Gentiles in Court. From Superficial Idolatry to Implicit Faith: The Unveiling of Grace and Salvation in the Works of Paschal Rapine de Sainte-Marie (1655–1659)

How are we to judge salvation or, more simply, faith – and, a fortiori, the salvation and faith of the pagans? Furthermore, if they were to be judged, they would have to have possessed knowledge of God’s law. In the courtroom of history, Le christianisme naissant dans la Gentilite, by the Recollect Paschal Rapine de Sainte-Marie, gathers evidence and establishes correspondences that make it possible not only to situate the Gentiles in relation to Christianity, from which they appear to be distinct, but to include them within it. In this book, forgotten by historians of the debate surrounding the salvation of the pagans, the author attempts to show that the virtues preceding Christ’s coming take part in the anticipation of this coming and attest to an implicit faith. The Gentiles are thus Christians without knowing it, and they can be saved under certain conditions that would be a matter for dispensation. However, the debate was not limited to the confines of Christianity and the periphery of theology. In the end, Rapine de Sainte-Marie does nothing less than pronounce upon the universality of divine action, of revelation and of the redemption carried out by Christ.