Negotiating Heresy The Reception of Origen in Jerome's Eschatological Thought Pålsson, Katarina 2019 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Pålsson, K. (2019). Negotiating Heresy: The Reception of Origen in Jerome's Eschatological Thought. Lunds universitet, Media-Tryck . 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Negotiating Heresy The Reception of Origen in Jerome’s Eschatological Thought KATARINA PÅLSSON CENTRE FOR THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES | LUND UNIVERSITY Jerome of Stridon (347-419/20) has largely been remembered for the controversies in which he was engaged. His work as a polemicist and a defender of what he considered to be orthodox teaching has been seen as defining. However, this champion of orthodoxy was himself often accused of heresy, and the main reason for his heresiological efforts was to defend himself against such accusations. During the first Origenist controversy, Jerome was forced to defend his orthodoxy by presenting Origen of Alexandria (185-253/54) as a heretic and “Origenism” as a heresy. Since Jerome had previously been heavily influenced by Origen, scholars have often described Jerome’s change in attitude towards Origen as a complete turnaround, and his identity as an “anti-Origenist” from the time of the controversy has not been questioned. The present study challenges this reconstruction by claiming that while Jerome especially attacked Origen’s eschatological views, his own “orthodox” ideas about the resurrection, post-mortem purification, and eternal salvation show a great indebtedness to Origen’s thought. By uncovering the rhetorical strategies involved in Jerome’s polemics, by which he maximized the difference between himself and Origen, the study contributes to a nuanced assessment of Jerome’s complex relation to Origen and his thought, a relation that was characterized by reception as well as rejection, by approval as well as polemics. Katarina Pålsson works at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University. This is her doctoral dissertation. LUND UNIVERSITY 899446 The Faculties of Humanities and Theology Centre for Theology and Religious Studies 789188 ISBN 978-91-88899-44-6 9 Negotiating Heresy Negotiating Heresy The Reception of Origen in Jerome’s Eschatological Thought Katarina Pålsson DOCTORAL DISSERTATION by due permission of the Faculty of Humanities and Theology, Lund University, Sweden. To be defended at Helgonavägen 3, LUX C126, October 4th, 2019 at 14:15 Faculty opponent Professor Andrew Cain, University of Colorado Organization Document name: DOCTORAL DISSERTATION LUND UNIVERSITY Date of issue: October 4 2019 Author: Katarina Pålsson Sponsoring organization Title and subtitle: Negotiating Heresy. The Reception of Origen in Jerome’s Eschatological Thought. Abstract: The aim of this study is to examine the reception of Origen of Alexandria (185-253/54) in the eschatological thought ofJerome of Stridon (347-419/20). Jerome, who was a Christian ascetic writer and a biblical commentator, relied heavily on Origen’s works during the first part of his career. Due to the Origenist controversy, which took place in the 390s and was initiated by Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis, Jerome came to change his attitude towards Origen, and became one of the authors who produced anti-Origenist heresiology during this period. The issues under debate concerned to a great extent eschatology, as Origen’s ideas about the resurrection and about eternal salvation were attacked. In modern scholarship, Jerome’s new attitude towards Origen has been described as a sudden volte-face, and Jerome’s eschatological ideas, as expressed after the beginning of the controversy, are described as very different from Origen’s. He is presented as teaching an idea of the resurrection which does not imply any change in the resurrection body, in relation to the earthly body, and he is described as claiming the idea of a hierarchy of the saved in opposition to Origen’s idea about a final restoration of all rational beings. Paying much attention to the mechanics of heresiology and the rhetorical strategies used by Jerome in his constructions of Origen and “Origenism”, I question the presentation of Jerome as a convinced anti-Origenist who held eschatologial ideas that differed significantly from Origen’s. Rather, I argue that Jerome exaggerated the difference between himself and Origen in these questions, while continuing to rely on the Alexandrian’s eschatological thinking. Thus, I examine both the ways in which Jerome’s eschatological thinking was indebted to Origen's theology and the ways in which he polemicized against Origen’s ideas. I study Jerome’s reception of Origen’s eschatology not only in the Origenist controversy, but also in the preceding Jovinianist controversy, and in the later Pelagian controversy. Issues related to eschatology were of great importance in all these controversies. In my treatment of Jerome’s involvement in the Jovinianist controversy, I argue that Origen was the main source of the ascetical theology that Jerome expressed in his work Against Jovinian (393) and also of the eschatological ideas that Jerome expressed in this work. Above all, I argue that in expressing the idea about a hierarchy of Christians based on asceticism, on earth as well as in heaven, he was indebted to Origen. I argue that Jerome continued to express this idea in the Origenist controversy, but that he now, paradoxically, used it in polemics against Origen himself. When it comes to the Pelagian controversy, I argue that Origen was important in Jerome’s anti-Pelagian polemics, both as a source of his anti-Pelagian ideas and as a “heretic” with whom the Pelagians could be associated. An important purpose of the dissertation is to contribute to a nuanced description of Jerome’s way of relating to Origen’s theology, which takes account of the heresiological strategies that he used both in his presentation of Origen and in his orthdox self-presentation, and thereby show the great complexity of his reception of Origen. Key words: Jerome of Stridon, Origen of Alexandria, The Origenist Controversy, The Jovinianist Controversy, The Pelagian Controversy, Heresiology, Eschatology, Early Christian Asceticism, Resurrection, Salvation Classification system and/or index terms (if any) Supplementary bibliographical information Language: English ISSN and key title ISBN: 978-91-88899-44-6 Recipient’s notes Number of pages: 290 Price Security classification I, the undersigned, being the copyright owner of the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation, hereby grant to all reference sources permission to publish and disseminate the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation. Signature Date 2019-08-26 Negotiating Heresy The Reception of Origen in Jerome’s Eschatological Thought Katarina Pålsson Cover: Detail from Caravaggio, Saint Jerome Writing, 1605-1606. Oil on canvas. 112 x 157 cm. Galleria Borghese, Rome. © Katarina Pålsson The Faculty of Humanities and Theology Centre for Theology and Religious Studies ISBN 978-91-88899-44-6 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University Lund 2019 To My Parents, Karin and Karl-Gustav Pålsson Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... 11 List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................ 13 Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................... 15 1. Background: Jerome, Origen, and the Controversies ............................... 15 1.1. Acquaintance with Origen and the Monastic Tradition ................ 15 1.2. The Jovinianist, the Origenist, and the Pelagian controversies .... 19 2. Previous Research .................................................................................... 24 2.1. Research on Jerome in General .................................................... 24 2.2. Research on Jerome’s Eschatological Views ............................... 31 2.3. Asceticism .................................................................................... 37 3. Purpose and Hypotheses........................................................................... 38 3.1. Purpose ......................................................................................... 38 3.2. Hypotheses ................................................................................... 39 4. Question Formulations ............................................................................