Oldal 45 [45]
CyYPRIAN’s AD DONATUM AS A MYSTAGOGIC PROTREPTICUS
participation in divine grace or in, as Cyprian puts it in chapter 4, “God’s
munificence” (dei munus), makes a fundamental difference with respect to
the non-initiated,” which is a typical mystagogic feature.*°
This leads us to the following conclusion: In Ad Donatum, Cyprian offers
an encouraging preparation for the addressee’s and, by implication, the
reader’s conversion.*! Characteristic of the author’s mystagogy are the artful
equilibration of proximity and distance with respect to the baptismal mystery,
to which the reader is introduced in a subjective-spiritual and in an objective¬
philosophical way, and the fundamental difference between the initiated
and the non-initiated. This mystagogic difference shapes the dynamics of
communication and of authority in the whole writing. These elements are
combined with features of the protrepticus, as we can see from the fact that
Cyprian obviously has in mind a well-educated pagan upper-class audience.
To be added are the encouragement by his own example and the proof given
in the main part that, compared with what Christianity offers, pagan goods
are worthless. In short, in Cyprian’s Ad Donatum, we find a literary initiation
into Christian mysteries for open-minded pagans.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D'’ALÈS, Adhémar, La théologie de Saint Cyprien, Paris, Gabriel Bauchesne,
1922.
BENOÎT, André - MUNIER, Charles, Die Taufe in der Alten Kirche (I. [sic] ¬
3. Jahrhundert). trans. Annemarie Spoerrie, Bern, Peter Lang, 1994.
BRENT, Allen, Cyprian and Roman Carthage, Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 2010.
BUCHHEIT, Vinzenz, Cyprian, Seneca und die laudes agricolarum Vergils,
Rheinisches Museum 122 (1979), 348-359.
BUCHHEIT, Vinzenz, Non agnitione sed gratia (Cypr. Don. 2), Hermes 115
(1987), 318-334.
BuRNS, J. Patout, Cyprian the Bishop, London, Routledge, 2002.
COURCELLE, Pierre, Antécédents autobiographiques des Confessions de Saint
Augustin, Revue de Philologie 31 (1957), 23-51.
29 "This point is convincingly stressed by Gassman, Conversion, 256, too.
50 Pascal Mueller-Jourdan, Mystagogie, Reallexikon fiir Antike und Christentum 25 (2013),
404-422, esp. 404.
Therefore, inmy opinion, Vinzenz Buchheit, Non agnitione sed gratia (Cypr. Don. 2), Hermes
115 (1987), 318-334, and Seneca, 359 (quotation), is wrong in limiting the author’s intention
to the “Absage an den Wert der Philosophie für die Erlangung der vita beata.”
31
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