La notion de καιρός dans le Contre Celse d’Origène

Résumé En

This paper studies how the notion of καιρός is used by Origen in his apology, theAgainst Celsus. First we will show that, although καιρός and the words of the same root arenever used in the extant fragments of the True Discourse, some of Celsus’ arguments onIncarnation imply an ἄκαιρος God. Then we will study two aspects of Origen’s answer. On theone hand, the notion of καιρός is connected to divine action : God administers the universe fromthe beginning and every event (especially in Jesus’ life) happens in the right time, in order tolead humanity to Salvation. On the other hand, since καιρός is also a rhetoric criterion for thequality of a literary work, in Against Celsus Origen carefully justifies his digressions andcriticizes Celsus’ lack of καιρός. In the end, the analysis will also shed new light on theconnections between exegesis and polemic in Origen.