek additions to the book of Daniel. Forgeries of the writings of Origen made in his lifetime are discussed by Rufinus in De adulteratione librorum Origenis . The Dialogus de recta in Deum fide ,

7250-590: The Mediterranean. In 212 he travelled to Rome – a major center of philosophy at the time. In Rome, Origen attended lectures by Hippolytus of Rome and was influenced by his logos theology. In 213 or 214, the governor of the Province of Arabia sent a message to the prefect of Egypt requesting him to send Origen to meet with him so that he could interview him and learn more about Christianity from its leading intellectual. Origen, escorted by official bodyguards, spent

7375-459: The Son were the same. In the dialogue, Origen uses Socratic questioning to persuade Heracleides to believe in the "Logos theology", in which the Son or Logos is a separate entity from God the Father. The debate between Origen and Heracleides, and Origen's responses in particular, has been noted for its unusually cordial and respectful nature in comparison to the much fiercer polemics of Tertullian or

7500-510: The Trinity, the nature of the divine spirit, reason, and angels. Book Two describes the world of man, including the incarnation of the Logos, the soul, free will, and eschatology. Book Three deals with cosmology, sin, and redemption. Book Four deals with teleology and the interpretation of the scriptures. Against Celsus (Greek: Κατὰ Κέλσου; Latin: Contra Celsum ), preserved entirely in Greek,

7625-622: The Word ( Logos ) of God. The Logos eventually took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary , becoming the God-man Jesus Christ . In recent years it has been questioned whether Origen believed this, being in reality a belief of his disciples and a misrepresentation by Justinian, Epiphanius and others. It is certain that Origen rejected the Stoic doctrine of eternal return , although he did posit

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7750-514: The ascetic lifestyle of the Greek Sophists . He spent the whole day teaching and would stay up late at night writing treatises and commentaries. He went barefoot and only owned one cloak. He did not drink alcohol and ate a simple diet and he often fasted for long periods. Although Eusebius goes to great lengths to portray Origen as one of the Christian monastics of his era, this portrayal

7875-404: The authors of these works are called, is the adoption of the method first suggested by Gerbert in his "De Rationali et Ratione Uti", and used by Abelard in his "Sic et Non", consisting in an exposition of contradictory views, the affirmative and negative. Progress towards the final form of the thirteenth-century "Summæ" is marked by the greater care which was taken, as time went on, to explain in

8000-545: The centerpiece of the library's collection by the time of Jerome, who records having used it in his letters on multiple occasions. When Emperor Constantine the Great ordered fifty complete copies of the Bible to be transcribed and disseminated across the empire, Eusebius used the Hexapla as the master copy for the Old Testament. Although the original Hexapla has been lost, the text of it has survived in numerous fragments and

8125-452: The chief theologian of Caesarea. Firmilian , the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia , was such a devoted disciple of Origen that he begged him to come to Cappadocia and teach there. Demetrius raised a storm of protests against the bishops of Palestine and the church synod in Rome. According to Eusebius, Demetrius published the allegation that Origen had secretly castrated himself,

8250-523: The church at Caesarea, with the exception of the two on 1 Samuel which were delivered in Jerusalem. Nautin has argued that they were all preached in a three-year liturgical cycle some time between 238 and 244, preceding the Commentary on the Song of Songs , where Origen refers to homilies on Judges, Exodus, Numbers, and a work on Leviticus. On June 11, 2012, the Bavarian State Library announced that

8375-499: The church would ever face. Between 232 and 235, while in Caesarea in Palestine, Origen wrote On Prayer , of which the full text has been preserved in the original Greek. After an introduction on the object, necessity, and advantage of prayer, he ends with an exegesis of the Lord's Prayer , concluding with remarks on the position, place, and attitude to be assumed during prayer, as well as on

8500-467: The churches of Palestine and Arabia as the ultimate authority on all matters of theology. He was tortured for his faith during the Decian persecution in 250 and died three to four years later from his injuries. Origen produced a massive quantity of writings because of the patronage of his close friend Ambrose of Alexandria , who provided him with a team of secretaries to copy his works, making him one of

