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I agree with everything you have written. I simply observe that Origen, like a few other early theologians, can be a dangerous read. The key is, as you write:

“Now we can rely on a church which has defined orthodoxy through its centuries of thought and accumulated tradition to keep us from seizing one bit of somebody’s work and running amok with it. So I think that if Origen - or similar early thinkers - are viewed through the lens of the Church, it’s possible to detect what is good and screen out what is bad.”

So many people, especially educated ones and even more especially educated converts, jump into the Fathers with both feet. Unless they read the Fathers under the guidance of a spiritual father, all sorts of bad things can happen, from excessive legalism arising from an untutored reading of The Rudder to, frankly, heresy from reading the likes of Origen or Tertullian. The Church indeed has separated the wheat from the chaff, but individuals acting on their own, and I don’t mean simply lay people, lacking a knowledge of the consensus patrum and the spiritual virtue of discernment can easily fall into error. Imagine what spiritual havoc some of us could do if we proceeded, without the guidance of a spiritual father early in the days of our patristic studies, to proof text Origen or Tertullian!

So many people, especially educated ones and even more especially educated converts, jump into the Fathers with both feet.

That is true. A lot of people also jump into medieval mystics in that same way and come up with some very peculiar ideas! (Remember the old joke that "mysticism" begins in mist and ends in schism?) So it's very important to cling to orthodoxy and have a guide in these matters.

Unless they read the Fathers under the guidance of a spiritual father

Benedict XVI is the spiritual father of the Catholic Church. I am reasonably certain that he takes that responsibility very seriously. He is also a well-read scholar of the Early Church Fathers. If anyone can separate the wheat from the chaff of some of the Early Church Fathers, Benedict XVI can. Given that you have raised this issue, can you cite anything that Benedict XVI has said in this audience or last week's audience (a link to it is above) regarding Origen that is heretical?