Body and Flesh in Origen's Newly Discovered Homilies on the Psalms

This article analyses the significant occurrences of the terms σῶμα and σάρξ in the Homilies on the Psalms, to outline Origen’s concept of the human body and to summarise how he deals with related themes preaching on the Psalter. He regularly resorts to the allegory so as to spiritualise the biblical message, thus offering new examples of the hermeneutical values of the metaphor of the spiritual senses. However, he also often hints at the relationship between body, soul, and spirit: this hierarchical anthropological conception is also at the core of Origen’s fundamental optimism that a virtuous use of the body plays a significant role in everyone’s salvation. In fact, provided that one succeeds in avoiding the excesses of corporeal needs, it is not required to resort to extreme ascetic practices: a firm but rational control on the desires of the flesh is enough for the believers to focus on the necessary spiritual activities. At the root of this positive consideration there is also the exemplary paradigm of the resurrection of Jesus with his very own flesh: from this perspective, then, Origen can stress that the final deification of man will involve not only the spirit and the soul, but also the body.