8625-487: The classes of prayer. On Martyrdom , or the Exhortation to Martyrdom , also preserved entire in Greek, was written some time after the beginning of the persecution of Maximinus in the first half of 235. In it, Origen warns against any trifling with idolatry and emphasises the duty of suffering martyrdom manfully, while in the second part he explains the meaning of martyrdom. The papyri discovered at Tura in 1941 contained

8750-474: The combination of textbook and doctor's dissertation. The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas , begun when Aquinas was Regent Master at the studium provinciale at Santa Sabina the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum , is often considered the most perfect specimen of this kind of literature. The term "Summulæ" was used, for the most part, to designate

8875-400: The dryness and unattractiveness of the medieval "Summæ", these works have many merits from the point of view of pedagogy, and a philosophical school which supplements, as Scholasticism did, the compendious treatment of the "Summæ", with the looser form of treatment of the "Quæstiones Disputatæ" and the "Opuscula", unites in its method of writing the advantages which modern philosophy derives from

9000-449: The exegesis of the Christian scriptures. Eusebius reports that Origen was summoned from Caesarea to Antioch at the behest of Julia Avita Mamaea , the mother of Roman Emperor Severus Alexander , "to discuss Christian philosophy and doctrine with her." In 235, approximately three years after Origen began teaching in Caesarea, Alexander Severus, who had been tolerant towards Christians, was murdered and Emperor Maximinus Thrax instigated

9125-476: The exegesis of the Jewish Rabbi Akiva , interpreting the Song of Songs as a mystical allegory in which the bridegroom represents the Logos and the bride represents the soul of the believer. This was the first Christian commentary to expound such an interpretation and it became extremely influential on later interpretations of the Song of Songs. Despite this, the commentary now only survives in part through

9250-431: The first book; means of attaining this object, viz., creatures — the topic treated in the second book; virtues, men and angels, that is, special means of happiness and subjects of happiness — the topic of the third book; the fourth book is devoted to signs: the sacraments. How far Peter Lombard was influenced by earlier summists, such as Robert Pullen , Hugh of St. Victor and the author of the " Summa Sententiarum " which

9375-563: The first in point of time is "De Trinitate" by St. Hilary of Poitiers . The distinction has also been accorded to Radulfus Ardens , an eleventh-century theologian and preacher, a native of Beaulieu , author of a comprehensive "Speculum Universale", still in Manuscript. In this wide sense of the word, however, the encyclopedic treatises of St. Isidore of Seville , Rabanus Maurus etc., entitled "De Etymologiis" or "De Universo" might also be considered to be summaries of theology and philosophy. In

9500-463: The first of these books, Origen compares himself to "an Israelite who has escaped the perverse persecution of the Egyptians." Origen also wrote the treatise On Prayer at the request of his friend Ambrose and Tatiana (referred to as the "sister" of Ambrose), in which he analyzes the different types of prayers described in the Bible and offers a detailed exegesis on the Lord's Prayer . Pagans also took

9625-529: The founder of Neoplatonism. The Christians of the eastern Mediterranean continued to revere Origen as the most orthodox of all theologians, and when the Palestinian hierarchs learned that Beryllus , the bishop of Bostra and one of the most energetic Christian leaders of the time, had been preaching adoptionism (the belief that Jesus was born human and only became divine after his baptism ), they sent Origen to convert him to orthodoxy. Origen engaged Beryllus in

9750-504: The fourth-century debates between Trinitarians and Arians. Lost works include two books on the Resurrection , written before On First Principles , and also two dialogues on the same theme dedicated to Ambrose. Eusebius had a collection of more than one hundred letters of Origen, and the list of Jerome speaks of several books of his epistles. Except for a few fragments, only three letters have been preserved. The first, partly preserved in

9875-532: The holy scriptures at an early age that his father was unable to answer his questions about them. In 202, when Origen was "not yet seventeen", the Roman emperor Septimius Severus ordered Roman citizens who openly practised Christianity to be executed . Origen's father Leonides was arrested and thrown in prison. Eusebius reports that Origen wanted to turn himself in to the authorities so that they would execute him as well, but his mother hid all his clothes and he

