Directing the eye of the soul: form and function in an ancient scenic monologue (Cyprian, ad donatum)

• Autores: Mattias Gassman
• Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 3, 2021, págs. 371-396
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • In Ad Donatum, written soon after his baptism ca. 248, Cyprian exhorts a newly baptized friend, Donatus, in a garden that Cyprian describes in his own voice. Many scenic dialogues survive from Greco-Roman antiquity, but Ad Donatum is the only known ancient scenic monologue. This article seeks to explain Cyprian’s choice of this apparently unique form. Contrary to a hypothesis first advanced in 1899, the dialogic opening preserved in a handful of manuscripts was inserted in or after the fifth century, while the parallels sought in other works (especially Minucius Felix, Octavius) only underscore the uniqueness of Ad Donatum’s structure. A close reading suggests that Cyprian used the frame scenes to give particular immediacy and force to his exhortation to neophyte readers: they allow Cyprian to direct the reader first to himself (both speaker and proof of God’s transforming grace), to the evils of the world, and then to God. They also present a vivid and attractive picture of the Christian life as a peaceful retreat from worldly troubles. Thus, Cyprian is able to prove his case, as he promises in Ad Donatum 2, with reference only to the “facts” (res), not empty rhetoric. Wealthy neophytes are the main audience, but an allusion to a “profane eavesdropper” (arbiter profanus) in the opening section could also be a nod to pagan readers. Though Ad Donatum is not an apology, Cyprian, a prominent convert, likely did have non-Christian friends in mind, as well as neophytes and (probably) more experienced Christian readers. The unthreatened tranquility of the frame scenes, finally, contrasts with the more embattled peace described in works from the 250s; Ad Donatum thus illustrates the reality of the Christian life as it seemed to Cyprian before his ordination and the beginning of the Decian persecution.