c. A.D. 185 – c. 253

Origen

Worth knowing

Born to Christian parents in Alexandria. His father Leonides was martyred around A.D. 202, when Origen was a teenager.
He was the greatest Bible scholar of the early church. His Hexapla set the Hebrew Old Testament beside Greek versions in six columns so they could be compared line by line.
Against Celsus answers the pagan philosopher Celsus point by point. Origen quotes him so fully that most of Celsus' lost book can be rebuilt from it. He argues from fulfilled prophecy, from the disciples' readiness to die, and from the changed lives of ordinary Christians.
He was tortured in the persecution under Decius and died soon after, around A.D. 253. Some of his speculations were condemned three centuries later, but the church went on reading his work on Scripture.

In Scholar’s Dream, Origen has three books

Against CelsusOrigen, Contra CelsumRationalityHistory

On First PrinciplesOrigen, De Principiis (Peri Archon)Theology ProperExegesis

Origen’s CorpusThe Works of Origen of AlexandriaRationalityTheology Proper

Origen’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Origen that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“As the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition.”
Origen, De Principiis, Preface 2 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — Rufinus’ Latin; no Greek survives for this sentence.public domain

How it works in the game: the move First Principles

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 95% accurate

In the gameOne God in both Testaments; a real human Jesus; the Son eternally begotten; three persons, one God — set out in order, decades before a council had to say it in Greek.

Learned byOn First Principles (Lv 1)

“He continues silent before these things, and makes no audible answer, but places His defence in the lives of His genuine disciples, which are a pre-eminent testimony, and one that rises superior to all false witness.”
Origen, Contra Celsum, Preface 2 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — the opening move of all eight books.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Look At Them Living

EthicsArgument · power 58 · 100% accurate

In the gameBefore the argument, the evidence: what these people are actually like. Origen points at the congregation and asks where else it came from. May convict the foe.

Learned byAgainst Celsus (Lv 9)

Strong against

×2The True Wordan argument · why?

Origen pointed to how Christians actually lived. Jesus answered Celsus the way he answered his own accusers: in silence, and through the lives of his disciples.

×2Why Did He Neglect Us?an argument · why?

Origen pointed to Christians from every nation living the same new life. Whatever happened in past centuries, the gospel had now gone out to all peoples, Julian’s own included.

“No one is able to speak with certainty about God the Father, but it is possible for some knowledge of him to be gained from the visible creation and the natural feelings of the human mind. Such knowledge can then be confirmed by the Holy Scriptures.”
Origen, On First Principles (trans. Gerald Bray) — quoted under fair use.in copyright · fair use

How it works in the game: the move From What Is Made

Natural TheologyArgument · power 62 · 100% accurate

In the gameCreation and conscience get you some way toward God on their own. Scripture then confirms what they could only gesture at — Origen is careful never to claim more than that.

Learned byOn First Principles (Lv 17), Origen’s Corpus (Lv 34)

Strong against

×2The Five Common Notionsan argument · why?

Origen says creation gives some knowledge of God, but not certainty about the Father. For that, God has to speak, as he has in Scripture and in his Son.

“The endeavour to show, with regard to almost any history, however true, that it actually occurred, and to produce an intelligent conception regarding it, is one of the most difficult undertakings that can be attempted, and is in some instances an impossibility.”
Origen, Contra Celsum 1.42 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — his own worked example is the Trojan War.public domain

“No one who candidly examines the facts would say that these men devoted themselves to a life of danger for the sake of the doctrine of Jesus, without profound belief which He had wrought in their minds of its truth.”
Origen, Contra Celsum 1.31 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Not Like Troy

HistoryArgument · power 64 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe resurrection cannot be demonstrated the way a geometer demonstrates. Neither can the Trojan War, and nobody doubts that. What it CAN have is witnesses — and witnesses who kept saying it while being killed for it.

Learned byAgainst Celsus (Lv 17)

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:6–7, quoted by Origen against Celsus in Contra Celsum 4.18 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Emptied, Not Changed

Theology ProperArgument · power 70 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe objection is that God cannot change and so cannot come down. Origen answers that the Word never stopped being what he was: he took the form of a servant without laying down the form of God.