10000-529: The logical compendiums which came to be adopted as texts in the schools during the thirteenth century. The best known of these is the "Summulæ Logicales" of Peter Hispanus , afterwards Pope John XXI. Manuals of theology and more especially manuals, or summae, on penance for the use of confessors were composed in great numbers. The oldest Dominican commentaries on the "Sentences" are those of Roland of Cremona , Hugh of Saint Cher , Richard Fitzacre , Robert of Kilwardby and Albertus Magnus . The series begins with

10125-507: The matter to his attention. Origen initially wanted to ignore Celsus and let his attacks fade, but one of Celsus's major claims, which held that no self-respecting philosopher of the Platonic tradition would ever be so stupid as to become a Christian, provoked him to write a rebuttal. In the book, Origen systematically refutes each of Celsus' arguments point by point and argues for a rational basis of Christian faith. Origen draws heavily on

10250-520: The meditator has practiced the four samadhis, he then moves on to contemplating the "ten objects": The core of the exposition is taken up by the skandhas, ayatanas and dhatus, which are to be contemplated in ten "modes": The concept of the three truths is a key element in Zhiyi's exposition of the practice of contemplation. Zhiyi's "perfectly integrated threefold truth" is an extension of Nagarjuna 's Two truths doctrine . This "round and inter-inclusive" truth

10375-540: The monk Tyrannius Rufinus at the end of the fourth century. The historian Socrates Scholasticus records that Origen had included an extensive discussion of the application of the title theotokos to the Virgin Mary in his commentary, but this discussion is not found in Rufinus's translation, probably because Rufinus did not approve of Origen's position on the matter, whatever that might have been. Origen also composed

10500-432: The most important and authoritative. At Ambrose's request, Origen composed the first five books of his exhaustive Commentary on the Gospel of John , He also wrote the first eight books of his Commentary on Genesis , his Commentary on Psalms 1–25 , and his Commentary on Lamentations . In addition to these commentaries, Origen also wrote two books on the resurrection of Jesus and ten books of Stromata (miscellanies). It

10625-402: The most influential of all early Christian apologetics works; before it was written, Christianity was seen by many as merely a folk religion for the illiterate and uneducated, but Origen raised it to a level of academic respectability. Eusebius admired Against Celsus so much that, in his Against Hierocles 1, he declared that Against Celsus provided an adequate rebuttal to all criticisms

10750-429: The most prolific writers in late antiquity . His treatise On the First Principles systematically laid out the principles of Christian theology and became the foundation for later theological writings. He also authored Contra Celsum , the most influential work of early Christian apologetics, in which he defended Christianity against the pagan philosopher Celsus , one of its foremost early critics . Origen produced

10875-407: The non-extant commentaries, there is limited evidence of their arrangement. Origen's On the First Principles was the first ever systematic exposition of Christian theology. He composed it as a young man between 220 and 230 while he was still living in Alexandria. Fragments from Books 3.1 and 4.1–3 of Origen's Greek original are preserved in Origen's Philokalia . A few smaller quotations of

11000-400: The one soul that stayed closest to God and remained perfectly faithful to Him, even when all other souls fell away. At Jesus's incarnation, his soul became fused with the Logos and they "intermingled" to become one. Thus, according to Origen, Christ was both human and divine, but like all human souls, Christ's human nature was existent from the beginning. Origen was the first to propose

11125-465: The original Greek are preserved in Justinian's Letter to Mennas . The vast majority of the text has only survived in a heavily abridged Latin translation produced by Tyrannius Rufinus in 397. On the First Principles begins with an essay explaining the nature of theology. Book One describes the heavenly world and includes descriptions of the oneness of God, the relationship between the three persons of

11250-605: The orthodoxy of Origen's teachings spawned the First Origenist Crisis in the late fourth century, in which he was attacked by Epiphanius of Salamis and Jerome but defended by Tyrannius Rufinus and John of Jerusalem . In 543, Emperor Justinian I condemned him as a heretic and ordered all his writings to be burned. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 may have anathematized Origen, or it may have only condemned certain heretical teachings which claimed to be derived from Origen. The Church rejected his teachings on

11375-604: The philosophical and literary–interpretative underpinnings for the whole notion." Origen's commentaries written on specific books of scripture are much more focused on systematic exegesis than his homilies. In these writings, Origen applies the precise critical methodology that had been developed by the scholars of the Mouseion in Alexandria to the Christian scriptures. The commentaries also display Origen's impressive encyclopedic knowledge of various subjects and his ability to cross-reference specific words, listing every place in which

