Why Origen?

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Origen was not a schismatic. Saying it over and over again does not make it so. If he was a schismatic, than so is everyone in the history of the Church who held to any incorrect belief.
 
Pope Benedict XVI refers to Origen as a “Father of the Church.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20100523_pentecoste_en.html

Both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (including Dominum et Vivificantem, Redomptors Mater, Fides et Ratio) referenced Origen extensively. Also, Origen was referenced in numerous Vatican II documents (Lumen Fidei, Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes, and Presbyterorum Ordinis).
gsearch.vatican.va/search?client=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&sort=date:D:L:d1&entsp=a__policy_documenti&wc=200&wc_mc=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ud=1&exclude_apps=1&filter=0&ulang=en&ip=66.60.234.165&access=p&entqr=3&entqrm=0&q=origen+inmeta:language%3Den&dnavs=inmeta:language%3Den
 
RyanBlack said:
Origen was not a schismatic. Saying it over and over again does not make it so. If he was a schismatic, than so is everyone in the history of the Church who held to any incorrect belief.
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Not to mention that you would then have to explain why Pope Benedict speaks so highly of a “schismatic”, why writings from a “schismatic” are included as teaching to be read in the Liturgy of the Hours, why St. John Paul II referenced a “schismatic’s” thought and teaching in “Fides et Ratio” and “Redemptoris Mater,” among others . . .
 
RyanBlack said:
Pope Benedict XVI refers to Origen as a “Father of the Church.”
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20100523_pentecoste_en.html

Both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II (including Dominum et Vivificantem, Redomptors Mater, Fides et Ratio) referenced Origen extensively. Also, Origen was referenced in numerous Vatican II documents (Lumen Fidei, Lumen Gentium, Ad Gentes, and Presbyterorum Ordinis).
gsearch.vatican.va/search?client=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&sort=date:D:L:d1&entsp=a__policy_documenti&wc=200&wc_mc=1&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF-8&ud=1&exclude_apps=1&filter=0&ulang=en&ip=66.60.234.165&access=p&entqr=3&entqrm=0&q=origen+inmeta:language%3Den&dnavs=inmeta:language%3Den
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This is a great site! THANKS!
 
Hello Therese.
agnes_therese said:
Not to mention that you would then have to explain why Pope Benedict speaks so highly of a “schismatic”, why writings from a “schismatic” are included as teaching to be read in the Liturgy of the Hours, why St. John Paul II referenced a “schismatic’s” thought and teaching in “Fides et Ratio” and “Redemptoris Mater,” among others . . .
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Can you provide the portions of these readings that you’re talking about along with links? Then perhaps we could discuss them.

Thanks,

Glenda
 
 
Of Origen, Benedict XVI once stated, “I invite you - and so I conclude - to welcome into your hearts the teaching of** this great master of faith**. He reminds us with deep delight that in the prayerful reading of Scripture and in consistent commitment to life, the Church is ever renewed and rejuvenated.”

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070425_en.html

Of Origen, Pope Benedict XVI also stated, “Notwithstanding all the theological richness of his thought, his is never a purely academic approach; it is always founded on the experience of prayer, of contact with God. Indeed, to his mind, knowledge of the Scriptures requires prayer and intimacy with Christ even more than study.”

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070502_en.html

Another time, Pope Benedict XVI stated “Now, for our meditation, we will reflect initially on the profession of humility made by the Psalmist, and entrust ourselves to the words of Origen, whose commentary on our text has come down to us in St Jerome’s Latin version.”

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20060111_en.html

Pope Benedict would not urge us to “entrust ourselves” to the words of someone whose writings were “garbage.”
 
Pope St. John Paul II, just several weeks before his death, said of Origen “To conclude, let us re-examine the most important passages of the Psalm, letting ourselves be guided by Origen, a great Christian writer of the third century whose commentary in Greek on Ps 116[114] has been handed down to us in the Latin version of St Jerome.”

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/2005/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_20050126_en.html

In December of 2003, Pope St. John Paul II referred to Origen, stating “In this wake, commenting on the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, a great Christian teacher such as Origen conceived of the New Exodus undertaken by Christians.”

vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/2003/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_20031203_en.html
 
glendab said:
Hello Therese.
Can you provide the portions of these readings that you’re talking about along with links? Then perhaps we could discuss them.
Thanks,
Glenda
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The links to Pope Emeritus Benedict’s talks have been posted several times in this thread.

“Fides et Ratio” and “Redemptoris Mater” are both available on the Vatican website:
www.vatican.va

And you will find him listed, if I count correctly 8 times, from 6 different works, in the non-Biblical selections for the Office of Readings.
catholic-resources.org/LoH/OfficeOfReadings-NonBiblical.html

That’s a lot of selections from a “schismatic and heretic.”
 
glendab said:
Hello JC.

No, to reject the Bible because Origen wrote a six columned version of it would be ridiculous. At the time he wrote the Hexapla, the Canon of Scripture was being formulated and wasn’t formally pronounced till much later in time, so anyone could literally write their own version and that’s what he did.

Origen is no Saint and no one in the Church ever even tried to say he was. That will never change. He introduced a study of theology that was novel and he is credited with that. He also introduced a systematic method of teaching theology that was praised but what he actually taught was error.

Thanks for your effort. It is appreciated.

Glenda
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Hi, Glenda!

Here are some excerpts from a previously cited source:
St. Jerome is perhaps the Latin writer who is most indebted to Origen. Before the Origenist controversies he willingly admitted this, and even afterwards, he did not entirely repudiate it; cf. the prologues to his translations of Origen (Homilies on St. Luke, Jeremias, and Ezechiel, the Canticle of Canticles), and also the prefaces to his own “Commentaries” (on Micheas, the Epistles to the Galatians, and to the Ephesians etc.).
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oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Origen_and_Origenism
It is through the principle of authority-that Origen is wont to unmask and combat doctrinal errors. It is the principle of authority, too, that he invokes when he enumerates the dogmas of faith. A man animated with such sentiments may have made mistakes, because he is human, but his disposition of mind is essentially Catholic and he does not deserve to be ranked among the promoters of heresy.
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oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Origen_and_Origenism
It will then appear that the subordination of the Divine Persons, so much urged against Origen, generally consists in differences of appropriation (the Father creator, the Son redeemer, the Spirit sanctifier) which seem to attribute to the Persons an unequal sphere of action, or in the liturgical practice of praying the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost, or in the theory so widespread in the Greek Church of the first five centuries, that the Father has a preeminence of rank (Greek: taksis) over the two other Persons, inasmuch as in mentioning them He ordinarily has the first place, and of dignity (Greek: aksioma), because He represents the whole Divinity, of which He is the principle (Greek: arche), the origin (Greek: aitios), and the source (Greek: pege). That is why St. Athanasius defends Origen’s orthodoxy concerning the Trinity and why St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzus replied to the heretics who claimed the support of his authority that they misunderstood him.
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oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Origen_and_Origenism

As pedestrian as I am, it actually seems that Christianity does owe Origen some credit and that authorities within the Catholic Church (specially those closer to the event) recognized that Origen was Catholic not a heretic and that though some could misinterpret and claim his works as heresies they are wrong and have in their misconstrution the have malinformed others (of course this latter verse is an extrapolation on my part!).

Maran atha!

Angel
 
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