andrewcriddle wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 10:48 pm
Digeser and some other modern scholars, identify the pagan and Christian Origens.
Andrew Criddle
Cheers Andrew. It seems Digeser identifies 'them' as one -
| Chapter One
The Usefulness of Borderlands Concepts in Ancient History
The Case of Origen as Monster
Elizabeth DePalma Digeser
[in Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and North America, John W.I. Lee, Michael North, editors; U of Nebraska Press, 2016]
... If the Latin term monstrum denotes a traitorous transgressor of boundaries-especiallyinb theological matters_then it easily describes Origen of Alexandria. Origen participated in Hellene (i.e., "pagan") Platonist and Christian communities during the first half of the third century, but he later found himself branded a traitor by members of both groups, in part because he brought into each group what they saw as impious and false theological ideas [p.15] ...
[p.17 - ]
... we might these two groups of people to congregate separately and neatly along ideological grounds, divided by their conceptions of Jesus of Nazareth.
But...such lines are artificial dividers. Not only are they always imposed upon populations ranged across the territory those who draw them would divide, but the populations themselves are also rarely static and routinely cross 'the border' ... [yet] Origen...seems to define a borderland between Hellenes and Christians ...
Applying the model of a conceptual borderland to the study of ancient religious groups is not entirely new in itself, for [Daniel] Boyarin has already argued that many people occupied such a conceptual space "between" Christian and Judaism, even as late as the fourth century ...
Digeser refers to scholars "tendencies to unreflectively perpetuate dichotomies asserted by the winning side in ancient religious debates", then, p.18 -
The case of Origen demonstrates that terms such as "Christian" and "pagan" when used by modern scholars do not map neatly onto the habits and thoughts of ancient people.
... seeing instead the conceptual borderland in which a hybrid figure like Origen flourished allows a much more nuanced understanding of religious life and practice in late antiquity ... Origen's experience indicates a certain segment of Roman-educated scholarly society changed from being pluralistic or ecumenical to being one in which identifies became increasingly polarized ...
Digeser then suggests became a local power-broker, and, p.19, that, -
... Origen's career unfolded in the borderland between two groups who were fashioning their identities in opposition to one another-without perhaps there being very many truly salient differences between them ...
... that Origen's monsterization happened well after his death suggests that circumstances had changed for the groups who came to see his identity as menacing ... both groups condemned him for celebrating traits from the "other side", the two groups...had become deeply embroiled in a struggle for hegemony that also involved complex negotiations and definitions of identity ...
Digeser notes Origen peaked under the Severan emperors "who attempted to restrict Jewish and Christian proselytising" [and Digeser later noted that Origen got into trouble for encouraging such proselytising], and -
... the two most detailed sources about Origen's life and behaviour are porphyry of Tyre, the late third-century Hellene Platonist most upset by Origen's behaviour, and Eusebius of Caesarea...who struggled at the cusp of the fourth century to defend Origen, his intellectual ancestor, both from Christians attacking his theology as well as from Porphyry's diatribe ...
... Origen [w]as a man who...moved rather easily among Platonist and Aristotelian philosophical students of early third-century Alexandria, as well as among Christian teachers, scholars, and students, whom he did not recognise as being of like mind ...
[p.21 - ]
... We can easily see the influence of Origen's eclectic philosophical training in one of his first books, On First Principles ...[applying] figural exegesis popular among Alexandrian stoics ... exegesis promoted in Ammonius [Saccas]'s school, and he articulates a Christian theology deeply indebted to a Platonist metaphysics. In short, Origen used the exegetical tools developed in Ammonius's classroom to do for Christian scripture what Plotinus would later do for the teachings of Plato ...
p.22 -
Porphyry praise[d] Origen where his Platonist education [led] him to get Christian theology right--for example, in denying the resurrection of the flesh (a tenet of faith among many Christians). On the other hand, Porphyry criticizes Origen for "living like a Christian, contrary to the law," despite his education as a Hellene (Porph. ap. Eus., HE 6.19.7).
pp.25-26 (where Andrew's link takes us) -
...for a long time scholars split Origen into two 'purer' men, the ''pagan'' Origen the Platonist and the "Christian" Origen of Alexandria (who coincidentally flourished at the same time, in the same place, and knew the same people) ...
The mistaken division of Origen into two people, a Platonist and a Christian, as well as the belief in dichotomous groups of pagans and Christians meant for a long time the role of the real, 'hybrid Origen' within the late Platonist community was poorly understood [despite] the tendency to dichotomize [him] ...
pp. 27-28 -
.. a borderlands approach to the study of men like Origen, a heterodox [supposedly] Christian theologian...helps us see past the old category mistakes ... and it allows us a more nuanced view of the religious terrain of Mediterranean antiquity. The life of Origen, then, provides a case study of a young man who occupied a kind of intellectual no-man's-land, steeping himself in the philosophy of an Alexandrian Platonist teacher and devoting himself to answering open questions in Christian Scripture by applying what he'd learned ...
[previously - p. 24 - Digeser had referred to Porphyry having issues with what he saw as Origen's "mistaken reading of texts taken as Scripture ... the way that the Hebrew Bible was used to prophesy and elucidate events of the Gospels".]
The reception of Origen's teachings in the late third century is a case study of a different sort ...
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