11500-412: The plague was caused by Christians' failure to recognise him as divine, issued a decree for Christians to be persecuted . This time Origen did not escape. Eusebius recounts how Origen suffered "bodily tortures and torments under the iron collar and in the dungeon; and how for many days with his feet stretched four spaces in the stocks". The governor of Caesarea gave very specific orders that Origen

11625-413: The practice of "sudden" samatha-vipassana , which sees the ultimate reality present at the very start of one's practice. In the fifth volume of this treatise, Zhiyi reveals the doctrine of "three thousand realms in a single life-moment" ( ichinen sanzen ), which is considered to be the essence of his teachings. Zhiyi divides his meditation system into three major sets, the "twenty-five skillful devices",

11750-761: The pre-existence of souls. Almost all information about Origen's life comes from a lengthy biography of him in Book VI of the Ecclesiastical History written by the Christian historian Eusebius ( c. 260 – c. 340). Eusebius portrays Origen as the perfect Christian scholar and a literal saint. Eusebius, however, wrote this account almost fifty years after Origen's death and had access to few reliable sources on Origen's life, especially his early years. Anxious for more material about his hero, Eusebius recorded events based only on unreliable hearsay evidence. He frequently made speculative inferences about Origen based on

11875-428: The scriptures, but also to refute the interpretations of the Valentinian Gnostic teacher Heracleon , who had used the Gospel of John to support his argument that there were really two gods, not one. Of the original thirty-two books in the Commentary on John , only nine have been preserved: Books I, II, VI, X, XIII, XX, XXVIII, XXXII, and a fragment of XIX. Of the original twenty-five books in Origen's Commentary on

12000-474: The souls of all intelligent beings. These souls, at first fully devoted to God, fell away from him and were given physical bodies. Origen was the first to propose the ransom theory of atonement in its fully developed form, and he also significantly contributed to the development of the concept of the Trinity . Origen hoped that all people might eventually attain salvation but was always careful to maintain that this

12125-464: The sources he had available. Nonetheless, scholars can reconstruct a general impression of Origen's historical life by sorting out the parts of Eusebius's account that are accurate from those that are inaccurate. Origen was born in either 185 or 186 AD in Alexandria. Porphyry called him "a Greek , and educated in Greek literature ". According to Eusebius, Origen's father was Leonides of Alexandria ,

12250-548: The stricter sense of the word, "Summa" is applied to the more technical systematic compendiums which began to appear in the twelfth century. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , the form was invented by the grammarian Peter Helias . An alternative title is "Sentences" (Latin Libri Sententiarum ), the diminutive, "Summulæ", being of later origin. What is peculiar to "summists" or "sententiaries", as

12375-489: The summa (derived from the similia ), and the questio legitima (derived from the contraria ). The summa was born in the minor Law schools whose aim was to instruct their students with easy summaries of the Justinian codes. In order to achieve this goal, easy, simple and systematic summaries of whole works were made, and the literary genre of the summae in the legal area was born. The summae were developed specially in

12500-457: The teachers and intellectuals from the city. Origen fled Alexandria and traveled to the city of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Palestine , where the bishops Theoctistus of Caesarea and Alexander of Jerusalem became his devoted admirers and asked him to deliver discourses on the scriptures in their respective churches. This effectively allowed Origen to deliver sermons even though he

12625-517: The teachings of Plato and argues that Christianity and Greek philosophy are not incompatible, and that philosophy contains much that is true and admirable, but that the Bible contains far greater wisdom than anything Greek philosophers could ever grasp. Origen responds to Celsus's accusation that Jesus had performed his miracles using magic rather than divine powers by asserting that, unlike magicians, Jesus had not performed his miracles for show, but rather to reform his audiences. Contra Celsum became

12750-515: The textual critics of the Great Library of Alexandria : a passage found in the Septuagint that was not found in the Hebrew text would be marked with an asterisk (*) and a passage that was found in other Greek translations, but not in the Septuagint, would be marked with an obelus (÷). The Hexapla was the cornerstone of the Great Library of Caesarea, which Origen founded. It was still

