'Reformulating' Gregory of Nyssa's Reception of Origen

Origeniana Undecima: Origen and Origenism in the History of Western Thought, 2016

St. Gregory’s Address is a unique document depicting a situation of conversion in the early Church. It represents a necessary link between ancient and Christian traditions of exhortation. We show that there is continuity between them, for protreptic motifs of the Address are to a great extent inspired or even directly borrowed from Plato.

Open Theology, 2021

This study compares how two prominent twelfth-century Latin authors and theological opponents, namely the monastic author William of Saint-Thierry (c. 1080-1148) and the school master Peter Abelard (1079-1142), variously understood the authority of the controversial yet influential Greek author Origen (c. 184-253) in their works. Modern scholars who study the reception of Origen in the twelfthcentury Latin West have, to this point, spoken of an Origenian revival in this period, concluding that Origen was especially popular in the cloister, among Cistercian monks, such as Bernard of Clairvaux and his followers, like William of Saint-Thierry, based on the assumption that as monks they found his writings more relevant. This study seeks to challenge this scholarly narrative by focusing on two authors who are perceived as typifying two different strands of theology, one of a contemplative character developed in the cloister (William) and one making use of dialectics and developed in the emerging schools (Abelard). By demonstrating that the schoolmaster Abelard drew on Origen to a greater degree and in a more transparent manner than his monastic opponent, this study will show that Origen's popularity in the cloisters was not, as such, a clear point of distinction between them and schools in the way that has usually been claimed by modern scholarship.

Church History, 1997

Sixty participants in the Sixth International Colloquium on Origen, many of whom make distinguished contributions, illuminate what one participant (Dominique Bertrand) refers to as their subject's "mania" for the Bible. Their work moves from a detailed comparison of topics in the preface to Origen's Commentary on John with those covered in ancient commentaries on Aristotle (Ronald Heine) to a discussion of how Origen might be in productive dialogue with contemporary hermeneutics (Christoph Theobald). Within the vast range of a subject, which they only begin to cover, certain nodes of interest emerge. A number of scholars deal with Origen's relation to his often underestimated predecessor, Clement of Alexandria. Basil Studer, drawing on Christoph Riedweg's Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens von Alexandrien (Berlin, 1986) argues for a "doppelte exegese" in which Christian rituals as well as the Scriptures may be interpreted symbolically. He argues that Clement and Origen play a large role in the eventual designation of baptism and the eucharist as "mysteries" by applying to them the term musterion, which they initially used in connection with biblical interpretation. Pier Franco Beatrice makes a plausible case that Origen's early (and all but lost) Stromateis carried on Clement's endeavor, in his own work of that title, to incorporate the Hellenic heritage into Christianity, by allegorizing Achilles's defeat of Hector in Book 22 of the Iliad to symbolize Christ's defeat of the devil. Guy Stroumsa shows how Origen's esotericism is in continuity with that of Clement and both of them with esoteric exegetical traditions in Judaism. Olivier Munnich, Gerald Norton, and Pierre Jay help clarify the character of Origen's Hexapla, a word-for-word comparison of the Septuagint with the Hebrew Bible and other Greek translations. Munnich's description of it as a "cathedrale presque engloutie" conveys an appreciation of its size and complexity along with a wistful acceptance of its having vanished almost without a trace. Among other individual works, the Commentary on John receives the most attention. This work, arguably Origen's greatest, consisted of thirty-two books or so (of which we possess nine), written over several decades and covering only about two-thirds of the gospel. In a provocative paper, John McGuckin argues that Origen's "critical words" in the Commentary on John "are not really fired at Gnostic heretics, but at the administrators and simple auditors of the churches " so that "In turning, as he often does, to address the problems of Johannine chronology, narrative consistency and synchronicity with the gospel accounts, he is forcing his internal opponents to admit that faithfulness to the text is something far different from clinging to the letter." He argues that, given these aims, Origen did not need or intend to write a commentary on the entire Gospel.

2005

Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity, 2021

This essay explores, explains and critically evaluates the contribution of Origen as a biblical commentator. Within this essay, I will systematically outline three principle points: firstly; his style of writings, secondly; his tri-fold approach to scripture (I will refer to his numerous works here), and thirdly, to his commentary on the Song of Songs as an example of his work.

Origen was already acquainted with the Land of Israel before he moved to Caesarea in the middle of his intense life. Travels through the region of Syria and Palestine contributed for him to create the favourable conditions for a new beginning in his already celebrated career as a renowned theologian. His living in Caesarea, without being a dramatic change, permitted to Origen to develop his literary activity even more than in Alexandria and did not hinder his further travels and contacts abroad. In addition, he came into a more direct and personal relationship with the traditions of Judaism and with the Jewish sages, though he was now also involved in ecclesiastical service as an official preacher in the church. Thus the sojourn in Palestine was not only a positive way out from the hard crisis that Origen went through in Alexandria during the conflict with bishop Demetrius because of his activity and theological program as a Christian teacher, but it determined to a large extent also the survival of his literary and theological heritage. It was not Alexandria that preserved it, despite the influence that Origen exerted on Dionysius of Alexandria, Didymus the Blind and other exponents of the Alexandrian School. On the contrary, it was the region that would soon become the ‘Holy Land’ that assumed this fundamental task. If Pamphilus and Eusebius selected and transmitted Origen’s literary heritage to posterity, Jerome in spite of his turn of mind in the wake of the first Origenist crisis contributed together with his former friend Rufinus to bequeathe this heritage to the western world and to assure its subsequent reception throughout the Middle Ages until its modern discovery. The Land of Israel then, during Late Antiquity, acted as the main place for the survival of Origen’s legacy and the spread of Origenism.

Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2011