Literature. — (I.) Epiphanius, ZTcere*. 64; several epis- tles of Epiphanius, Theophilus of Alexandria, and Je- rome (in Jerome's Ej). 51 and 87-100, ed. Vallarsi) ; the controversial works of Jerome and Rufinus on the ortho- doxy of Origen (Rufini Prafatio ad Orig. irepi apX'i'V ; and Apologia s. inrecticarum in Hieron. ; Hieronymi Ep. 8i ad Pammnchium et Oceaiium de erroribus Origenis ; Apologia ad Rujiiiuni libri iii, written 402, 403, etc.) ; Palladius, Vila Johamiis Chrysostomi (in Clirysost. Opera, vol. xiii, ed. Montfaucon) ; Socrates, Hist. Eccles. vi, 3-18 ; Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. viii, 2-20; Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. v, 27 sq. ; Photius, Biblioth. Cod. 59; Mansi, Cone, iii, 1141 sq. (II.) Huetius, Origeniana (OjJera Orig. vol. iv, ed. Delarue); Doucin, Hist, des mouvements arrives dans Veglise au sujet d'Origene (Par. 1700) ; Walch, Gesch. d. Ketzereien, vii,427 sq. ; Schrockh, Kirchengeschichte, x, 108 sq. Comp. also the mono- graphs of Redepenning and Thomasius on Origen ; and Neander, Der heil. Joh. Chrysostomus (Berl. 1848, 3d ed.), ii, 121 sq. ; Ilefele (R. C), Origenistenstreit, in the Kir- chen-Lexikon of Wetzer und Welte, vii, 847 sq., and in his Conciliengeschichte, ii, 76 sq. ; Zockler, Hieronymus (Gotha, 1865), p. 238 sq., 391 sq. ; and especially Schaff, Ch. Hist, iii, 698-705; Neander, Ch. Hist, ii, 536-538, 678-704 ; (iieseler, Eccles. Hist, i, 243. (J. H. W.)
Origenians. See Skoptsi.
Origenism. See Origenists.
Origenists, a title of two entirely distinct classes of heretics.
1. It is the name of certain heretical Christians who professed to adopt the theological views of the Church father Origen (q. v.). They developed as a body in the 4th century, and taught —
(1.) A pre-existent state of human souls, prior to the Mosaic creation, and perhaps for eternity, which souls were clothed with ethereal bodies suited to their original dignity. See Puk-kxistknts.
(2.) That souls were condemned to animate mortal bodies, in order to expiate faults they had committed in a pre-existent state; for we may" be assured, from the infinite goodness of their Creator, that they were at first joined to the purest matter, and placed in those regions of the universe which were most suitable to the purity of essence that they then possessed. For that the souls of men are an order of essentially incorporate spir- its, their deep immersion into terrestrial matter, the modification of all their operations by it, and the heav- enly body promised in the Gospel, as the highest per- fection of our renewed nature, clearly evince. There- fore, if our souls existed before they appeared as inhab- itants of the earth, they were placed in a purer element,
and enjoyed far greater degrees of happiness. And cer- tainly he whose overflowing goodness brought them into existence would not deprive them of their felicity, till by their mutability they rendered themselves less pure in the whole extent of their powers, and became disposed for the susception of such a degree of corporeal life as was exactly answerable to their present disposi- tion of spirit. Hence it was necessary that they should become terrestrial men.
(3.) That the soul of Christ was united to the Word before the incarnation; for tlie Scriptures teach us that the soul of the Messiah was created before the begin- ning of the world (Phil, ii, 5, 7). This text must be understood of Christ's human soul, because it is unusual to propound the Deity as an example of humility in Scripture. Though the humanity of Christ was so godlike, he emptied himself of this fulness of life and glory to take upon him the form of a servant. It was this Messiah who conversed with the patriarchs under a human form ; it was he who appeared to Moses on the holy mount; it was he who spoke to the prophets un- der a visible appearance ; and it is he who will at last come in triumph upon the clouds to restore the universe to its primitive splendor and felicity.
(4.) That at the resurrection of the dead we shall be clothed with ethereal bodies ; for the elements of our terrestrial composition are such as almost fatally en- tangle us in vice, passion, and misery. The purer the vehicle the soul is united with, the more perfect are her life and operations. Besides, the Supreme Goodness who made all things assures us he made all things best at first, and therefore his recovery of us to our lost hap- piness (which is the design of the Gospel) must restore us to our better bodies and happier habitations, which is evident from 1 Cor. xv, 49 ; 2 Cor. v, 1 ; and other texts of Scripture.
(5.) That, after long periods of time, the damned shall be released from their torments, and restored to a new state of probation ; for the Deity has such reserves in his gracious providence as will vindicate his sovereign goodness and wisdom from all disparagement. Expia- tory pains are a part of his adorable plan ; for this sharper kind of favor has a righteous place in such creatures as are by nature mutable. Though sin has extinguished or silenced the divine life, yet it has not destroyed the faculties of reason and understanding, consideration and memory, which will serve the life which is most powerful. If, therefore, the vigorous at- traction of the sensual nature be abated by a ceaseless pain, these powers may resume the seeds of a better life and nature. As in the material system there is a grav- itation of the lesser bodies towards the greater, there must of necessity be something analogous to this in the intellectual system ; and since the spirits created by God are emanations and streams from his own abyss of being, and as self-existent power must needs subject all beings to itself, the Deity could not but impress upon intimate natures and substances a central tendency towards himself; an essential principle of reunion to their great original. (This doctrine, in a somewhat modified form, is now advocated by some English di- vines. Very recently the Rev. Edward Eliot has come out as the advocate of conditional immortality in his Life in Christ [Lond. 1875]. See Brit, and For. Ecang. Rev. Jan. 1876.)