Abstract

This article explores the ethical and theological significance of humility and humiliation in the preaching of Origen of Alexandria (ca. 185–254). While modern scholarship has often emphasized Origen’s celebration of human dignity and freedom, this study argues that humility constitutes a complementary and essential dimension of his moral and spiritual anthropology. Drawing on Origen’s Greek and Latin homilies (especially the Eight Homily on Luke and the Third Homily on Judges) the article examines how Origen redefines humility, transforming what was traditionally viewed as a social defect into a virtue central to spiritual progress and peace. In Origen’s interpretation, humiliation functions as a curative descent that precedes exaltation, mirroring Christ’s own kenosis and glorification (Phil 2:5–9). The analysis highlights the pastoral and ecclesiological implications of this teaching, particularly for Church leaders, and considers the rhetorical strategies employed by Origen’s Latin translators, Rufinus and Jerome, in adapting this countercultural virtue to a Roman audience. Ultimately, Origen’s understanding of humility and humiliation emerges as a theology of peace: an ethical and ascetical pathway toward self-knowledge, reconciliation with God, and the restoration of divine order within the soul and the community.