The Westminster Handbook to Origen (Westminster Handbooks to Christian Theology)

An excellent and comprehensive guide to the first Christian theologian. Origen, though wrongfully maligned over the centuries, provides key insights into the faith. Only recently are his works being rediscovered and given the attention they deserve. If you seek to gain a foundational understanding of the Christian faith, do not skip this volume.

This is a MUST-HAVE for any serious collection of the Fathers; written and organized with exceedingly comprehensive style and economy by one of the premier scholars of Late Ancient Christianity. If you're determined to build your Christian library, get it without delay. If you're a true Origenist, you already have it.

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This series, the Westminster Handbooks to Christian Theology, provides a good resource for students, clergy, academics and other interested readings on key movements as well as key individuals in the history of Christianity. These books are mini-encyclopedic in nature - much more than a dictionary with short definitions, these focused books concentrate on a particular theme and develop it in worthwhile articles akin to those found in encyclopedic texts.This book on Origen, edited by John Anthony McGuckin, is an excellent text for reference and study. Together with an international team of 35 scholars, McGukin has produced a very readable and useful volume for one of the early controversial figures in Christian history. Origen lived in the second and third centuries, well before the formulation of the Nicene Creed (the most common and most ecumenical of the creedal statements from the early church). He was noted in his own lifetime as brilliant and occasionally troublesome. He grew up in Alexandria, one of the major urban and intellectual centres of the world at that time, and developed both in terms of theology and philosophy into a first-class thinker. Origen traveled widely, becoming increasingly alienated from the Alexandrian church, forcing him to relocated to nearby Palestine, where he remained a controversial and embattled figure. Eventually imprisoned and tortured, Origen's thought, while crucial to the early church, remained unorthodox and problematic for the church of that time and the future. As a result, during various times in the church's history, his works were purged. Much was lost.Origen was a neo-Platonic thinker, and perhaps the first great systematic theologian of the church. Origen took on the Gnostic frameworks when they were powerful, resisting the dualistic structure; Origen was also very humanistic, believing in some ways toward universal salvation as a possibility, even for the devil himself. Origen is also the father of the allegorical interpretation of scripture in the Christian church. Origen's unorthodox thinking (which is difficult to describe as such, given the lack of consistent orthodoxy throughout the church at the period of Origen's life) was seed for later Origenist Crises, which are covered in the Westminster Handbook, in addition to troubles in his own life. Origen seemed to believe in the possibility of reincarnation and the pre-existence of souls (neither of which fit with the mainstream Christian theologies, then or now). There is an extent to which we don't know all of the causes of the official disapproval of Origen - that he was a controversial figure in many respects is evident from his self-castration to avoid temptations of the flesh (he was disappointed to find that the desires were still there, after the act).The two articles, one on the life and one on the work of Origen, at the opening of the book are interesting and worthwhile scholarship, particularly for the person new to Origen, Church Fathers, or Orthodox history. There is a good list of critical editions of Origen's works (with annotation), then general lists of works in translations and anthologies. The handbook articles refer directly to Origen's work (referenced via abbreviations found in the front of the book). Articles look primarily at his theological, philosophical and exegetical work, but there are some more general pieces as well.Overall, this is a good reference and a handy volume for any student or reader interested in early church history or Orthodoxy.