The spell of the logos
Subtitle: Origen's exegetic pedagogy in the contemporary debate regarding logocentrism
By: Mihai Niculescu.
Series: Gorgias Eastern Christian studies -- 10
Publisher: Gorgias Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Piscataway, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 553
Subjects: Origen; Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Word (Theology)
Description: If, as Origen believed. humanity`s hope for salvation has been answered by a divine Word, whose coming into the world has unfolded history according to a messianic intrigue, Origen`s messianic reading of world history as a soteriological discourse should not come as a surprise. How does Origen refer to this discourse? As a speech that spells the coming Word, this discourse would have to be soteriological in its very mording, it would have to happen soteriologically. The Word`s historical unfolding would have to be approached as a gospel, a good-news or a revelatory speech event, which, literally, spells salvation. Receiving this messianic Word would necessarily imply the believer`s application to the study of the Bible as Gospel. The task of this study is twofold. In addition to offering a detailed analysis of Origen`s understanding of exegesis as a liturgical attending to the Word`s evangelic advent in the Bible (a sort of textual redoubling of the incarmation), it also addresses --

a recent concern regarding the totalizing potential of Origen`s Logos-centered reading of history as evangelic or Christian. One may indeed wonder whether Origen`s exegetical spelling of the Word as universal Gospel can prevent the silencing of the speech of, let us say the Greek or the jew outside of Christianity? Ultimately, one may wonder whether it is possible to dissociate Origen`s Christian understanding of the Bible-incarnate Word from the totalizing rigor of a universalist metaphysics and what would be the consequences of such an attempt --Book Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
Table of contents: title: I. Spelling salvation : speech address as Messianic Advent; title: Argument; title: Logocentric and anti-logocentric readings of Origen's definition of the Gospel as ordinary speech; title: A tentative placement of Origen's ordinary Gospel pragmatics within the debate regarding logocentrism; title: A non-logocentric definition of the ordinary Gospel and its theological transposition; title: A tentative profiling of origenism as theological logocentrism and the clarification of its use in the overall argument of this book; title: Synopsis; title: II. Spiritual leavening as the grand scenario of Origen's exegetical pedagogy; title: Growing up : the Advent of the logos as Bible and the reception of the logos as Bible exegesis; title: Upbringing : the advent of the logos as biblical teaching and the reception of the logos as biblical-exegetical learning; title: Retrospect; title: III. Emmaus and beyond : the growth of the kingdom documented by the doxological gestures, postures, and feelings of a priestly homilist; title: Leavening (1) : a uniform growth?; title: 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; title: Testimonial postures; title: Leavening (2) : a catastrophic growth : a revision of the uniform progress theory of salvation; title: Testimonial feelings; title: Leavening (3) : the surge of an articulate cry; title: A kingdom's growth; title: Is Origen's exegetical pedagogy logocentric?; title: IV. Disputing Emmaus; title: Emmaus as the christological authorization of a typological reading of history; title: A pragmatic-linguistic analysis of Origen's exegesis of the Bible as Gospel; title: An anti-logocentric critique of Origen's emmausian authorization of the reading of the Bible as Gospel; title: An anti-logocentric endorsement of Origen's emmausian authorization of the reading of the Bible as Gospel; title: Disputing Emmaus; title: About a certain "shrug of the shoulders".