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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 objectivephilosophical 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 + 43 + Daröczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 43 ® 2020.06.15. 11:04:11
