Origen of Alexandria
 

seems like a fascinating character to me in very early church history. Has anyone studied his works to any extent? All I know comes to me through Bart Ehrman, but Origen seems to have had a lot of interesting ideas that were considered perfectly mainstream by the church in his day but then later considered heretical. His works were eventually banned and many were destroyed.

According to Ehrman, he believed in the preexistence of all spirits that God had created and that Christ was one of them. The difference with Christ was that he was perfect in his obedience and devotion to God, to the point that he became one with God in his thoughts and actions. The rest of us were all sent down to earth either as punishment or to straighten us out, and Christ was sent to save us. He believed that all of Gods creations would eventually be saved. Anyway, interesting stuff. I'd like to study Origen's works more directly, but I'm sure that pursuit could take years. Obviously, English probably isn't exactly the best way either.