The spell of the logos : Origen’s exegetic pedagogy in the contemporary debate regarding logocentrism

571 Pages·2009·10.363 MB·English

by  Origen., Niculescu, Mihai Vlad, Origen., Origenes.

The Spell of the Logos
Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies
10
The Spell of the Logos
Origen’s Exegetic Pedagogy in the
Contemporary Debate regarding Logocentrism
Mihai Vlad Niculescu
Gorgias Press LLC, 180 Centennial Ave., Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA
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ISBN 978-1-59333-698-1
ISSN 1539-1507
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Niculescu, Mihai.
The spell of the logos : Origen's exegetic
pedagogy in the contemporary debate regarding
logocentrism / Mihai Niculescu.
p. cm. -- (Gorgias Eastern Christian studies,
ISSN 1539-1507 ; 10)
Includes bibliographical references and
To Bogdan Bucur
Edward Hopper
Rooms by the Sea
Yale University Art Gallery
Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903

Image reproduced by permission from Yale University Art Gallery.
Image © by Yale University Art Gallery.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents....................................................................................................v
Acknowledgments..................................................................................................xi
Abbreviations and Translations..........................................................................xv
I Spelling Salvation. Speech Address as Messianic Advent........................1
1 Argument......................................................................................................1
2 Logocentric and Anti-Logocentric Readings of Origen’s
Definition of the Gospel as Ordinary Speech..................................3
2.1 Three Logocentric Readings of Origen’s Definition of
the Gospel as Ordinary Speech...........................................................8
2.1.1 Naïve Logocentrism.............................................................................8
2.1.2 Hermeneutical Logocentrism............................................................10
2.1.3 Communicative Logocentrism.........................................................11
2.2 Three Anti-Logocentric Readings of Origen’s
Definition of the Gospel....................................................................15
2.2.1 Deconstructionism.............................................................................16
2.2.2 Responsibility Ethics as a Speech Pragmatics of
Saying.....................................................................................................21
2.2.3 Heuristic or a Speech Pragmatics of Givenness............................22
3 A Tentative Placement of Origen’s Ordinary Gospel
Pragmatics within the Debate regarding Logocentrism................29
3.1 A Diagnostic Test for Logocentrism..................................................29
3.2 The Outline of a Non-Logocentric Reading of
Origen’s Definition of the Gospel as Ordinary
Speech...................................................................................................31
3.3 Preliminary Evidence for a Non-Logocentric Reading
of Origen’s Ordinary Gospel-Discourse.........................................34
4 A Non-Logocentric Definition of the Ordinary Gospel
and Its Theological Transposition....................................................36
5 A Tentative Profiling of Origenism as Theological
Logocentrism and the Clarification of Its Use in the
Overall Argument of This Book.......................................................37
v
vi THE SPELL OF THE LOGOS
6 Synopsis......................................................................................................41
II Spiritual Leavening as The Grand Scenario of Origen’s
Exegetical Pedagogy.....................................................................................43
1 Growing Up. The Advent of the Logos as Bible and the
Reception of the Logos as Bible Exegesis.......................................43
1.1 The Historical Dimension of Logos’ Advent as Bible
and of Logos’ Reception as Bible-Exegesis....................................46
1.1.1 The Historical Dimension of the Advent of the
Logos as Bible......................................................................................46
1.1.2 The Historical Dimension of the Reception of the
Logos as Pedagogic Bible Exegesis..................................................52
1.1.3 Rising with the Messiah. The Leavening History of
the Bible and of Bible’s Pedagogic Exegesis...................................56
1.2 The Textual Dimension of Logos’ Advent as Bible and
of Logos’ Reception as Bible Exegesis............................................62
1.2.1 The Bible’s Guide to the Reading of the Bible
according to the Exegetical Theory in the Fourth
Book of On First Principles..............................................................62
1.2.1.1 The Mediation of the Twofold, Literal and
Spiritual, Constitution of the Bible...................................................62
1.2.1.2 The Bible’s Assistance in the Exegetical
Engagement of the Split between the Bible’s Letter
and the Bible’s Spirit...........................................................................65
1.2.1.2.1 The Signaling of the Split between the Letter and
the Spirit................................................................................................66
1.2.1.2.2 The Origination of Heterodoxy in the
Misinterpretation of Bible’s Exegetical Suggestions......................68
1.2.1.2.3 Spiritual Progress as the Outcome of the
Observance of the Bible’s Exegetical Signals.................................71
1.2.2 The Bible’s Guide to the Reading of the Bible in the
Light of Origen’s Exegetical Procedure...........................................73
1.2.2.1 The Split Constitution of the Bible and of the
