Abstract

This work is a philosophical and rhetorical study of Origen of Alexandria's Periarchon . The goal of this study is to define Origen's philosophical assumptions and how he demonstrates them through his art of rhetorical logic. Origen's writings are examined from the context of the intellectual world they inhabited. Hence the concepts and problems examined are analyzed with two factors in mind: Origen's pattern of Christian Platonism as an expression of Christian thought in its formative age, and the relation of Origen's philosophy and rhetoric to 'contemporary' Jewish, Hellenic, and Christian options in the Middleplatonic period, e. g. Philo, Albinus, and Clement. ;The philosophical studies in this work ask about Origen's theories of being, knowledge, and dialectic. Focus is upon how he defined and answered the problem of existence and being by postulating a distinction between essential and accidental existence and being. Origen's epistemology is examined, and related to, his theory of the dialectical ascent of the human intellect to final conjunction with the divine intellect. The rhetorical studies in this work ask about Origen's theory of rhetorical logic, and how it is used in literary composition. Focus is upon issues of method and substance: how the Periarchon is composed, and consequently how it should be read. The question is asked what does the work mean within the context of the philosophical debate presented in the Praefatio 1-4 and the De Deo I, 1,1-9. ;Chapter One provides an introduction to, and evaluation of, previous approaches to the study of Origen's philosophy. Chapter Two examines Origen's theoretic, and defines the central problem faced by Origen--the relation of divinity to creation. In Chapter Three Origen's theories of knowledge and dialectic are examined. Focus is upon Origen's definition of the nature and function of knowledge, and the problem of the union of separate intellects. ;Chapter Four provides an introduction to, and evaluation of, previous approaches to the study of Origen's logic and rhetoric. Focus is upon the assumptions of his rhetorical logic. Chapter Five examines the Periarchon , and evaluates the text's literary and rhetorical structure. Chapter Six presents a form-critical analysis of the Praefatio 1-4 and De Deo I,1,1-9. The aim is to define Origen's apodeixis euaggelike. His method of rhetorical logic is described as is his use of exempla from the speeches of the Attic Ten. Chapter Seven offers a summary and evaluation of Origen's philosophy and rhetoric