Myth and Progress: Hans Blumenberg’s Reading of Origen of Alexandria

This article is dedicated to an analysis of the passages that the philosopher Hans Blumenberg dedicated to Origen of Alexandria within his interpretation of the genesis of modern rationality. On the one hand, it highlights the importance of a modern “Origenian” tradition, exemplarily represented by Nicola Cusano and Giordano Bruno as protagonists of the “epochal threshold”. On the other hand, however, it shows how Blumenberg rejects the idea of a Origenian “humanistic” and rationalistic theological “matrix” at the basis of modernity, reinterpreting Origen as a completely Platonic thinker and even a remythologizer – therefore “paganizer” – with respect to biblical theological devices, originally eschatological and apocalyptic in their nature. In other words, according to Blumenberg, Origen could not but become heretical for the Christian orthodox tradition – which would settle on a Pauline- Augustinian dominant line – and consequently his modern rediscovery and reception would have “anti- Christian” outcomes.