Origen and Clement of Alexandria

Presentation:  January 5, 2008

Fr. Kelly Nemeck, S.T.D.

Brief Description of Presentation

Hans Urs von Balthasar is of the opinion that Origen is as towering a figure as St. Augustine of Hippo or St. Thomas Aquinas.  Charles Healey, SJ, considers Origen the first biblical exegete, the first systematic theologian and the first mystical theologian in the Christian tradition.  Henri de Lubac, SJ, includes Origen among the greatest of Christian mystics.  With endorsements such as those, one can appreciate how important it is -- in any study of Christian mysticism -- that an effort be made to study a person of the stature of Origen.

This presentation will include -- somewhat by way of introduction to the School of Alexandria -- a consideration of Clement.  We owe the extensive use of such terms as contemplation, divinization, and mystic stages to him.  Most of the presentation, however, will focus on the mystical insights of Origen.  Much of his wisdom is still meaningful some eighteen hundred years later.  Such insights are: the wound of love; the illuminative, purgative, and unitive ways; and the spiritual or mystical sense of assimilating the Word of God in Scripture.

Prayer Exercise

Centering Prayer

Preparation for Session and Bibliography

For lecture preparation article see "Origen" in Light from Light, an Anthology of Christian Mysticism, edited by
Louis Dupre & James A. Wiseman., Paulist Press, 1988, pp 27-29.

The general bibliography for the course is sufficient at this point.  The volume on Origen in The Classics of Western Spirituality series (ISBN 0-8091-2198-0 paper) would be helpful for someone wanting to read some of Origen in English translation. For a brief introduction to Clement, Origen and the School of Alexandria, I suggest Charles Healey, SJ, Christian Spirituality: An Introduction to the Heritage (ISBN 0-8189-0820-3) pp. 11-23. 

A specific bibliography on Clement, Origen and the School of Alexandria will be furnished with the handouts that I will furnish on the morning of the presentation.

About Fr. Kelly Nemeck, S.T.D.

Rev. Francis Kelly Nemeck, OMI

Lecturer in Spiritual and Doctrinal Theology

B.A., S.T.L., M.A. University of Ottawa

S.T.D. Les Facultes Catholiques de Lyon

After ordination with the Missionary Oblate of Mary Immaculate, Kelly Nemeck spent five years teaching theology at what is now Oblate School of Theology (San Antonio). Those were the years of Vatican Council II.  He next served as a missionary among the Chantal “Indians” in southern Mexico and in inner-city parish ministry in Houston, Texas.  In the early 1970s, he earned a doctorate in spiritual theology from the Catholic Institute of Lyons, France. His thesis was a study of receptivity in the spirituality of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as compared to certain aspects of the dark night of the soul in St. John of the Cross.  In 1973, he joined the community at Lebh Shomea House of Prayer, Sarita, Texas. There -- with the grace of God -- he has lived and ministered ever since.

He is currently Co-director of Lebh Shomea House of Prayer. Over the years he has given numerous retreats and  seminars and has published six books on spirituality and prayer.