12875-417: The titles of just under 2,000 treatises written by Origen in his lost Life of Pamphilus . Jerome compiled an abbreviated list of Origen's major treatises, itemizing 800 different titles. By far the most important work of Origen on textual criticism was the Hexapla ("Sixfold"), a massive comparative study of various translations of the Old Testament in six columns: Hebrew , Hebrew in Greek characters,

13000-546: The transformation of oneself, one can therefore transform others. According to Rev. Jikai Dehn, the major commentaries on this text in the Tendai tradition are: The first is a Chinese commentary by the sixth Tiantai patriarch; the latter three are Japanese works. Summa Summa and its diminutive summula (plural summae and summulae , respectively) was a medieval didactics literary genre written in Latin , born during

13125-471: The whole family. When he was eighteen, Origen was appointed as a catechist at the Catechetical School of Alexandria. Many scholars have assumed that Origen became the head of the school, but according to McGuckin, this is highly improbable. It is more likely that he was given a paid teaching position, perhaps as a "relief effort" for his impoverished family. While employed at the school, he adopted

13250-443: The words". Instead, Chadwick suggests, "Perhaps Eusebius was uncritically reporting malicious gossip retailed by Origen's enemies, of whom there were many." However, many noted historians, such as Peter Brown and William Placher , continue to find no reason to conclude that the story is false. Placher theorizes that, if it is true, it may have followed an episode in which Origen received some raised eyebrows while privately tutoring

13375-404: The world, the souls which had previously existed without bodies became incarnate. Those whose love for God diminished the most became demons . Those whose love diminished moderately became human souls, eventually to be incarnated in fleshly bodies. Those whose love diminished the least became angels . One soul, however, who remained perfectly devoted to God became, through love, one with

13500-438: The year 1230 if not earlier and the last are prior to the middle of the thirteenth century. The "Summa" of St. Thomas (1265–75) is still the masterpiece of theology. The monumental work of Albertus Magnus is unfinished. The "Summa de bono" of Ulrich of Strasburg (d. 1277), a disciple of Albert is still unedited, but is of interest to the historian of the thought of the thirteenth century. The theological summa of St. Antoninus

13625-510: Was Origen's last treatise, written about 248. It is an apologetic work defending orthodox Christianity against the attacks of the pagan philosopher Celsus , who was seen in the ancient world as early Christianity's foremost opponent. In 178, Celsus had written a polemic entitled On the True Word , in which he had made numerous arguments against Christianity. The church had responded by ignoring Celsus's attacks, but Origen's patron Ambrose brought

13750-415: Was a classic during the Middle Ages and was one of the works of which the manuscripts were most multiplied. The "Summa Confessorum" of John of Freiburg (d. 1314) is, according to Johann Friedrich von Schulte , the most perfect product of this class of literature. The Pisan Bartolommeo of San Concordio has left us a "Summa Casuum" composed in 1338, in which the matter is arranged in alphabetical order. It

13875-442: Was a prolific writer who wrote roughly 2,000 treatises in multiple branches of theology, including textual criticism , biblical exegesis and hermeneutics , homiletics , and spirituality. He was one of the most influential and controversial figures in early Christian theology, apologetics , and asceticism. He has been described as "the greatest genius the early church ever produced". Origen sought martyrdom with his father at

14000-453: Was arrested in Nicomedia , and Protoctetes, the leading priest in Caesarea, was also arrested. In their honor, Origen composed his treatise Exhortation to Martyrdom , which is now regarded as one of the greatest classics of Christian resistance literature. After coming out of hiding following Maximinus's death, Origen founded a school of which Gregory Thaumaturgus , later bishop of Pontus,

14125-510: Was immediately inspired by Abelard's work, historians have not determined. It is generally admitted that the Lombard was not entirely original. He deserves his renown as the first great summist chiefly because, in spite of the opposition which his work met during his lifetime, its influence grew greater in time, until in the thirteenth century it was universally adopted as a text. Notwithstanding all that hostile critics of Scholasticism have said about

14250-465: Was later expanded by theologians such as Gregory of Nyssa and Rufinus of Aquileia . In the eleventh century, Anselm of Canterbury criticized the ransom theory, along with the associated Christus Victor theory, resulting in the theory's decline in western Europe. The theory has nonetheless retained some of its popularity in the Eastern Orthodox Church . One of Origen's main teachings