Learned byAgainst Celsus (Lv 22), Origen’s Corpus (Lv 40)

Strong against

×2The True Word: On the Godsan argument · why?

Origen answered with Philippians 2. The Word did not stop being God when he came down. He took the form of a servant without losing what he was.

“For as man is said to consist of body, and soul, and spirit, so also does sacred Scripture, which has been granted by the divine bounty for the salvation of man.”
Origen, De Principiis 4.11 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — Rufinus’ Latin. Modern editions number the same sentence 4.2.4.public domain

“For as man consists of body, and soul, and spirit, so in the same way does Scripture, which has been arranged to be given by God for the salvation of men.”
The same sentence in Origen’s own Greek, surviving in the Philocalia (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain). Crombie prints both versions side by side.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Spiritual Sense

AllegoryArgument · power 64 · 100% accurate

In the gameA passage has a body, a soul and a spirit, Origen says — and a reader who stops at the body has stopped early. The method that taught the church to read, and the one it later had to put a fence around.

Learned byOn First Principles (Lv 30)

“Indeed, it is reasonable to suppose that the knowledge of God is beyond the reach of human nature, and hence the many errors into which men have fallen in their views of God.”
Origen, Contra Celsum 7.44 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move Beyond the Reach of Nature

PresuppositionArgument · power 86 · 100% accurate

In the gameCelsus offers a method — combine, separate, argue by analogy, and arrive at God the way a mathematician arrives at a proof. Origen answers that the errors are the evidence: men have been running that method for centuries and have come out somewhere different every time.

Learned byOrigen’s Corpus (Lv 46)

Strong against

×2.5Christianity Not Mysteriousan argument · why?

Toland allows nothing in the gospel that reason could not have reached on its own. Origen had the same offer from Celsus — combine, separate, argue by analogy — and pointed at the record: the method has run for centuries and come out somewhere different every time.

“But since a rational animal not only has within itself these natural movements, but has moreover, to a greater extent than other animals, the power of reason, by which it can judge and determine regarding natural movements, and disapprove and reject some, while approving and adopting others, so by the judgment of this reason may the movements of men be governed and directed towards a commendable life.”
Origen, De Principiis 3.1.3 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — Rufinus’ Latin.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Judge and Determine

RationalityArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameA stone is moved from outside it, a spider weaves because it can do nothing else, and a man does neither. Origen sets out the ladder in order and stops at the rung where reason can look at its own impulse and refuse it — which is where praise and blame become possible at all.

Learned byOrigen’s Corpus (Lv 54)

Strong against

×2.5Basil’s Corpusa book · why?

Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus put this very passage of Origen’s into the Philocalia, in its chapter on free will.

×2.5Historical Materialisman argument · why?

Marx has the thinking follow the conditions, the way a stone follows whatever pushed it. Origen sets out the ladder and stops where the pushing stops: a creature that can look at its own impulse and refuse it is not being moved from outside, and praise and blame mean nothing unless somebody can.

×2.5Nazianzen’s Corpusa book · why?

Gregory and Basil put this very passage of Origen’s into the Philocalia, in its chapter on free will.

“Now this story, if an invention, as it appears to be, cannot be compared with what is related of Jesus, since in the lives of such men there is found no indication of their possessing the divinity which is ascribed to them; whereas the divinity of Jesus is established both by the existence of the Churches of the saved, and by the prophecies uttered concerning Him.”
Origen, Contra Celsum 3.33 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).public domain

How it works in the game: the move No Indication in Their Lives

HistoryArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameCelsus had the parallels first — Aesculapius healing, Aristeas vanishing, Cleomedes flying out of a sealed chest. Origen does not deny that the stories are told. He asks what came of each one, and answers his own question by pointing at the churches.

Learned byOrigen’s Corpus (Lv 62)

Strong against

×2.5The History of Religionsan argument · why?

Celsus ran the parallels first — Aesculapius healing, Aristeas vanishing, Cleomedes out of a sealed chest — and Origen never denied the stories were told. He asked what followed from each, which is a question about evidence rather than about resemblance.

