The Perils of the One by Stathis Gourgouris

Author:Stathis Gourgouris
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Athens Unknown

A notorious incident from Pauline history, as reported in the Acts, exemplifies this duplicitous condition. Although the presumed author of the Acts (Luke the Evangelist) is not considered altogether reliable—since his purpose was to produce an hagiographical construction of apostolic history that would consolidate into a narrative corpus the early principles of Christian practice and the institution of the new Church—the story itself nonetheless seems likely enough. In any case, the actuality of its truth as event is irrelevant. Indeed, the real event is the rhetorical actuality of Paul’s gesture, as it is reported in self-evident convention, whether it occurred or not. After all, this gesture is what remains, what becomes canonical, indeed sacred. I speak of the famous scene of Paul’s visit to Athens, about which so much has been written as to deserve an exclusive book-length annotated bibliography. Here, I touch on just a couple of things, pertaining specifically to language.

The narrative situates Paul’s appearance amid the Athenians in conventionally Athenian terms, foregrounding the social conditions that are conducive to expounding and discussing new ideas: Ἀθηναῖοι δε πάντες καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες ξένοι εἰς οὐδέν ἕτερον εὐκαίρουν ἤ λέγειν τι καὶ ἀκούειν καινότερον—which I would translate, in the barest terms, as follows: “All Athenians and foreign inhabitants found it best to spend their time in nothing other than talking about or listening to the newest thing” (Acts 17:21). The forward simplicity of this sentence, borne out by the trope of stating the obvious,13 is nonetheless framed by a pair of terms that are crucial: foreign (xenos) and new (kainon). Evident terms of alterity in all other contexts, here these words register as quintessential figures of what the polis does and by what it is bound. The suggestion is that alterity is internal to the polis; it’s difficult to imagine another phrase that could spell this out more succinctly. To Athenians, alterity in-habits the polis; it is the register of inclusion, and even more, the foremost bar none (ouden heteron) conduit of desire for all (pantes) inhabitants, even those who do not cease to remain foreign. This hardly signifies the desire to assimilate—thus to annihilate the foreign and the new—but rather the urge to encounter it (indeed to seek it out) in its full foreignness and unknowability. Assimilation is not the purpose because alterity already belongs to the imaginary of the city and does not need to be eliminated.

Let us note that the text has already articulated two instances of the foreign, one for each side—Paul and the Athenians. The very first sentence of the passage pronounces Paul’s distress—“the aggravation of his spirit” (παρωξύνετο τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτοῦ)—at encountering the sight of the city resplendent with idols (κατείδωλον).14 Altogether contrary, the Athenians’ response is to invite Paul to the Areopagus, the venerated space of free and public discourse, precisely because what he has been disseminating in the streets—and he is indeed identified as a disseminator (spermologos)—sounds foreign: ξενίζοντα γαρ τινα εἰσφέρεις εἰς τὰς ἀκοάς ἡμῶν literally means “because you bring alien matters to our ears” (17:20).

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