14375-474: Was not formally ordained. While this was an unexpected phenomenon, especially given Origen's international fame as a teacher and philosopher, it infuriated Demetrius, who saw it as a direct undermining of his authority. Demetrius sent deacons from Alexandria to demand that the Palestinian hierarchs immediately return "his" catechist to Alexandria. He also issued a decree chastising the Palestinians for allowing

14500-544: Was not to be killed until he had publicly renounced his faith in Christ. Origen endured two years of imprisonment and torture, but obstinately refused to renounce his faith. In June 251, Decius was killed fighting the Goths in the Battle of Abritus , and Origen was released from prison. Nonetheless, Origen's health was broken by the physical tortures enacted on him, and he died less than

14625-557: Was one of the pupils. He preached regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and later daily. Sometime between 238 and 244, Origen visited Athens, where he completed his Commentary on the Book of Ezekiel and began writing his Commentary on the Song of Songs . After visiting Athens, he visited Ambrose in Nicomedia. According to Porphyry, Origen also travelled to Rome or Antioch, where he met Plotinus ,

14750-413: Was only speculation. He defended free will and advocated Christian pacifism . Origen is considered by some Christian groups to be a Church Father . He is widely regarded as one of the most influential Christian theologians. His teachings were especially influential in the east, with Athanasius of Alexandria and the three Cappadocian Fathers being among his most devoted followers. Argument over

14875-399: Was reviving a role that had been prominent in earlier Christianity but which challenged the authority of the now-powerful bishop. Meanwhile, Origen began composing his massive theological treatise On the First Principles , a landmark book which systematically laid out the foundations of Christian theology for centuries to come. Origen also began travelling abroad to visit schools across

15000-471: Was the doctrine of the preexistence of souls , which held that before God created the material world he created a vast number of incorporeal " spiritual intelligences " (ψυχαί). All of these souls were at first devoted to the contemplation and love of their Creator, but as the fervor of the divine fire cooled, almost all of these intelligences eventually grew bored of contemplating God, and their love for him "cooled off" (ψύχεσθαι). When God created

15125-614: Was the highest of all philosophies, the accumulation of everything they had previously learned. With the establishment of the Caesarean school, Origen's reputation as a scholar and theologian reached its zenith and he became known throughout the Mediterranean world as a brilliant intellectual. The hierarchs of the Palestinian and Arabian church synods regarded Origen as the ultimate expert on all matters dealing with theology. While teaching in Caesarea, Origen resumed work on his Commentary on John , composing at least books six through ten. In

15250-422: Was thus persuaded to give up all other goals ... I had only one remaining object that I valued and longed for – philosophy, and that divine man who was my master of philosophy. During his early years in Caesarea, Origen's primary task was the establishment of a Christian School; Caesarea had long been seen as a center of learning for Jews and Hellenistic philosophers, but until Origen's arrival, it had lacked

15375-484: Was unable to go to the authorities since he refused to leave the house naked. According to McGuckin, even if Origen had turned himself in, it is unlikely that he would have been punished, since the emperor was only intent on executing Roman citizens. Origen's father was beheaded, and the state confiscated the family's entire property, leaving them impoverished. Origen was the eldest of nine children, and as his father's heir, it became his responsibility to provide for

15500-418: Was very successful in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The manuals for confessors of John Nieder (d. 1438), St. Antoninus , Archbishop of Florence (d. 1459), and Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) were much esteemed in their time In the area of Law, the summa is a practical and didactic genre, that was developed from the methodology of the gloss . It was divided into two different literary genres:

15625-598: Was visiting Caesarea, Origen asked Theoctistus to ordain him as a priest. Theoctistus gladly complied. Upon learning of Origen's ordination, Demetrius was outraged and issued a condemnation declaring that Origen's ordination by a foreign bishop was an act of insubordination. Eusebius reports that as a result of Demetrius's condemnations, Origen decided not to return to Alexandria and instead to take up permanent residence in Caesarea. John Anthony McGuckin, however, argues that Origen had probably already been planning to stay in Caesarea. The Palestinian bishops declared Origen

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