Portrait: Origen, an early modern engraved portrait. Unknown engraver, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Philosopherc. 185–254

Origen

Origen of Alexandria was the most brilliant and most controversial Christian thinker of the third century. He read scripture on several levels at once, from the literal to the spiritual, and hoped that in the end every soul might be restored to God, so that no punishment would last forever. He survived torture in the persecution of Decius only to die a few years later, and his boldest ideas were condemned three centuries after him.

Philosophy of Religion

1 episode

Episodes

Origen

Abandon All Hope | The History of Hell From Hades to Dante

On Dante, Augustine & 3 more

The idea of hell did not enter history in one finished form. This reading follows Egyptian judgment, Hebrew Sheol, Greek Hades, the Zoroastrian bridge, Gehenna, and arguments in early Christianity about the reach and duration of judgment. Dante gives the tradition its most enduring imaginative architecture; Milton, Swedenborg, and modern philosophers change its terms again. The focus stays on ideas about justice and the human conscience, rather than scenes of torment.

Philosophy of Religion