Philosophical Protreptic and Conversion to Christianity in Gregory Thaumaturgus’s Address to Origen

Gregory Thaumaturgus’s Address to Origen has alternatively been read as a speech of thanksgiving (λόγος χαριστήριος), as a panegyric (πανηγυρικός), as a laudatory address (προσφωνητικός) or as a farewell speech (συντακτικός). The present paper offers a new approach to the genre of Gregory’s text by reading it as a protreptic (λόγος προτρεπτικός) addressed to a pagan audience. Such an approach sheds new light not only on the genre of the Address, but also on its content, structure, and intended audience. It also allows us to readdress the controversial issue of Gregory’s sparing use of specifically Christian terminology in his speech. After a short overview of the solutions proposed by various scholars to this question, I suggest that the avoidance of an explicit Christian vocabulary can be reasonably explained by taking into account the protreptic aim of this text.