Origen: Scholarship in the Service of the Church

Written by Ronald E. Heine Reviewed By Stephen Bagby

Ronald Heine is perhaps known to many through his translations of Origen's commentaries and homilies, but this translation work has always been part of a wider effort to display the nature and reading practices of Scripture in the early church. Heine's new book, Origen: Scholarship in the Service of the Church, is part of the ongoing Christian Theology in Context series, a project aimed at viewing influential Christian thinkers within their economic, political, social, and philosophical contexts (p. ii). Therefore, the argument of Heine's book is consistent with the aims of this series: Origen is best understood within his particular social and theological contexts. Heine has grown dissatisfied with the tendency in scholarship to lean heavily on Origen's early and “convenient” work On First Principles since “new situations brought new problems for Origen, and these new problems caused him to turn his attention in new directions, and sometimes, even to rethink old positions” (p. viii). He therefore treats Origen's Alexandrian and Caesarean works separately, not “throwing their contents into one bowl and stirring them together to give a homogenized view of his thought. It is in this rigorous separation of his works into their two settings with their unique contexts that this study differs from preceding books on Origen” (pp. vii-viii).

Heine's approach through the bulk of the book follows a consistent threefold pattern: he identifies a cultural/theological problem encountered by Origen, which in turn provides the impetus behind one of his published works, resulting in an articulation of a given doctrinal topic. Heine divides the book into ten chapters: six on Alexandria and four on Caesarea. He begins by situating Origen in his Alexandrian cultural and economic context to show how this milieu informed his work as a commentator and theologian (p. 23). He shows how problems arose early in the Alexandrian church in its battle with Monarchian and Gnostic teachings. Heine carefully analyzes how Origen's Commentary on John was undertaken to refute both of these heresies and how his trinitarian and christological thought took shape by way of such interaction. Heine stresses throughout the book that Origen, like other patristic authors, wrote commentaries not to explain what Scripture meant to its first audience but to solve problems in the church (pp. viii, 85, 158, 201).

A great example of this arises later in the book when Heine shows how Origen's OT commentaries were undertaken to address the strain between Church and Synagogue in third-century Caesarea. In his Commentary on the Song of Songs, Origen identifies the “bride” as the Church because the church has interpreted the OT correctly in light of Christ. His exegesis emphasizes how the “daughters of Jerusalem” (Jews) vilify the “bride” (Gentile church), thus intentionally bringing to the forefront the continual strain Origen felt in Caesarea (pp. 212-13). Alternatively, Origen's increased interaction with Jews in Caesarea forced him to reflect on Israel's future through his exegesis of Rom 11, a topic to which Heine gives a great deal of attention. While he notes how Origen viewed the Jews as obstinate, he still regarded them as heirs to God's promises and envisions their ultimate salvation. Origen believed that Israel has fallen, but not irretrievably, and they will at some point in the future find salvation based on faith in Christ (pp. 202-5).

While Heine admits that this language is congruent with Origen's teaching of the apokatastasis (restoration) found in On First Principles—”the end will be like the beginning”—he is not convinced that Origen's latest writings reveal such a consistent, universalist eschatology. Through analyzing these later works, most notably the Commentary on Matthew, Heine argues,”some cracks appear to have been developing in the system he had created in Alexandria” (p. 218). Arguing against the “tenuous” interpretations of R.P.C. Hanson, Heine brings to the forefront several passages where Origen asserts a limit to God's patience and a greater degree of exclusivity in salvation (pp. 242-52). Although Heine admits that Origen seems to reiterate his Alexandrian eschatology in the Caesarean work Against Celsus (pp. 252-56), he nevertheless wants his readers to proceed with caution. Heine observes, “There is a basis for thinking that in his later life Origen did think there were limitations on the redemptive work of God. It seems to me a defendable, but not an unquestionable, conclusion that in Caesarea Origen was in the process of rethinking his view of the ultimate salvation or restoration of all beings” (p. 256).

In addition to Heine's careful and sophisticated insights into the major doctrinal loci in Origen, he also gives the reader interesting details about Origen's life and thought that is perhaps lacking in other works. For instance, Heine offers a reasoned assumption as to the influential area of Alexandria Origen may have resided (pp. 20-21), the influence of other second century texts on him (e.g., Epistle of Barnabas and Shepherd of Hermas, pp. 34-46), the political context of his “slip away to Caesarea” (pp. 87-89), his appraisal of the church at Rome (pp. 99-100), the frustration he experienced with the sinful state of the church at Caesarea (pp. 181-83), and the conclusion that a large portion of his written corpus produced at Caesarea were simply lectures to his students that were transcribed by shorthand writers provided by his longtime patron Ambrose (p. 190).

Heine's work is a welcome addition to Origen Studies and the wider field of Patristic scholarship. This book deserves a place alongside the seminal treatments of Origen by Henri Crouzel and Jean Daniélou. Educated laity and seminarians interested in this profoundly influential thinker will profit from Heine's clear presentation of Origen's main texts, assumptions, and conclusions. Specialists will gain from Heine's thorough knowledge of Origen's writings coupled with his characteristic assiduous attention to detail. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and erudite work characteristic of first-rate Patristic scholarship.


Stephen Bagby

Stephen Bagby
Durham University
Durham, England, UK

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