Origen and the History of Justification

The Legacy of Origen’s Commentary on Romans

Thomas P. Scheck
Foreword by Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.

Standard accounts of the history of interpretation of Paul’s Letter to the Romans often begin with St. Augustine. As Thomas P. Scheck demonstrates, however, the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by Origen of Alexandria (185-254 CE) was a major work of Pauline exegesis which, by means of the Latin translation preserved in the West, had a significant influence on the Christian exegetical tradition.

Scheck begins by exploring Origen’s views on justification and on the intimate connection of faith and post-baptismal good works as essential to justification. He traces the enormous influence Origen’s Commentary on Romans had on later theologians in the Latin West, including the ways in which theologians often appropriated Origen’s exegesis in their own work. Scheck analyzes in particular the reception of Origen by Pelagius, Augustine, William of St. Thierry, Erasmus, Cornelius Jansen, the Anglican Bishop Richard Montagu, and the Catholic lay apologist John Heigham, as well as Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and other Protestant Reformers who harshly attacked Origen’s interpretation as fatally flawed. But as Scheck shows, theologians through the post-Reformation controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries studied and engaged Origen extensively, even if not always in agreement.

An important work in patristics, biblical interpretation, and historical theology, Origen and the History of Justification establishes the formative role played by Origen’s Pauline exegesis, while also contributing to our understanding of the theological issues surrounding justification in the western Christian tradition.

Thomas P. Scheck is assistant professor in pastoral theology at Ave Maria University. He is the first English translator of Rufinus’s Latin edition of Origen’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans.

“The interpretation of Paul’s Letter to the Romans has been a central and continuing preoccupation in the western Christian tradition. Origen’s contribution to its interpretation was seminal, subtle, and suggestive. But the expansiveness of Origen’s Commentary on Romans, combined with later controversies about Origen’s views, appears to have inhibited scholars from tracing the reception of Origen’s commentary in the West. Thomas P. Scheck’s book ably and admirably remedies this oversight.“ —Theodore de Bruyn, University of Ottawa

Reviews

“Scheck’s book renders a valuable service in drawing attention to the recent recovery of Origen’s exegetical legacy and highlighting the longevity of certain of his ideas, particularly the notion that justification stands in synecdoche for the life of grace-infused virtue. This is a real contribution, and not to be lightly overlooked.” — Journal of Theological Studies

“Thomas P. Scheck’s Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen’s Commentary on Romans fills a major gap in the study of Origen’s exegesis and influence. Scheck has given us a superb work of scholarship that should inspire others to mine the riches of the Church Fathers for Christian wisdom that will transform our own age.” — Saint Austin Review