«Tired of thinking about the crisis, we've started to recite it».»

Every month, we feature a column by one of the four personalities who take turns writing for us. In this post, writer Quentin Mouron explores a topical issue with his usual sharpness..

In his letter to Jamblique, Porphyry warned against the temptation to access God - or the One - by any means other than the patient use of reason. In his reply, known as De Mysteriis, Jamblique defends his own understanding of union with God, which, he says, can be achieved neither by understanding theology nor by mastering philosophical concepts, but through the active practice of theurgy. The use of rational discursivity - and hence dialectics - is thus subordinated to the pure scansion of magical formulas and invocations, with words acquiring the status of relics.