John Anthony McGUCKIN - Origen the Commentator

John Anthony McGUCKIN

Rev. Prof. PhD Columbia University, New York, USA

Abstract:

The study aims at outlining the works of Origenes of Alexandria, the great scholar, confessor whose body was martyred and broken; that great saint whose mystical vision ever reached out ascetically to union with the Word. This paper does not so much try to rehabilitate Origen, in the style of the Origen Conference in Innsbruck in the 80s, as much as it tries to look at Origen in his own time, not from a dominant, but anachronistically scholastic retrospective. Trying to work from his own temporal context, and in terms of the philosophical premises prevalent in the schools of his day, this paper seeks to ask what motivated Origen’s approach to the scriptures. It also briefly deals with Origen’s exegesis and then makes a short exposition of Origen’s Biblical system.

Keywords:

Origenes, exegesis, the Bible, interpretation, authorial intent

Bibliography:

  • Blosser, B.P. 2012. Become Like the Angels: Origen’s Doctrine of the Soul. Washington.
  • Crouzel, H. 1956. Théologie de l’Image de Dieu chez Origène. Paris.
  • Crouzel, H. 1961. Origène et la “connaissance mystique”. Paris.
  • Crouzel, H. 1969. “Origène et le sens littéral dans ses Homélies sur l’Hexateuque”. In: Bulletin de literature ecclésiastique, 70: 241-263.
  • Daniélou, J. 1947. “Les sources bibliques de la mystique d’Origène”. In: Revue d’Ascétique et de Mystique, 23: 126-141.
  • Daniélou, J. 1948. “L’Unité des deux Testaments dans l ‘oeuvre d’Origène”. In: Revue des sciences religieuses, 22: 27-56.
  • Daniélou, J. 1957. “Origène comme exégète de la Bible”. In: Texte und Untersuchungen, 63: 280-290.
  • Daniélou, J. 1960a. “Exégèse et typologie patristique”. In: Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, 4: 132-138.
  • Daniélou, J. 1960b. From Shadows to Reality. Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers. (Eng. tr. of Sacramentum Futuri by Dom W. Hibberd). London.
  • De Faye, E. 1923a 1927. 1928. Origène, sa vie, son oeuvre, sa pensée, vols. 1-3. Paris.
  • De Faye, E. 1923b. “Origène est-il exegete ou dogmaticien?”. In: Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuse, 3: 97-105
  • Dively-Lauro, E. 2005. The Soul and Spirit of Scripture within Origen's Exegesis. Leiden
  • Gögler, R. 1956. “Die christologische und heilgeschichtliche Grundlage der Bibelexegese des Origenes”. In: Theologisches Quartalschrift, 136: 1-13.
  • Gögler, R. 1963. Zur Theologie des biblischen Wortes bei Origenes. Düsseldorf.
  • Hanson, R.P.C. 1944. “Origen’s Interpretation of Scripture Exemplified from his Philocalia”. In: Hermathena, 63: 47-58.
  • Hanson, R.P.C. 1959. Allegory and Event. A Study of the Sources and Significance of Origen’s Interpretation of Scripture. London.
  • Harl, M. 1958. Origène et la function révélatrice du Verbe Incarné. Patristica Sorbonensia, 2. Paris.
  • Harl, M. 1982. “Origène et les interpretations patristiques grecques de l’obscurité biblique”. In: Vigiliae Christianae, 36: 334-371.
  • Heine, R. 1995. “Origen’s Commentary on John Compared with the Introductions to the Ancient Philosophical Commentaries on Aristotle”. In: G. Dorival & A. Le Bolluec (edd), Origeniana Sexta: 1-12. Louvain.
  • Heine, R. 2011. “Origen and a Hermeneutic for Spirituality”. In: Stone Campbell Journal, 14: 69-70.
  • Lewis, G. (tr.). 1911. The Philocalia of Origen. T& T Clark, Edinburgh.
  • Mansfeld, J. 1994. “Prolegomena: Questions to Be Settled before the Study of an Author, or a Text”. In: Philosophia Antiqua, 61: 150. Brill, Leiden.
  • McGuckin, J.A. (ed). 2004. The Westminster Handbook to Origen of Alexandria. Louisville. Ky
  • McGuckin, J.A. 2003. “Origen as Literary Critic in the Alexandrian Tradition”. In: L. Perrone (ed), Origeniana Octava: 121-135. Peeters, Leuven.
  • Praechter, Karl. 1909. “Die griechischen Anstoteleskommentare”. In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift: 516-538
  • Torjesen, K.J. 1986. Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Method in Origen’s Exegesis. (Berlin) New York.
  • Torjesen, K.J. 1995. “Influence of Rhetoric on Origen’s OT Homilies”. In: Origeniana Sexta: 13-25.
  • von Balthasar, H.U. 1936. “Le Mysterion d’Origène”. In: Recherches de Science Religieuse, 26: 513-562.
  • von Balthasar, H.U. 1937. “Le Mysterion d’Origène”. In: Recherches de Science Religieuse, 27: 38-64.