The influence of Origen on the young Augustine: a chapter of the history of Origenism

342 Pages·2009·1.45 MB·English

by  György Heidl

The Influence of Origen on the
Young Augustine
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
19
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies brings to the scholarly world the
underrepresentedfieldofChristianityasitdevelopedintheEastern
hemisphere. This series consists of monographs, collections of
essays, texts and translations of the documents of Eastern
Christianity, and studies of topics relevant to the unique world of
historic Orthodoxy and early Christianity.
The Influence of Origen on the
Young Augustine
A Chapter of the History of Origenism
György Heidl
9
34
2009
Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
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Copyright © 2 0 0 9 by Gorgias Press LLC
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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prior written permission of Gorgias Press LLC.
2009 ܛ 9
ISBN 978-1-59333-702-5 ISSN 1539-1507
Second Edition.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Heidl, György.
The influence of Origen on the young Augustine
: a chapter of the history of Origenism / by
György Heidl.
p. cm. -- (Gorgias Eastern Christian studies ;
19)
Rev. ed. of: Origen's influence on the young
Augustine.
Includes bibliographical references (p.
) and index.
1. Augustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo. 2.
Origen--Influence. I. Heidl, György. Origen's
influence on the young Augustine. II. Title.
BR65.A9H45 2009
270.2092--dc22
2009037572
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE
Origen and Augustine are two giants – some would say the two
giants – of the early Christian theological world. Each of them
pondered fundamental questions of belief in a world marked by
suffering and imperfection. For each the interplay of Divine
justice, Providence, grace, human freedom and the love of the
Creator for creatures was a problem that demanded a cosmic
solution. Both addressed this problem with one eye on the Bible,
the other on contemporaneous philosophical discussion.
Addressing the most sophisticated critiques of Christianity, each
contested the claim that later Platonism was most appropriately
melded with traditional Greco-Roman religion rather than with
Christianity. Each argued strenuously in intra-ecclesial disputes
over correct doctrine – and thus contributed to the determination
that certain views fell short and were therefore to be considered
heretical. Both were “men of the church” who in the course of
their lives dedicated ever-increasing proportions of their prodigious
literary output to the explication of the Bible, often in the form of
sermons preached to the faithful.
Yet one of them, Augustine, has enjoyed a virtually
uninterrupted legacy of admiration (at least in the Western Latin
tradition and its modern heirs), while the orthodoxy of the other,
Origen, was the subject of a rancorous debate which has tarnished
his reputation from the fourth century until the recent past. While
the great Alexandrian theologian has always had some admirers, the
sustained effort of two generations of scholars in the latter half of
the twentieth century has clarified the magnitude of his
contribution to early Christian theology, exegesis and spirituality.
No longer is he “the hydra of all heresies” as he was to Epiphanius
– unless his role as wellspring of all orthodoxies is also recognized!
The question of Origen’s influence on Augustine is complex.
The latter’s acquaintance with many of his predecessor’s writings in
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translation is clear in his later years; equally clear is his critique of
Origen’s protology and eschatology, especially in City of God 11.23
and 21.17. But the date of Augustine’s first encounter with
Origen’s ideas is more difficult to establish. Recent scholarship on
Augustine’s early understandings of human nature and of the origin
of the soul has intensified awareness of its deeply Platonic coloring
and has raised with renewed urgency the question of his earlier
knowledge of Origen’s written corpus.
In the present volume Dr. Heidl enters into this question with
a daring thesis: namely, that Augustine not only read Origen in the
months preceding his baptism but that his acquaintance with the
Alexandrian theologian’s mystical interpretation of the Song of Songs
constituted a crucial step in his conversion. Specifically, he argues
that the libri pleni which Augustine mentions in Contra Academicos
2.2.5 are not writings of Plotinus or any other non-Christian
Platonist, but they are instead the writings of Catholic Christians,
including Jerome’s translation of Origen’s Homelies on the Song of
Songs and possibly also some passages translated by a member of
the Milanese circle from the Commentary on the Song of Songs. By a
meticulous examination of the primary texts concerning
Augustine’s conversion against the backdrop of the relevant
secondary literature, Dr. Heidl elaborates a new picture of the
stages of that famous conversion while systematically addressing
the obstacles to his view. Then he proceeds to study the earliest of
Augustine’s grapplings with the first chapters of Genesis, de Genesi
contra Manichaeos. Again, painstaking comparison of texts is
combined with precise attention to the sequence of events to
establish Origen’s direct literary influence on the young Augustine.
Finally, Dr. Heidl gathers the main strands of protology and
eschatology – the Beginning and the End – as envisaged by these
two theological pioneers. The result is a surprisingly Origenistic
young Augustine.
This provocative book leads the reader to wonder to whom
the young Augustine bears a greater resemblance – to Origen or to
the old Augustine. The thought is perhaps more welcome to the
enthusiasts of the once-maligned presbyter of Caesarea than to the
admirers of the bishop of Hippo. Wherever they may stand on the
respective merits of these two remarkable thinkers, historians and
theologians alike will be challenged and enlightened by this
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innovative and learned tour de force.
Kathleen E. McVey
VII

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should like to thank all those who assisted me in completing this
work. First of all, I wish to commemorate Katalin Vidrányi, my
professor at the University of Pécs (Hungary). When I was
graduate student she directed my interest towards Saint Augustine
and the Fathers of the Church, and subsequently she kept an eye
on my work until her death in August of 1993.
My thanks are also due to Marianne Sághy, Róbert Somos and
Gábor Kendeffy, my friends and colleagues who commented on
the earlier versions of some chapters. Their criticism inspired and
irapelled me to elaborate the arguments.
I give my thanks to the professors of the Department of
Medieval Studies at the Central European University. I am
indebted to Professor Robert Markus, Lorenzo Perrone and Alain
Le Boulluec for their advice and comments on sections and earlier
versions of the work. I wish to thank István Perczel for the long
and inspiring discussions about various fields of Patristics,
including Augustine and Origen. Without his aid and counsel this
work would never have been written.
My work was supported financially by the Central European
University and the Soros Foundation. I am grateful to the Open
Society Institute in Hungary for the opportunity to spend three
months in Roman libraries.
The English of some chapters has been revised by Lisa
Quinn, Mary-Beth Davis, Julia Voelker and Matthew Suff. Finally,
my main debt to my wife. All mistakes are mine!
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