Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Origen/Introductory Note/Dogmatic Works
(4) Dogmatic Works.
These include the Στρωματεῖς, a work composed in imitation of the treatise of Clement of the same name, and consisting originally of ten books, of which only three fragments exist in a Latin version by Jerome;[1] a treatise on the Resurrection, of which four fragments remain;[2] and the treatise Περὶ ’Αρχῶν, De Principiis, which contains Origen’s views on various questions of systematic theology. The work has come down to us in the Latin translation of his admirer Rufinus; but, from a comparison of the few fragments of the original Greek which have been preserved, we see that Rufinus was justly chargeable with altering many of Origen’s expressions, in order to bring his doctrine on certain points more into harmony with the orthodox views of the time. The De Principiis consists of four books, and is the first of the works of Origen in this series, to which we refer the reader.