Origen the Writer

Interest in Origen, as I have noted frequently, remains very high today. He was one of the most influential figures of early Christianity and remains so today. A massive new collection, published at the very end of last year in the Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium series, looks at Origen as scribe: H. Pietras and S. Kaczmarek, eds., Origeniana Decima: Origen as Writer (Peeters, 2011), xviii+1039pp. 

About this book the publisher tells us:

This volume contains the proceedings of the tenth meeting of the international “Origeniana” conference which is convened every four years. The overall theme of the “Origeniana Decima” is “Origen as writer”. The volume is divided into eight parts which are preceded by two introductory papers that introduce the reader into some of the secrets of Origen’s writing techniques. The first part consists of two essays that deal with two intellectual traditions that had a major influence on Origen, Neo-Platonism and the rabbinic exegetical tradition. Part Two deals with the scope and complexity of Origen’s oeuvre and Part Three with aspects of hermeneutics. Part Four focuses on the Apologies, with special interest in the Contra Celsum, and Part Five on the commentaries and the homilies. The sixth part includes articles on various aspects of Origen’s language. Part Seven deals with the philosophical sources as these are used in exegetical and other works. Part Eight, on the disciples and followers of Origen, is the longest one with nineteen essays. Overall, this is once more an excellent specimen of the famous Origeniana conferences which for now almost forty years bring together specialists from all over the world. This volume, like previous ones in the series, will contribute significantly to our knowledge of Origen’s achievements and of his influence.

The publisher also helpfully provides a PDF of the table of contents here.