Sin in Origen’s Commentary on Romans

Book excerpt: Sin in Origen’s Commentary on Romans examines Origen as a critical third century voice seeking to articulate a cogent doctrine of sin, and presents his magisterial Commentary on Romans as a unique window to understanding his mature thought on the subject. It argues that Origen’s teaching on original and volitional sin demonstrates continuity with and divergence from the prevailing theological tradition. It offers a substantial, revisionist account of the thought of one of the most important thinkers in early Christianity and takes up important anthropological and soteriological questions in Origen, as presented in a key, but often neglected text, in Origen’s corpus of biblical commentary.