Abstract
It is true that Paul is not the Messiah, but his prophet. Yet he receives a revelation for which there is not yet either stable understanding or conceptual articulation. As the first theologian of the Church, it is thus Paul who invents Christianity. But before this could be a matter of labor with concepts, it had already been a powerful experience that called for them. The Christianity that Paul invents in his preaching is born first in his heart, and moreover according to a violence that is well known. What could have prepared Paul for the events on the road to Damascus, and how are we able to later understand them? What concepts today, after his singular experience and the urgent preaching gave rise to a worldview, best enable us to hear some of what Paul heard and wished to have repeated in the life of faith? Such questions point beyond, or rather beneath the systematic explanations-dogmatic, speculative-that would have us render the meaning of faith in scientific propositions. Philosophers have their own reasons for contesting the rule of science, and some have appealed to Paul for material support (e. g., Agamben, Badiou). Others, however, have aimed first to simply understand Paul on his own terms (Heidegger, Breton). Which philosophy hearkens most closely to the experience of Paul? And how does its thinking meet the words that pass between the voice heard from on high and the voice in which it is announced?
