The Church Fathers · c. 220–230
On First Principles
De Principiis
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185–c. 253
What it is
The first attempt at a complete Christian account of God, creation, freedom, and the end of all things — argued speculatively and offered as exploration rather than settled doctrine.
Why it lasted
The most ambitious mind of the early church at full stretch. Later condemned in part, it nonetheless set the questions, and much of the vocabulary, that Nicaea and Chalcedon would answer.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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