Origen and Prophecy: Fate, Authority, Allegory, and the Structure of Scripture (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)

"Origen is frequently hailed as the most important Christian writer of his period (c.185-c.255 AD), and the first systematic theologian. Origen and Prophecy: Fate, Authority, Allegory, and the Structure of Scripture examines whether there was a system to Origen's thinking about prophecy. How were all of these quite different topics - future-telling, moral leadership, mystical revelation - contained in the single word 'prophecy'? Origen and Prophecy presents a new account of Origen's concept of prophecy which takes its cue from the structure of Origen's thinking about scripture. He claims that scripture can be read in three different senses: the straightforward, or 'somatic' (bodily) sense; the moral, or 'psychic' (soul-ish) sense; and the mystical, or 'pneumatic' (spiritual) sense. This threefold structure, says Origen, underpins all of scripture and is intimately linked through Christ with the structure of the Holy Trinity. This book illustrates how Origen thought about prophecy using the same threefold structure, with somatic (future-telling), psychic (moral), and pneumatic (mystical revelatory) senses. The chapters weave through several centuries of Greek pagan, Jewish, and Christian thinking about prophecy, divination, time, human nature, autonomy and freedom, allegory and metaphor, and the role of the divine in the order and structure of the cosmos." --Back cover "Origen and Prophecy presents a new reading of the concept of prophecy in the work of Origen of Alexandria (c.185-22 AD). While prophecy in classical antiquity was focused primarily on telling the future, Jewish and early Christian writers began to discuss prophets as moral leaders and sages, understanding their prophecies as moral and mystical proclamations as well as predictions. In this book, I show how Origen developed this model of prophecy using his own principles for reading scripture. The chapters move through several centuries of Greek, Jewish, and Christian thinking about prophecy, divination, time, human nature, autonomy and freedom, allegory and metaphor, and the role of the divine in the order and structure of the cosmos"--Publisher's description Origen is frequently hailed as the most important Christian writer of his period. This book examines whether there was a system to Origen's thinking about prophecy.