"Most scholarship still evaluates Origen along lines that date to when he was alive, eighteen hundred years ago. By contrast, Mark James applies a fresh, linguistic perspective to Origen's recently discovered Homilies on the Psalms. He explains how Origen adopted a sophisticated, largely Stoic, philosophy of language and used it to give close attention to the Bible, to find personal transformation through it and to make bold deductions from it. This rigorously argued, clearly written and path-breaking study offers Origen as a model for those who cannot accept everything the Bible says at face value but still consider it authoritative." – Joseph Trigg, Independent Scholar.

"If you care about scripture and about reason, I know of no more important book to read today. Here is an utterly refreshing and surprising rediscovery of Origen’s contribution to thought and faith in the western world: Origen’s disciplined approach to reading scripture (rather than reading in), to reasoning out of scripture (rather than reasoning one’s own way into it), to performing the instructions of scripture (rather than sitting still before it). In Origen, Mark James uncovers scriptural instructions for what we now call pragmatic reasoning and patristic sources for reforming contemporary semiotics." – Peter Ochs, Professor of Modern Judaic Studies, Virginia Centre for the Study of Religion.

“James’ reading of Origen is careful and impressive, and his constructive proposal is provocative and far reaching. As a result, this proposal is well worth reading for both Origenian scholarship and those interested in scriptural interpretation.” – Adam Renberg, Anderson University.

Mark Randall James, Ph.D. (2015), University of Virginia, is an independent scholar. He was Visiting Professor of Religion at Colgate University in 2020. He has published essays on Origen, pragmatism, and scriptural interpretation, and he co-edited Signs of Salvation (2020).