«When Origen celebrates the propagation of Christianity throughout the oikoumene, with the moral transformation of mankind assuring its ‘evidence’ before the world, we can say that for him it is indeed a unique great ‘deed’ with only one true ‘protagonist’: the Logos, the Word of God in Jesus. Not only does everything good in man originally come from him, as far as both doctrine and practice are concerned, but as a consequence of this fundamental conviction the effectiveness of Christianity among men and in the Church has to be seen as ‘the evidence of the Logos’ acting throughout history. Restating this view against Celsus’ questioning of the Christian economy of salvation, the Alexandrian says: “it was not as if God had risen up from long slumber when He sent Jesus to the human race; although now, for good reasons, he has accomplished the work of his incarnation, he has always been doing good to mankind. For nothing good has happened among men without the divine Logos who has visited the souls of those who are able, even if but for a short time, to receive these operations of the divine Logos” . The same thing happens within the Christian community both for its corporate society as a whole and for its individual members: “according to the teaching of the divine Scriptures the body of Christ, the soul of which is the Son of God, is the whole Church of God, and... the limbs of this body, which is to be regarded as a whole, are those who believe, whoever they may be. For a soul gives life to a body and moves it, since it has not the power of self-movement like a living being; so also the Logos, which moves and acts upon the whole body for needful purposes, moves the Church and each limb of the members of the Church who do nothing apart from the Logos”».
Christianity as “Practice” in Origen’s «Contra Celsum» / L. Perrone. - STAMPA. - (2009), pp. 293-317. (Intervento presentato al convegno Origen and the Religious Practices of His Time. 9th International Origen Congress tenutosi a Pècs, Hungary nel 29 August – 2 September 2005).
Christianity as “Practice” in Origen’s «Contra Celsum»
PERRONE, LORENZO
2009
Abstract
«When Origen celebrates the propagation of Christianity throughout the oikoumene, with the moral transformation of mankind assuring its ‘evidence’ before the world, we can say that for him it is indeed a unique great ‘deed’ with only one true ‘protagonist’: the Logos, the Word of God in Jesus. Not only does everything good in man originally come from him, as far as both doctrine and practice are concerned, but as a consequence of this fundamental conviction the effectiveness of Christianity among men and in the Church has to be seen as ‘the evidence of the Logos’ acting throughout history. Restating this view against Celsus’ questioning of the Christian economy of salvation, the Alexandrian says: “it was not as if God had risen up from long slumber when He sent Jesus to the human race; although now, for good reasons, he has accomplished the work of his incarnation, he has always been doing good to mankind. For nothing good has happened among men without the divine Logos who has visited the souls of those who are able, even if but for a short time, to receive these operations of the divine Logos” . The same thing happens within the Christian community both for its corporate society as a whole and for its individual members: “according to the teaching of the divine Scriptures the body of Christ, the soul of which is the Son of God, is the whole Church of God, and... the limbs of this body, which is to be regarded as a whole, are those who believe, whoever they may be. For a soul gives life to a body and moves it, since it has not the power of self-movement like a living being; so also the Logos, which moves and acts upon the whole body for needful purposes, moves the Church and each limb of the members of the Church who do nothing apart from the Logos”».I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
