| Abstract [eng] |
This dissertation explores the early Christian dialogue between Origen of Alexandria and the Gnostic Valentinians, as manifested in Origen’s commentaries and homilies on the Song of Songs, and compares the images and mythologies described therein with the Greek and Coptic Valentinian sources. Origen’s works have not previously been examined from this perspective, because this dialogue is not direct. We chose certain groups of similar images and explored their relationships in order to reveal the parallels between these images, which are not accidental but deliberately chosen by Origen. The Alexandrian’s aim was not to reject the opponents directly, as he did in his other works, but to explain that his version of Christianity offers very similar and compatible images, and that therefore the readers who like the opponents’ texts have no reason to choose another, Valentinian version of Christianity. This approach, which is distinct from direct polemic, is innovative in the wider context of early Christianity. All of this allows for a fresh look at the dialogicality of emerging Christianity. |
