Andrew Blaski

PhD Candidate, History of Christianity

Contact details

Address

Street

School of Divinity,
New College, Mound Place

City
Edinburgh
Post code
EH1 2LX

Background

I am a husband, father of two, and PhD candidate specializing in Early Christianity/Patristics. My research is focused on Origen of Alexandria (c. 185 – 254), specifically his belief that scripture is not merely a text, but the incarnate Logos of God, made “flesh” through the words and phrases of the biblical writers. 

Qualifications

MA (Theology), Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

MA (Church History), Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

BA (Biblical Studies, English Literature), Trinity International University

Responsibilities & affiliations

Member, North American Patristics Society

Member, American Society of Church History

Member, Society of Biblical Literature

 

Undergraduate teaching

History of Christianity as a World Religion (fall 2015 - spring 2016)

God in Philosophy (spring 2015)

Christianity before Constantine (fall 2014)

Research summary

My thesis, entitled "Fleshing out Christ: Origen, Scripture, and the Incarnate Word of God", demonstrates that Origen perceives the Scriptures to be not only a "what," but a "who," namely Christ. For him, Scripture as the “word of the Lord” is identical to the Word who was “with God,” and who “was God” in the Johannine Prologue. The Word assumes “flesh” not only in his birth, but also through the words and phrases of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. As a result, biblical interpretation in Origen’s work becomes a direct noetic encounter with the person of Christ, allowing the reader to know him in any time or place, to see him transfigured in the movement from the letter to the spirit, and even to consume his flesh and blood. I draw primarily from the Commentary on John, On First Principles, Contra Celsus, and On Pascha, and enter into conversation with the work of scholars like Henri de Lubac, Rolf Gögler, and Karen Jo Torjesen.

Supervisor: Sara Parvis

Current research interests

Origen, the Origenist Controversies, Irenaeus, Cappadocian Theology, 3rd-4th c. Alexandrian Exegesis, Patristic Theories of Meaning, Divine Names, Neo-Platonism, Henri de Lubac, Evangelicals and the Early Church