Thomas P. Scheck is associate professor of theology at Ave Maria University. He is the first English translator of Rufinus’s Latin edition of Origen’s Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. Most recently he has published new translations of St. Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah, Origen’s Homilies 1–9 on Isaiah, and Erasmus’s writings on Origen.
“Scheck's book renders a valuable service in drawing attention to
the recent recovery of Origen's exegetical legacy and highlighting
the longevity of certain of his ideas, particularly the notion that
justification stands in synecdoche for the life of grace-infused
virtue. This is a real contribution, and not to be lightly
overlooked.” —Journal of Theological Studies
“The study investigates Origen’s understanding of justification in
Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and the subsequent reception of that
understanding in Latin Christian tradition. …this book will be of
interest mostly to scholars of patristic exegesis and historians of
Christian doctrine and biblical interpretation.” —Journal of Early
Christian Studies
“. . . this book . . . deserves to be described as a work of mature
scholarship. It focuses on Origen’s interpretation of what St. Paul
said about justification in his Letter to the Romans. . . . Scheck
has convincingly shown that Origen’s exegesis of Romans and his
interpretation of Paul on justification are well worth the
attention of scholars and serious students engaged in those
disciplines.” —Religious Studies Review
“In the lively and sometimes rancorous debate over justification
that has rippled throughout the Christian world, all roads, it
seems, lead back to the sixteenth century. . . . Thomas Scheck’s
book makes the case that all who think this conversation matters
must travel much further back in the Christian story. Indeed, he
argues that Origen’s Commentary on Romans has influenced Christian
thought on justification into the 16th-century Reformation and
beyond. Further, the third-century Alexandrian’s readings of Romans
were both close to Paul and remarkably relevant to 21st-century
discussions.” —The Conrad Grebel Review
“Scheck has given us a highly readable and insightful introduction
to Origen’s Commentary on Romans, its historical reception, and the
major theological positions that have drawn from its pages and for
which, remarkably, it continues to be a valuable, and perhaps
ultimately indispensable, reference text.” —Erasmus of Rotterdam
Society Yearbook
“This book . . . is a welcome contribution to the history of
Origen’s influence on the interpretation of the New Testament. . .
. This book certainly deserves to be studied by historians,
Biblical scholars, and systematic theologians . . . a valuable
contribution to the study of the history of Biblical exegesis.”
—Vigilae Christianae
“According to Alister McGrath in . . . Justitia Dei: A History of
the Christian Doctrine of Justification, justification was simply
not an issue in pre-Augustinian patristic thought. Thomas Scheck
decisively refutes and corrects that claim in this new monograph,
which not only tracks the legacy of Origen’s commentary on Romans
in the West but argues convincingly that already with Origen there
was a lively debate about the very issues of law, righteousness,
faith, works, freedom, and merit that so exercised Augustine,
Pelagius, and their later commentators.” —Augustinian Studies
“[T]his book is to be applauded for its boldness. . . . Second,
this book provides a service for scholars by assembling such a
significant portion of the essential primary evidence for the
crucial issue of justification into one volume. Third, while not
discussed in detail in the foregoing, this book is written in a
style that is at once clear, concise and accessible.”
—Augustiniana
“This is a marvelous book. The standard wisdom when it comes to the
doctrine of justification by faith has been that the writers of the
early church fell short of its primary meaning: which was Paul’s
true intention. . . . Thomas Scheck challenges this construction by
looking carefully at how Rufinus’ Latin version of Origen’s
Commentary on the Romans was received and interpreted by Augustine,
Erasmus, Luther, and several writers from the post-reformation in
the seventeenth century.” —Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical
Theology
Ask a Question About this Product More... |