First, That there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and who, when nothing existed, called all things into being— God from the first creation and foundation of the world... This just and good God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself gave the law and the prophets, and the Gospels, being also the God of the apostles and of the Old and New Testaments. (From the preface)

Origen was born in 185 AD in Alexandria. He was educated in both the religious and classical traditions, and was especially familiar with the works of Plato.

Origen was writing in the century prior to the First Council of Nicaea (325) and long before our current definitions of orthodoxy emerged. Some of Origen's arguments have been condemned as unorthodox.

De Principiis or First Principals was written in Greek, but we have lost the original. What survives is a Latin translation made by Rufinus more than a century after the death of Origen.

The book is organized in four parts: 1) God and the Trinity, (2) the world and its relation to God, (3) man and his free will, and (4) Scripture, its inspiration and interpretation.

We will spend the next few months examining Origen's proposed principles.