Among the Early Church Fathers, Origen was as towering and prominent as Augustine (354-430) and Aquinas (1225-1274). In the Western Church both Jerome (347-420) and Ambrose (c. 340-397) unhesitatingly copied Origen’s work and thus bequeathed it to posterity. Bernard (1090-1153) and Eckhart (c. 1260-c. 1327) read his works in the original, and Erasmus (1466-1536) admitted that one page of Origen meant more to him than ten pages of Augustine.4 One author affirmed, “His work is aglow with the fire of a Christian creativity that in the greatest of his successors burned merely with a borrowed flame.”

Until the third century, as far as we know, no full treatise on the subject of Christian prayer had been written. According to Eric Jay, “Christian literature of the first two centuries by no means ignores the subject of prayer. It would be difficult to cite any work by a Christian author in this period which has not some reference to prayer.”1 It is hard to imagine otherwise, for the Apostles and their successors were men who would have subscribed wholeheartedly to Friedrich Heiler’s assertion, “Prayer is the central phenomenon of religion, the very hearthstone of all piety.”2 Within fifty years, three works on prayer were produced by men who were all born on the southern shores of the Mediterranean.3 Among these men was Origen of Alexandria (184/185-253/254) who presented a work on prayer (De Oratione) that reads more as a practical pastoral handbook than a major theological treatise. More clearly than any of Origen’s other writings, On Prayer reveals the depth and warmth of his religious life and piety and seeks to offer advice which any beginner in the devotional life would find practical and helpful.

Life of Origen

Among the Early Church Fathers, Origen was as towering and prominent as Augustine (354-430) and Aquinas (1225-1274). In the Western Church both Jerome (347-420) and Ambrose (c. 340-397) unhesitatingly copied Origen’s work and thus bequeathed it to posterity. Bernard (1090-1153) and Eckhart (c. 1260-c. 1327) read his works in the original, and Erasmus (1466-1536) admitted that one page of Origen meant more to him than ten pages of Augustine.4 One author affirmed, “His work is aglow with the fire of a Christian creativity that in the greatest of his successors burned merely with a borrowed flame.”5

Eusebius (260-339), the main authority on Origen’s life, described Origen as “not yet seventeen”6 when the persecution by Emperor Septimius Severus (145-211) broke out against the church, falling with particular severity in Egypt.7 Origen was born in Alexandria to Christian parents immediately after what Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) called “the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous.”8 He was educated by his father, Leonides (d. 202), who instructed him within the framework of a standard Hellenistic education, but also had him study the Christian Scriptures. As the oldest of seven sons, Origen began to bear the heavy weight of supporting his family after his father was beheaded for his Christian faith.9 When he was eighteen, Origen was appointed to the task of giving catechetical direction for the Alexandrian church where Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-c. 215) had once taught.10 Origen taught during the day, devoted the greater portion of the night to the study of the Bible, and lived a life of rigid asceticism.

This youthful teacher soon distinguished himself not only as an eloquent teacher and preacher, but also a more innovative scholar and systematic thinker than others of his generation.11 Origen traveled extensively throughout his life and gained notable influence throughout the ancient world. With the aid of stenographers supplied by friend, Ambrose, Origen produced a prodigious number of works, much of it aimed at refuting Gnosticism. His growing influence and notoriety led to imprisonment and torture during the persecution of Christians under Decius (A.D. 250). Later supporters considered him a martyr and saint, but many of his supporters actively resisted the imposition of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325). As a result, a century after his death Origen was labeled a heretic and most of his works were destroyed.12 Only two works survived intact: a treatise defending prayer (De Oratione) and a refutation of a pagan critic of Christians (Against Celsus).

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