La réception d’Origène à la Renaissance : pour une typologie (version augmentée de textes à l’appui)
Résumé
Origen’s work was valued as early as the Latin Middle Ages, particularly his exegetical commentaries, which came to public knowledge thanks to Hieronymus or Rufinus. His influence further increased in the age of Humanism and the Reformation(s), with the rediscovery of the original text, as authors wrote either to combat Origen’s thinking and methods, or used them as means of liberation from older models. The aim of this paper is not so much to attempt a historical analysis of the reception of Origen’s work in the Renaissance period, as to offer a typology of the ways in which he was perceived—as an exegete, a theologian or a homilist, as a model of piety and a confessor, as a heretic or, on the contrary, as a “devotee of the Scriptures” and “of Jesus”, a sacred philologist, or a polemicist. This brief overview will demonstrate that perceptions of the Alexandrian varied considerably from one milieu to another, as thinkers of the Reformation were usually rather unfavorable to his exegesis, while Roman Catholic theologians displayed hostility towards his speculations, save for a few noteworthy exceptions.