As the Handbook genre of scholarship has become increasingly popular, it was only a matter of time before the Oxford Handbook series addressed one of the most studied and debated intellectuals of the Christian tradition, Origen of Alexandria. In this volume, edited by Ronald E. Heine and Karen Jo Torjesen, two of the foremost Origen scholars of our day, thirty essays address issues of perennial importance spread across six different thematic sections: Origen in His Contexts, Origen and Hermeneutics, Origen and the Bible, Origen's Theology, Receptions of Origen, and Modern Contributions to the Study of Origen.
The first section, Origen in His Contexts, examines the problems of contextualizing Origen and his works from a variety of perspectives, including the religio-political climate of Alexandria (Jakab), Origen's relationship to Greek philosophy (Berchman), what we might call Origen's “inter-religious” or polemical contexts (Dundenberg and Boyarin), his intellectual ancestry (van den Hoek and Rogers), and the pernicious problem of constructing a biography of Origen (Urbano). Jakab's essay is especially interesting, as it helps to clarify some of the complexities of establishing the social conditions of Alexandrian Christianity. However, he closes his essay with an unnecessary—and unsubstantiated—quip about early Christian intellectuals: “Those who made Christianity what it is never really had to work for their livelihood” (17). In one of the finest essays of the volume, Urbano takes the reader through all the difficulties in writing a biography of Origen, including the nature of the sources, whether Origen's own writings or those of his contemporaries and later writers.
Parts Two and Three address related questions regarding Origen and interpretation. Part Two, Origen and Hermeneutics, explores Origen's biblical interpretation from perspectives of classical rhetoric (Dunn), grammar and the contributions of Bernard Neuschäfer (Rodríguez-Galarza), and the old Alexandrian-Antiochene exegesis (Young). Part Three addresses the various literary genres of Origen's exegetical works. Maren Niehoff discusses Origen's commentaries on the Old Testament, highlighting the impact of his transition from Alexandria to Caesarea. Heine examines Origen's Gospel commentaries, including thematic elements in his prologue to his Commentary on John, a comparison of Origen's exegetical methods in his Commentary on John and his Commentary on Matthew, and the “Pauline-Johannine” theology underpinning Origen's Gospel commentaries. Francesca Cocchini discusses Origen's Pauline commentaries, with attention to Origen's theology and the reliability of Rufinus as a translator. Finally, Francesco Pieri examines Origen's homilies, addressing the relationship between his homilies and commentaries, the liturgical context of the homilies, and the chronology of the homilies.
Part Four, Origen's Theology, is the largest of the sections. In the first essay, Rebecca Lyman argues that Origen's theology must be placed within the contexts of the confluence of his reading of the Bible, philosophical debates, and the needs of his socially diverse audience. Mark Edwards addresses Origen's relationship with the various philosophical traditions of his age in the Contra Celsum. Mihai Niculescu's essay finely shows the soteriological foundations of Origen's biblical hermeneutics. His ultimate concern was to evoke a response to the Logos. Christian Hengstermann outlines Origen's trinitarian theology, connecting Origen's metaphysics of freedom with his understanding of the Triune God. Peter Martens addresses the various aspects of Origen's complex Christology, followed by J. José Alviar's treatment of Origen's anthropology. Theodicy and the problem of evil is the subject of Mark Scott's essay. John McGuckin's essay on Origen's eschatology brings this section to a close. This section is a nice recapitulation Origen's entire thought, the aim of which was the transformation of the human person.
Part Five, Receptions of Origen, addresses the contentious legacy of Origen from the fourth century through the Renaissance. Andrew Louth opens by examining how Origen's ideas manifested themselves in Athanasius and the Cappadocians in light of their own theological problems. Richard Layton's essay takes the reader through the entire fourth century, beginning with the early attacks against Origen and the response by Pamphilus and Eusebius, and ending with the so-called first Origenist Controversy. Michael Cameron's essay examines Augustine's reception of Origen, including the influential role of Ambrose and Augustine's break with Origen on the question of free will and predestination. However. Cameron argues that it was only in Augustine's theological/polemical works that we find a divergence. In the sermons, Augustine remained consistent with Origen's understanding of the cooperation of grace and freedom. In Thomas Scheck's essay, we jump from Late Antiquity to the sixteenth century. Scheck evaluates Erasmus's treatment of Origen, including his use of the different genres of Origen's works, his own critical edition of Origen's works, and his assessment of Origen's orthodoxy. Andrea Villani's essay closes this section with an examination of Origen's influence in the Reformation and Renaissance.
In the final section, Modern Contributions to the Study of Origen, three essays address key phases in the modern reception of Origen, beginning with Elena Rapetti's essay on the important place of Pierre-Daniel Huet's edition of Origen and the influence of Origen on Huet's theological debates. Robert Daly traces the rehabilitation of Origen in the twentieth century. He suggests that “rediscovery” is perhaps a better term than “rehabilitation” (546). The key turning point happened in the middle of the twentieth century. Rediscovery is certainly an apt description of what happened in 2012, with the discovery of a manuscript with twenty-nine Greek homilies on the Psalms and its attribution to Origen. This is the subject of the final essay of the volume by Lorenzo Perrone.
There is very little to critique about this volume. There are several typographical errors, especially with parenthetical citations left blank in the first two essays. Examples include “()” after a quotation from David Dawson on p. 21, or “see .” on p. 20. But the content of the essays is timely and significant for anyone interested in Origen. “Old Questions and New Answers” is the subtitle of the first section of Torjesen's introduction to this volume. Indeed, this is an appropriate description of what the reader encounters in each of these essays. Paying attention both to Origen's own thought and his reception throughout the history of the Christian tradition, this volume delivers on what it promises. Students and scholars alike will benefit from this volume whether their interests are socio-historical, philosophical, or theological. Whether the reader is interested in Origen's own thought or in his reception throughout history, there is much that will guide their inquiry in this volume.
