Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
These include the Στρωματεῖς, a work composed in imitation of the
treatise of Clement of the same name, and consisting originally of ten
books, of which only three fragments exist in a Latin version by Jerome
(Migne, vol. i. pp. 102-107); a treatise on the Resurrection, of which
four fragments remain (Migne, vol. i. pp. 91-100); and the treatise Περὶ
Ἀρχῶν, _De Principiis_, which contains Origen’s views on the various
questions of systematic theology. The work has come down to us in the
Latin translation of his admirer Rufinus; but, from a comparison of the
few fragments of the original Greek which have been preserved, we see
that Rufinus was justly chargeable with altering many of Origen’s
expressions, in order to bring his doctrine on certain points more into
harmony with the orthodox views of the time. The _De Principiis_
consists of four books, and is translated in the first volume of the
works of Origen in this series, to which we refer the reader.
PRACTICAL WORKS.
Under this head we place the little treatise Περὶ Εὐχῆς, _On Prayer_,
written at the instance of his friend Ambrose, and which contains an
exposition of the Lord’s Prayer; the Λόγος προτρεπτικὸς εἰς μαρτύριον,
_Exhortation to Martyrdom_, composed at the outbreak of the persecution
by Maximian, when his friends Ambrose and Protoctetus were imprisoned.
Of his numerous letters only two have come down entire, viz. that which
was addressed to Julius Africanus, who had questioned the genuineness of
the history of Susanna in the apocryphal additions to the book of
Daniel, and that to Gregory Thaumaturgus on the use of Greek philosophy
in the explanation of Scripture, although, from the brevity of the
latter, it is questionable whether it is more than a fragment of the
original. (Both of these are translated in the first volume of Origen’s
works in this series.) The Φιλοκαλία, _Philocalia_, was a compilation
from the writings of Origen, intended to explain the difficult passages
of Scripture, and executed by Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus;
large extracts of which have been preserved, especially of that part
which was taken from the treatise against Celsus. The remains were first
printed at Paris in 1618, and again at Cambridge in 1676, in the reprint
of Spencer’s edition of the _Contra Celsum_. In the Benedictine edition,
and in Migne’s reprint, the various portions are quoted in footnotes
under the respective passages of Origen’s writings.
EDITIONS OF ORIGEN.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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