Origen.

"Origen's story deserves to be told right from the cradle"--Eusebius. Born around 185 in (probably) Alexandria, the young man narrowly escaped sharing his father's martyrdom in anti-Christian pogroms there. Peace restored, Bishop (later Saint) Demetrius chose the lay but outstandingly erudite Origen to replace the fugitive Clement as head of the Catechetical School. He combined this responsibility with intensified study of pagan philosophy under the Neo-Platonist Ammonius, whilst leading a personal life of such asceticism as to castrate himself through an over-literal interpretation of Matthew 19.12 ("There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake")--Augustine (Confessions 8.8) considered but rejected this expedient.

His growing fame amongst both Christians and pagans, plus fresh Alexandrian persecutions, led to far-flung missions, from Rome where he heard St Hippolytus, to Arabia and Palestine where he was invited to preach and ordained by the Bishop of Caesarea. An agitated Demetrius promptly recalled, dismissed, and unfrocked him. Origen returned c.230 to Caesarea where he preached, taught, and wrote for the next 20 years until the persecution under emperor Decius. Though he was not executed, his imprisonment and prolonged tortures hastened his death soon after release (c.251), entitling him to martyr status.

"Origen's life and writings require a separate study," asserted Eusebius, himself providing one along with Origen's martyred follower Pamphilus. Cataloguing his works, Jerome (Letter 33) exclaims over "the sweat he expended on so many Scriptural commentaries." Jerome, whose admiration changed to abusing him as snake and dog, says he wrote 2000 books, a fecundity helped by his dictating them to teams of girl stenographers.

Because of the instant and long-lasting (until anathematisation by the Second Council of Constantinople, 553) Origenist Controversy, plus his forbidding prolixity, most of this vast output is lost or survives only in not always reliable Latin translations. Though Jerome had the original manuscript, his chief work of Biblical scholarship, the Hexapla ("SixFold")--in which the Old Testament in Hebrew (which Origen learned for this purpose), the (Greek) Septuagint, and four other versions were arranged in parallel columns with critical editorial signs, 6000 pages long--is almost wholly lost.

Ancillary commentaries addressed almost every Biblical book (that on John is foremost), along with hundreds of homilies on particular passages. More accessible through their subject-matter and relative brevity are treatises on Prayer and Martyrdom. His admirers Basil and Gregory Nazianzus (who dubbed him "The Stone that sharpens us all," a common patristic image of Christ Himself) sought to popularise him via an anthology

entitled Philocalia ("Love of the Beautiful").

One of two important uncharacteristic works was Against Celsus, a detailed rebuttal of this Epicurean's True Word, the first intellectual anti-Christian pamphlet. The abuse heaped on him by Porphyry's Against the Christians implies success, while a passage prefiguring iconoclastic sentiment upset iconodules *. The other was his speculative tetralogy On First Principles, which attracted shrill criticisms from St Methodius to Augustine (City of God 11.23, 21.17) to Photius for its notions of pre-existent souls, their transmigration and ultimate purification by God, his reversal of Clement's Logos over Theos scheme, the material world, free will, alleged Subordinationism, and, finally, his insistence on Biblical allegory. Also notable is the Dialogue with Heracleides, unusual ancient stenographic minutes of a cut-and-thrust debate on the Father-Son relationship.

The real Origen is hard to pin down. He may often have been advancing hypotheses, or reporting the views of others. He and admirers claimed that enemies tampered with his texts to make them seem heretical.

"There are many Origens: philosopher, scholar, mystic, exegete, allegorist, saint ... his influence on Christian thought exceeded by no one except Paul himself"--Robert J. Daly, S.J.

"Origen combined two quite disparate talents: a speculative theologian of unparalleled boldness and imagination and a Scriptural interpreter of dazzling technical expertise"--Timothy Barnes, Constantine & Eusebius (1981).

"I want to be a man of the Church, to be called by the name of Christ, to bear that name which is blessed on the earth"--Origen, Homily 16 on Luke.

* Iconodules are those who revere and venerate icons

FURTHER READING:

There are translations of surviving works by Robert Daly and Henry Chadwick.

Recent books include:

Elizabeth Clark's The Origenist Controversy (1992) and Mark Edwards' Origen Against Plato (2002).

The quadrennial Origen Conferences, held since 1973, generate much technical scholarship. 'Googling' provides 39.200 sites.