Daniel Marguerat

Le silence sur la mort de Paul dans les Actes des apôtres

Daniel Marguerat [*] explore le mystere de la fin du livre des Actes. Pourquoi Luc n’a-t-il pas raconte la mort de son heros, Paul, alors que des passages du recit laissent pressentir une fin dramatique ? L’enquete est a la fois historique, litteraire et theologique. Historique : il semble bien que Luc n’ait pas voulu rapporter les circonstances troubles du martyre de Paul. Litteraire : achever un recit en omettant de raconter ce qu’il annonce est une technique antique de suspension narrative. Theologique : l’auteur des Actes a choisi de terminer sur une scene qui organise adequatement le transfert du monde du recit au monde du lecteur.

Paul the Mystic

The first and second Christian generations experienced intense charismatic and mystic activity; that is patently obvious even though scholars have paid little attention to it. Ecstatic manifestations were more common among the first Christian communities than speculative theology. Even if his historical heritage made him the emblem of argumentative thought, Paul of Tarsus was a mystic. In this chapter, the author unearths the footprints of religious experience left by Paul in his writings. He clears the way by proceeding to a definition of mysticism. This allows him to see how Pauls religious experience and the interpretation he gives for it fit into the mystic tradition while subverting it. He concludes by noting two particularities of Pauline mysticism, which is a mysticism of Christ and not of God. Keywords:Christ; Christian community; mysticism; Paul; religious experience; speculative theology