The Origenist crises or Origenist controversies are two major theological controversies in early Christianity involving the teachings of followers of the third-century Alexandrian theologian Origen ( 184 – 253).
The First Origenist Crisis began in the late fourth century AD in Palestine and later spread to Egypt. It dealt with ideas discussed in some of Origen's writings that some members of the church hierarchy deemed heretical. Objections against Origen's writings and demands for his condemnation were first raised by Epiphanius of Salamis and later taken up by Jerome and Theophilus of Alexandria, who were both initially supporters of Origen's teachings. Origen's defenders included Tyrannius Rufinus and John II, Bishop of Jerusalem.
During the crisis, Theophilus issued a condemnation of Origen's incorporeal, non-anthropomorphic conception of God, a view which Theophilus himself had previously vocally supported. The crisis concluded with John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, being removed from his position at the Synod of the Oak in 403 AD for harboring Origenist monks who had been banished from Alexandria.
The Second Origenist Crisis occurred in the sixth century AD during the reign of Justinian I. It is less well-documented than the first crisis and dealt more with the ideas of groups that had been influenced by Origen rather than with Origen's actual writings. It concluded with the Second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD possibly issuing an anathema against Origen, although scholars dispute whether the anathema condemning Origen was actually issued by the Council or if it was added later.
First Origenist Crisis
Palestinian phase
The first Origenist crisis began in the late fourth century AD, coinciding with the beginning of monasticism in Palestine. The first stirring of the controversy came from the Cyprian bishop Epiphanius of Salamis, who was determined to root out all heresies and refute them. Epiphanius attacked Origen in his anti-heretical treatises Ancoratus (375) and Panarion (376), compiling a list of teachings Origen had espoused that Epiphanius regarded as heretical. Epiphanius's treatises portray Origen as an originally orthodox Christian who had been corrupted and turned into a heretic by the evils of "Greek education". Epiphanius particularly objected to Origen's Subordinationism, his "excessive" use of allegorical hermeneutic, and his habit of proposing ideas about the Bible "speculatively, as exercises" rather than "dogmatically".
Epiphanius asked John, the bishop of Jerusalem to condemn Origen as a heretic. John refused on the grounds that a person could not be retroactively condemned as a heretic after the person had already died. In 393, a monk named Atarbius advanced a petition to have Origen and his writings to be censured. Tyrannius Rufinus, a priest at the monastery on the Mount of Olives who had been ordained by John of Jerusalem and was a longtime admirer of Origen, rejected the petition outright. Rufinus's close friend and associate Jerome, who had also studied Origen, however, came to agree with the petition. Around the same time, John Cassian introduced Origen's teachings to the West.
In 394, Epiphanius wrote to John of Jerusalem, again asking for Origen to be condemned, insisting that Origen's writings denigrated human sexual reproduction and accusing him of having been an Encratite. John once again denied this request. By 395, Jerome had allied himself with the anti-Origenists and begged John of Jerusalem to condemn Origen, a plea which John once again refused. Epiphanius launched a campaign against John, openly preaching that John was an Origenist deviant. He successfully persuaded Jerome to break communion with John and ordained Jerome's brother Paulinianus as a priest in defiance of John's authority.
Meanwhile, in 397, Rufinus published a Latin translation of Origen's On First Principles. Rufinus was convinced that Origen's original treatise had been interpolated by heretics and that these interpolations were the source of the heterodox teachings found in it. He therefore heavily modified Origen's text, omitting and altering any parts which disagreed with contemporary Christian orthodoxy. In the introduction to this translation, Rufinus mentioned that Jerome had studied under Origen's disciple Didymus the Blind, implying that Jerome was a follower of Origen. Jerome was so incensed by this that he resolved to produce his own Latin translation of On the First Principles, in which he promised to translate every word exactly as it was written and lay bare Origen's heresies to the whole world. Jerome's translation has been lost in its entirety.