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CyYPRIAN’s AD DONATUM AS A MYSTAGOGIC PROTREPTICUS an indirect and very sophisticated manner, as Antonio Quacquarelli, Jacques Fontaine, Vinzenz Buchheit, Michael Winterbottom, and Mattias Gassman have persuasively argued.? In this paper, I would like to focus on the main subject of the text, which is the personal experience of conversion and baptism and Cyprian’s illustration and explanation of his personal experience of conversion and baptism," but from a particular point of view. Cyprian, I contend, presents a preliminary initiation into Christian mysteries for an educated pagan readership. In other words, he writes a mystagogic protrepticus. I begin, therefore, with a sketch of the work’s structure. This will further an understanding of how Cyprian generally approaches the topic of Christian mysteries. I then examine how Cyprian presents baptism. Finally, I consider his mystagogic strategies. ° Antonio Quacquarelli, La retorica antica al bivio (L’Ad Nigrinum di Luciano e l’Ad Donatum di Cipriano), Roma, Edizioni scientifiche Romane, 1956; Fontaine, Aspects, 149— 176; Vinzenz Buchheit, Cyprian, Seneca und die laudes agricolarum Vergils, Rheinisches Museum 122 (1979), 348-359; Michael Winterbottom, Cyprian’s Ad Donatum, 190-198; Gassman, Conversion, 248-250. For the conversion narrative see Pierre Courcelle, Antécédents autobiographiques des Confessions de Saint Augustin, Revue de Philologie 31 (1957), 23-51; Molager, A Donat, 16— 20; Elisabeth Fink-Dendorfer, Conversio. Motive und Motivierung zur Bekehrung in der Alten Kirche, Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1986; Geneviéve Ellien, LAd Donatum de Cyprien de Carthage et le thème de la curiosité, in A. Foulon — M. Reydellet (eds.), Au miroir de la culture antique. Mélanges offerts au Président René Marache, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 1992, 135-182; Rolf Noormann, Ad salutem consulere. Die Pardnese Cyprians im Kontext antiken und frühchristlichen Denkens, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, 47-81; Jakob Engberg, The Education and (Self-)Affirmation of (Recent or Potential) Converts. The Case of Cyprian and the Ad Donatum, Zeitschrift für antikes Christentum 16 (2012), 129144; idem, Human and Divine Agency in Conversion in Apologetic Writings of the Second Century: “To Dance with Angels,” in Brigitte Secher Bogh (ed.), Conversion and Initiation in Antiquity. Shifting Identities - Creating Change, Frankfurt, Peter Lang Edition, 2014, 77-99, esp. 92-93. For the place of Ad Donatum within Cyprian’s frequently discussed baptismal theology see e.g. Adhemar D’Ales, La theologie de Saint Cyprien, Paris, Gabriel Bauchesne, 1922, 225-242; August Jilek, Initiationsfeier und Amt. Ein Beitrag zur Struktur der Theologie der Ämter und des Taufgottesdienstes in der frühen Kirche (Traditio Apostolica, Tertullian, Cyprian), Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1979, esp. 252-253; Brigitte Proksch, Christus in den Schriften Cyprians von Karthago, Wien, LIT, 2007, 146-151; Abraham van de Beek, Cyprian on Baptism, in Henk Bakker — Paul van Geest — Hans van Loon (eds.), Cyprian of Carthage. Studies in His Life, Language, and Thought, Leuven, Peeters, 2010, 143-164; Enno Edzard Popkes, Die Tauftheologie Cyprians. Beobachtungen zu ihrer Entwicklungsgeschichte und schrifthermeneutischen Begründung, in D. Hellholm — T. Vegge — @. Norderval — C. Hellholm (eds.), Ablution, Initiation, and Baptism: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity. Waschungen, Initiation und Taufe: Spätantike, Frühes Judentum und Frühes Christentum, Berlin, De Gruyter, 2011, 1051-1070, esp. 1053-1054. + 33 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 33 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:10
