Die verurteilung des origenes und die spätantike kirche des westens: der fall des Pseudoaugustinischen Traktats De incarnatione et deitate Christi ad Ianuarium

Origen (ca. 185-253) was condemned a heretic at the Council of Constantinople in 553. As a consequence most of his works were destroyed, at least in the Greek East. In the Latin west the situation was slightly different. Here, fewer works of Origen were known than in the East. Even fewer had been translated into Latin. At the same time, resentment against Origen and his teaching was less fierce. Origen continued to be valued as a biblical exegete and as a spiritual teacher. Still, his doctrinal works were lost - or were they? This chapter deals with the interesting case of a christological work ascribed to Augustine of Hippo, which is in reality an abridged version of Origen's foundational theological work 'De principiis' (περὶ ἀρχῶν). The compiler (probably a 7th or 8th century scribe) must have known the author (and that he had been condemned a heretic) but decided that the work contained nothing heretical. Incidentally, no (other) work by Augustine was known that dealt with christological questions. With the treatise 'De incarnatione et deitate Christi ad Ianuarium' such a work had suddenly been 'found'. The attribution was so convincing that even Erasmus was still fooled by it. - The chapter traces the story of the text and discusses some of its characteristics