Damascus Speaking - Representations of Saint Paul in time and space

Andreas Bandak

"Damascus Speaking - Representations of Saint Paul in time and space"

Mini research seminar, Tuesday, April 26th, 13.15-15.00
Faculty Club Building 1421, 1st floor.


For the Christians of Damascus the role of Paul plays a significant role. Commonly, the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus is referred to as his 'Damascus experience' and this is something Christians will easily point out by referring to specific locations in Damascus and beyond, where Paul is said to have walked. The role of Paul is critical in that it places the Christian minority in a specific relation to Christianity writ large. It was here Christianity turned global.

In a recent Syrian film "Dimashq tatakallam - al-Qadis Boulos" or in English "Damascus Speaking - Saint Paul" a representation of the life and conversion of Paul is given. Here Paul is made to embody the change from hatred to love by divine intervention. In this talk I excavate the ramifications of the Paul presented in the film and in Syrian Christianity and combine it with the role and discussion surrounding Myrna Nazzour, a Christian Stigmatic, who as Paul claims to have received apparitions and messages of Christ, but Mary as well. In both instances a heightened sense of temporality is conjured with the role of Damascus as locality, but where the first is accepted the second is still contested. I relate these analytical concerns to recent anthropological interest in Christianity (cf. Robbins, Engelke, Coleman, Cannell) as well as recent discussions in continental philosophy on the role of Paul (cf. Taubes, Badiou, Agamben, Zizek).


Andreas Bandak is a PhD-fellow at Centre for Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Copenhagen, and recipient of the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation's Elite Research Travel stipend.

Please register with Jakob Egeris Thorsen, jet@teo.au.dk, by April 15th. There will be coffee.