The book presents an original secularized interpretation of the teaching and work of the Apostle Paul as a figure expressing the desire for truth, which in its universality opposes all kinds of absolutized particularities – social, ethnic, etc.

The book gives a clear idea of one of the notable currents of modern French philosophical thought and will be of interest not only to specialists — historians, religious scholars and philosophers, but also to the widest humanitarian circles of readers.

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ru fr About Head fb2design http://fb2.traumlibrary.net FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 01 June 2012 49CAE09C-900E-4DE4-9052-4D0D0DBDE49C 2.0 The Apostle Paul. The Rationale for Universalism Moscow Philosophical Foundation, University Book Moscow, St. Petersburg 1999 5-85133-062-7, 5-7914-0008-X

Alain Badiou

The Apostle Paul

The Rationale for Universalism

The Apostle Paul

Prologue

It's a strange thing. For a very long time now, this personality – along with Mallarmé, Cantor, Archimedes, Plato, Robespierre, Conrad... (not to mention our century) — accompanies me. Fifteen years ago I wrote a play, An Incident in Antioch, and its heroine was called Paula. However, the change of sex did not complicate the obvious identification too much.

Paul is indeed not an apostle or a saint to me. I have only spoken of the message that he brings, and the worship to which he is doomed. He is a subjective figure, and a figure of primary importance. I have always read the Epistles as one rereads the classics we know well: the road is beaten, the details are erased, and the strength is not squandered. In the Epistles there is no transcendence for me, nothing sacred. This book in itself is absolutely equal to all the others; Another thing is that it touches me personally. It's just that a certain person with a confident hand has written down these phrases, these passionate and tender messages, and we are drawn to address them without any reverence or disgust. In addition, I was brought up in a family that was not at all religious (even my grandparents on both sides, as schoolteachers, strove to rise above clerical vileness) and became acquainted rather late with the curious texts of the epistles, the poetry of which is amazing.

Deep down, I never connected Paul with religion. He has always interested me not in this tone, not for the sake of testifying in favor of any faith or anti-faith. To tell the truth, I was no more religiously fascinated by him than by Pascal, Kierkegaard, or Claudel. In addition, in their Christian preaching there was a desire for clarity. In any case, the cauldron in which what later became the book of art and thought was seething was overflowing with an inexplicable mixture: it contained delusions, beliefs, labyrinths of childhood attractions, all kinds of perversions, inseparable memories, all kinds of interpretations, considerable nonsense and fantasies. Immersion in this chemistry was of little use.

For me, Pavel is first of all a thinker-poet of what is happening. At the same time, he is the one who embodies, formulates the inalienable features, so to speak, of a militant figure. It establishes an interdependence (wholly human, the interweaving of which, I confess, fascinates me) between the general idea of a breakthrough, a collision, and the idea of thought-practice, which is nothing but the subjective materiality of this breakthrough.