Abstract
Reviewed by: In the Image of Origen: Eros, Virtue, and Constraint in the Early Christian Academy by David Satran Nathan D. Pederson David Satran. In the Image of Origen: Eros, Virtue, and Constraint in the Early Christian Academy. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018. 248 pp. David Satran's In the Image of Origen is the fifty-eighth volume of Peter Brown's Transformation of the Classical Heritage collection. As such, it seeks to explore afresh the ways [End Page 238] in which Gregory Thaumaturgus' Thanksgiving Address to Origen shows the very seams of this transformation, the complex weaving of continuity and discontinuity in the transformation of classical culture in early Christianity—specifically in view of education and pedagogy. Satran promises that, while the Address has been well-accepted as an important cultural artifact, a closer read will reveal the depths and intimacies of a shifting educational culture. Specifically, Satran argues that, read attentively (and already this word alludes to the importance of attention in Origen's pedagogy, as Satran will argue), the work "allows us to appreciate how the intersection of rhetorical construction, personal experience, and cultural tradition offers a window into a remarkable episode in the history of education and spiritual tutelage" (2). Trying to fill a certain lacuna in the conversation regarding the Address, the effort is one to explain the internal logic and meaning of the text read as a whole to highlight the contours of an intimate education. Fundamentally, this will become, for Satran, an exercise in which the reader must come to wrestle with the tension between Gregory's rhetoric and his reality in order to discover, through the very performance of reading the Address rightly, the crucial "image of Origen" as pedagogical lynchpin. In chapter 1, "Providence, Eros, and Constraint," Satran begins to exegete the Address, exploring how Gregory explains the nature of his relationship with Origen. Marshalling a number of convincing texts, Satran shows that the relationship between the two is one of erotic pedagogical lure brought about by divine providence and marked by a certain forcefulness on the part of the master toward the student. Turning toward the nature of Origen's academy itself in the second chapter, Satran leads us through Gregory's explanation concerning the central place of dialectics at the start of the pedagogical journey, mirroring the Greco-Roman tradition. Gregory, as Satran explains, provides us with "the dialectical basis for theological inquiry" for Origen, which stresses the philosophical openness Origen demanded in order to enter the path of wisdom and virtue. Chapter 3 explores with Gregory the move in Origen's training from dialectics to moral and ethical formation through stress on care of self that leads to deification, a move that resonated deeply with the broader pedagogical culture of the Platonic-Stoic framework. But key here (especially if we have our mind on any particular transformation of the classical culture) is how Satran directs us to see how Origen placed scriptural study as the culmination of this education and as the acme of the philosophical journey. Indeed, all that precedes the study of the Christian Scriptures—the full cycle of "pagan" philosophical training, from dialectics to ethics, and even to its reflection on divine things—becomes only preparation for the study of the sacred text (112–113). Such study, for Origen, stressed careful attention to the Scriptures and ultimately, for Gregory, focused on Origen as master interpreter. The chapter ends with an important link between Origen as master interpreter and Gregory's claim of Origen's very person and presence as a place of paradise. The fourth chapter, "Paradise and the Cave," works to explain more this notion of Origen as place of paradise, as Satran particularly examines the nature of Gregory's "leave-taking" concluding section. Satran argues that Gregory not only uses the "leave-taking" genre available to him but also transforms this genre in light of the unique aspects of Origen's training. Satran proposes that Gregory's particular utilization and transformation of this trope hinges on its density of scriptural allusion and citation (especially regarding exile motifs), as well as the parallels to the Platonic cave myth. The farewell address here is...
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.