Reader Shapes the Exegetical Procedure.........................................73
1.2.2.2 The Exegetical Procedure as Bible-Induced
Spiritual Ascent....................................................................................75
1.2.2.3 The Spiritual Ascent as an Exegetical Reduction of
the Hermeneutical Distance between the Reader and
the Biblical Logos................................................................................77
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
1.2.3 A Tentative Synopsis of the Exegete’s Encounter
with the Biblical Logos during the Bible-Sanctioned
Exegesis of the Bible as Gospel........................................................79
2 Upbringing. The Advent of the Logos as Biblical
Teaching and the Reception of the Logos as Biblical-
Exegetical Learning.............................................................................85
2.1 Introduction. The Biblical School Curriculum as the
Messianic “Incarnation” of the Logos or the Divine
Teacher..................................................................................................85
2.2 Mournful vs. Joyful Pedagogy. An Analysis of Two
Origenian Texts on the Curriculum.................................................90
2.2.1 The Teacher’s Grief. The Reception of the
Curriculum as Instantiation of the Condescending
Teacher according to Fragments 13 and 14 of
Origen’s Commentary on Lamentations.................................................90
2.2.2 The Teacher’s Joy. The Reception of the Curriculum
as Instantiation of the Ascending Teacher according
to the Prologue of The Commentary on the Song of Songs...................93
2.2.2.1 The Teacher, His Teaching and the Disciple’s
Availability for Being Taught. An Outline of Origen’s
Phenomenology of Humanity’s Didactic Attunement
to God...................................................................................................94
2.2.2.1.1 Three Hypostases of the Teacher and the Disciple................94
2.2.2.1.2 The Threefold Division of the Curriculum..............................97
2.2.2.1.3 The Curriculum as a Spiritual Progress Scenario....................99
2.2.2.2 Joy as the God-Attuning Mood of the Observance
of the Curriculum..............................................................................101
2.2.2.2.1 Gospel and Curriculum. The Parallelism between
the Biblical-Exegetical and the Pedagogic Coming of
the Logos............................................................................................102
2.2.2.2.2 Exodus-Entrance as the Shared Scenario of the
Biblical-Exegetical and the Pedagogic Sequences........................104
2.2.2.2.3 The End of the Road. Ultimate Pedagogy as a
Wedding Feast in Jerusalem.............................................................111
2.2.2.2.4 Beyond the Image. Love as the Ultimate
Observance of the Curriculum and the Joy of Sonship..............113
3 Retrospect.................................................................................................117
viii THE SPELL OF THE LOGOS
III Emmaus and Beyond. The Growth of the Kingdom
Documented by the Doxological Gestures, Postures and
Feelings of a Priestly Homilist..................................................................121
1 Leavening (1): A Uniform Growth?.....................................................121
2 Transformative Gestures. “Placing or Hiding In” and
“Opening Up”. A Possible Correlation between
Origen’s Interpretation of the Parable of the Leaven
and the Experience of the Disciples on the Road to
Emmaus..............................................................................................129
3 Testimonial Postures..............................................................................137
3.1 “Being Placed in” and “Being Put on”. An Analysis of
the Emmaus Reference in Origen’s Interpretation of
the Atonement Day Liturgy in Lev. 16.11–14..............................137
3.2 “Being Laid Out Before”. An Analysis of the
Interpretation of the Atonement Offering in Origen’s
Exegesis of Lev 16.11–14.................................................................147
4 Leavening (2): A Catastrophic Growth. A Revision of
the Uniform Progress Theory of Salvation...................................152
5 Testimonial Feelings...............................................................................157
5.1 Lost Love Kept Current in Spirit. The Kindling of the
Heart (Luke 24.32) as a Wound of Love (Cant 2.5)....................157
5.2 After Emmaus. The Physical Experience of Awe..........................162
5.3 Beyond Emmaus. The Epoptic Experience of Love.....................173
6 Leavening (3): The Surge of an Articulate Cry...................................184
7 A Kingdom’s Growth.............................................................................189
8 Is Origen’s Exegetical Pedagogy Logocentric?...................................194
IV Disputing Emmaus....................................................................................201
1 Emmaus as the Christological Authorization of a
Typological Reading of History......................................................201
2 A Pragmatic-Linguistic Analysis of Origen’s Exegesis of
the Bible as Gospel...........................................................................209
2.1 Preliminary Clarifications....................................................................209
2.2 The Gospel Phrase-Complex.............................................................212
2.3 The Performance of the Gospel Phrase Complex.........................215
2.4 The Authorization of the Gospel Phrase Complex........................219
3 An Anti-Logocentric Critique of Origen’s Emmausian
Authorization of the Reading of the Bible as Gospel.................223
3.1 The Gospel as an Auto-Thematic Meta-Discourse of
the Logos............................................................................................223