This volume provides the first English translation of the nine extant homilies on Psalms 36[37]–38[39] preached by Origen (d. 253/4) to his congregation at Caesarea as arranged and translated for Latin readers by his admirer, Rufinus of Aquileia (d. 411). These homilies are among the earliest extant examples of patristic preaching on the Psalter. The interpretation offered throughout these homilies, which is almost wholly moral, reflects Origen’s understanding of the “soul” of the scriptural text. These homilies provide a glimpse of Origen’s account of scriptural meaning, outlined in De principiis 4, in pastoral practice. In his preaching, Origen offers a vision of the Christian life as centered on the soul’s continuing conversion, growth, and progress, with particular reference to and within the context of the Church. The life of the believer is one of combat and struggle with powers opposed to Christ. It is Christ, as the divine Physician, who offers healing to the one who is wounded and ailing from sin, and it is Christ, as Wisdom and Word of God, who instructs and educates the believer in the life of the Spirit. These homilies reveal the substantial coherence of Origen’s thought, as expressed in the more speculative De principiis and as revealed in the more elaborate, nuptial theology found in his Commentary on the Canticle. This volume includes a robust introduction and complements the work of Joseph Trigg, whose translation from the original Greek of the cache of homilies discovered in Codex Monacensis 314 has recently appeared in this series.

In 2012 Marina Molin Pradel, an archivist at the Bavarian State Library discovered that CMG 314, a long-neglected Byzantine manuscript , contained twenty-nine homilies by Origen, the most important and most talented genius of early Christianity. He delivered these homilies around 259 CE, shortly before arrest and torture during the Decian persecution would put an end to his work. Thus, along with the Contra Celsum, Origen’s lengthy defense of Christianity, written after 248, when that persecution was clearly impending, they enable readers to appreciate Origen’s fully-developed thought. Except for the four of these homilies that had been translated into Latin in the fifth century, scholars of Origen thought that all the homilies on the Psalms had been lost. In 2015 Lorenzo Perrone of the University of Bologna, an eminent Origen scholar, assisted by a team including Dr. Pradel, produced a magnificent critical edition of the text. In 2017 the editors of this volume organized a colloquium in Washington, DC, generously hosted by the program in Early Christian Studies. The authors of this volume, a group of American and Canadian scholars, invited Professor Perrone to address the discovery of the homilies and his edition, and to join their discussion of their interpretation. This volume represents the group’s energetic investigations and discussion over the two days of the conference. The essays address Origen’s use of language, his philosophical interests, his relationship with Judaism, and his scholarly patrimony in the next century.