Origen and Scripture: The Contours of the Exegetical Life (Oxford Early Christian Studies) - Softcover

Martens, Peter W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198717563 ISBN 13: 9780198717560

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Scriptural interpretation was an important form of scholarship for Christians in late antiquity. For no one does this claim ring more true than Origen of Alexandria (185-254), one of the most prolific scholars of Scripture in early Christianity. This book examines his approach to the Bible through a biographical lens: the focus is on his account of the scriptural interpreter, the animating centre of the exegetical enterprise. In pursuing this largely neglected line of inquiry, Peter W. Martens discloses the contours of Origen's sweeping vision of scriptural exegesis as a way of life. For Origen, ideal interpreters were far more than philologists steeped in the skills conveyed by Greco-Roman education. Their profile also included a commitment to Christianity from which they gathered a spectrum of loyalties, guidelines, dispositions, relationships and doctrines that tangibly shaped how they practiced and thought about their biblical scholarship. The study explores the many ways in which Origen thought ideal scriptural interpreters (himself included) embarked upon a way of life, indeed a way of salvation, culminating in the everlasting contemplation of God. This new and integrative thesis takes seriously how the discipline of scriptural interpretation was envisioned by one of its pioneering and most influential practitioners.

About this title

About the Author

Peter W. Martens is Assistant Professor for Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. Prior to arriving in St. Louis he taught at the University of Notre Dame and Yale Divinity School. He specializes in Origen and his legacy, and has wide-ranging interests in the history of biblical interpretation.

Review

"I cannot praise this volume enough. It is insightful, cogently argued, and gives new insights into Origen, the person, and Origen s exegetical vision. I trust this text will be a staple for years to come in Origenian scholarship."--Fides et Humilitas

"This text is a fresh and edifying reading of Origen's extant literary corpus. Martens's deep reading in Origen is evidenced on every page, and his exemplary interaction with the secondary literature recommends this monograph to every student of Origen." --Journal of Theological Studies

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0198717563
• ISBN 13: 9780198717560
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 294