“He seems, in order to bring an accusation against Christianity, to believe the Gospel accounts only where he pleases, and to express his disbelief of them, in order that he may not be forced to admit the manifestations of Divinity related in these same books.”
Origen, Contra Celsum 1.63 (trans. Frederick Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — opening capital ours; Crombie runs the sentence on from the charge it answers.public domain

How it works in the game: the move Believes Where He Pleases

ExegesisArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameCelsus takes the apostles’ trades out of the Gospels and the miracles on the next page out of consideration. Origen names the move: one book, one set of writers, and a reader deciding page by page which of them to credit by what he has already settled to believe.

Learned byOrigen’s Corpus (Lv 68)

Strong against

×2.5Basil’s Corpusa book · why?

Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus put this very passage of Origen’s into the Philocalia, their anthology of his work.

×2.5Nazianzen’s Corpusa book · why?

Gregory and Basil put this very passage of Origen’s into the Philocalia, their anthology of his work. Gregory sent a copy to a friend.

×2.5The Life of Jesus Examinedan argument · why?

Strauss keeps the Galilean preacher out of the Gospels and sends the miracles on the same page to myth. Origen had already named the move: one book, one set of writers, and a reader crediting them page by page according to what he settled before he opened it.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“When false witnesses testified against our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, He remained silent; and when unfounded charges were brought against Him, He returned no answer.”
Origen, Contra Celsum, preface (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain, lightly modernized).

from Against Celsus

“He continues silent before these things, and makes no audible answer, but places His defence in the lives of His genuine disciples, which are a pre-eminent testimony, and one that rises superior to all false witness.”
Origen, Contra Celsum, preface 2 (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).

from Against Celsus

“Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
Philippians 2:6–7, quoted by Origen against Celsus in Contra Celsum 4.18 (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).

from Against Celsus

“As the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition.”
Origen, De Principiis, preface 2 (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain) — Rufinus’ Latin; no Greek survives for this sentence.

from On First Principles

“…leaving, however, the grounds of their statements to be examined into by those who should deserve the excellent gifts of the Spirit…”
Origen, De Principiis, preface 3 (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain, lightly modernized).

from On First Principles

“God is incomprehensible, and incapable of being measured.”
Origen, De Principiis 1.1.5 (trans. Crombie, ANF 4, public domain).

from On First Principles

Words Origen’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”
Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Question the Premise

RationalityType shift

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

Learned byOn First Principles (Lv 9)

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byAgainst Celsus (Lv 26), On First Principles (Lv 20), Origen’s Corpus (Lv 40)

“Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”
James 1:19 (WEB).

How it works in the game: the move Steelman

RationalityType shift

In the gameRestate the foe’s position in its strongest form — exposing its true weak point. Lowers the foe’s Defend. Always fair; never a bad move to use.

Learned byOn First Principles (Lv 22)

The Proof of the Gospel spends eight of its ten surviving books doing one thing: setting a Hebrew prophecy beside the event, and then doing it again. No single sentence carries the case, which is rather the point of it.
See Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel, books 1–10 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920). Described, not quoted — the sentence above is the game’s own.

How it works in the game: the move Prophecy Fulfilled

Biblical TheologyArgument · power 85 · 90% accurate

In the gameProphecy after prophecy set beside the gospels: the town, the mother, the years, the death, the scattering. The number of fulfilments is the argument.

Learned byAgainst Celsus (Lv 30)

Strong against

×2"Your God Let Rome Fall"an argument · why?

Eusebius set each prophecy beside its fulfilment. The God who foretold Christ’s coming rules all of history, including the rise and fall of Rome.

Who else was alive

Origen against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 1A.D. 50A.D. 100A.D. 150A.D. 200A.D. 250A.D. 300A.D. 350A.D. 400A.D. 450

Matthew Paul John Mark Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Aristides Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Clement of Alexandria Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Origen Cyprian Plotinus Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Eustathius of Sebaste Apollinaris of Laodicea Cyril of Jerusalem Epiphanius of Salamis Gregory of Nazianzus Basil of Caesarea Eunomius of Cyzicus Gregory of Nyssa Ambrose of Milan Jovinian Augustine The Macedonians Helvidius

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate61 authors sit outside this window