Origen of Alexandria on the Mystery of the Pre-existent Church John A. McGuckin Abstract This article examines Origen’s ecclesiology, one of the keys to his system of thought. Visualising the Church as the pre-existent core of all creation, the heart of all theology of salvation, his conception is universal in scope and life-affirming. The intellectual background of Origen’s ground-breaking attempt at systematic correlation of Christian doctrine with its biblical heritage is reviewed alongside his immediate environment, another active context of thought. Origen emerges as par excellence a theologian of resistance in a persecuted church, wrestling with the fundamental question of the One and the Many, searching in the fragmentation of world order for the providential touch of God upon history. He was an exponent of an understanding of mysticism as the ‘depth meaning’ of texts and life and of a soteriology that influenced all patristic tradition after him, though his ideas of pre-existent lapsed souls were not widely accepted. In conclusion, the article focuses on Origen’s ecclesiology as an important alternative to the rather more anxious and rigid ecclesiology of North Africa and suggests some possible lines of ‘interpretation’ and ‘translation’, for the modern reader. Almost everyone knows two facts about Origen: one, that he was from Alexandria (no points for that!); and two, that he was so zealous to observe the letter of the law that he castrated himself in an attempt to fulfil Jesus’ words on becoming a ‘eunuch for the sake of the kingdom’. 1 With regard to the first, Alexandria was, in his day, the veritable world capital of Jewish thought, especially Wisdom reflection, which makes for interesting correspondences between Origen’s ideas and those of nascent rabbinic Judaism. 2 As for the spectacular second, it is almost certainly incorrect. 3 We need not be too sad, however, to lose such a weird and wonderful story from our repertoire, for when we begin to consider the thought world of this teeming ancient thinker we find more than enough elsewhere to lead us into wonder; and not least when we consider his doctrine of the Church, which he sees as the pre-existent core of all creation, and the heart of all theology of salvation. Amazingly, some scholars have, in times past, suggested that there is little ecclesiology visible in Origen. On the contrary it can be seen as one of the keys to his entire system. International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church Vol. 6, No. 3, October 2006, 207 – 222 ISSN 1474-225X (print)/ISSN 1747-0324 (online) ª 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14742250600877083