It has been suggestively proposed that the book\u2019s \u201cpresiding genius is Pascal.\u201d Indeed, Pascal is cited or referenced fourteen times in the extant letters. One may note, in passing, that Clermont-Ferrand, the editor\u2019s residence, is the birthplace of Pascal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps, however, the archbishop\u2019s vision owes even more to the second century Church Father Irenaeus of Lyons. The dual manuscript tradition, the English and Spanish versions of the letters, present, according to Herm\u00e8s, \u201cno variant readings,\u201d save in one important particular. The heading of the English recension echoes Athanasius and reads forthrightly: \u201cLetters on the Incarnation.\u201d The Spanish compilation, instead, adapts Irenaeus, with an added flourish: \u201cLetters on the Detection and Overthrow of Reality Falsely So Called.\u201d Assuredly, the archbishop is bent on calling out the simulacra of reality that grow ever more pervasive and controlling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, both renditions capture something essential about the spirit and scope of these letters. For they offer a penetrating and passionate refutation of a prevalent Gnosticism that abhors this body, this community, this Church, where true life is won, paradoxically, only at the price of this<\/em> death<\/em>. Thus, the letters constitute an uncompromising polemic against what the archbishop calls the \u201cdisincarnation\u201d practiced by the \u201cindefatigable Gnostics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> Against Excarnation https:\/\/t.co\/BbePQPWchc<\/a><\/p>— Public Discourse (@PublicDiscourse) May 13, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>