L'expérience paulinienne d'une identité en tension

Abstract

This article about the tension undergone by Paul in his identity begins by stressing the complexity of the character by briefly recalling the three cultures to which he belonged. It goes on to examine the reversal of all his certitudes on the road to Damascus, at a moment when, in his elitist conception of a chosen people, his was an extreme view of an exclusive identity on the way to becoming a murderous one. He was then sent onto the path of God the creator whose grace in Jesus-Christ, crucified and risen from the dead, is offered to all nations. Not a universal entity towering over the world, but one that challenged and reversed the values of the world, setting men on the path to dispossession. Through his identification with the Crucified Christ, Paul abandons the Greek logic of a God of order and thought, as well as the Jewish logic of a God of signs, miracles and almighty power. The liberated power that becomes his reference is that of agape.