2023-07-23 09:00:03
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt in Jerusalem. AFIF H. AMIREH
It is the story of a journey. A route that led Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt from atheism to Christianity. However, this metamorphosis did not happen in one day, but in two journeys which proved to be founding in its existence. The philosopher had the opportunity to mention the first in his book The Night of Fire (Albin Michel, 2015). He told how, a 28-year-old atheist young man, he had emerged as a believer from the Hoggar desert where he had been lost overnight in 1989. In his latest book, The Jerusalem Challenge (Albin Michel, 224 pages, 19.90 euros), the novelist continues his transformation towards a Christianity that is no longer just intellectual, but experienced through all his senses, he says. Responding to an invitation from the Vatican, he accepted the idea of going to the Holy Land, “pilgrim among pilgrims”to come back with a spiritual travel diary.
Were you surprised that Pope Francis asked to make this trip a “lacunary believer”, as you call yourself, more than a more traditional Catholic?
I was surprised by the Vatican, which gives itself as the official voice of Christianity, but not by Pope Francis! He is someone who dares to show the distance that has sometimes been created between the institution he directs and the reality of the Gospel texts. Perhaps he considers that the “franc-tireurs” manifest the spirit of the Gospels more than certain representatives of the institution.
By responding to this invitation, weren’t you afraid of being constrained in your freedom as a writer?
To put it simply: I accepted the trip, but I refused the order. I financed the pilgrimage by my own means by warning that I would produce a book only if the voyage generated something strong enough to do so. I thus transformed the order into an incentive and there was no institutional proofreading. When Pope Francis became aware of the book, he sent me a very moving letter which became its afterword.
How was your journey from atheism to Christianity?
I come from what I call the “Poisson rouge family”, which, in fact, resembles many French families: the children were baptized by social convention but religious practice is non-existent. When we went to mass for weddings or baptisms, we sat at the back of the church and opened our mouths, like goldfish, because we never knew the prayers or the songs. At first I lived in this estrangement from religion, being perfectly at ease with this atheism which, from a familial one, became educated as my studies in philosophy progressed. A student of Derrida at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, I did my doctorate on Diderot, an atheist materialist philosopher.
You have 78.99% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.
#societies #longer #God