Marguerite of Navarre: a mystical fable - Paul and the logos of folly

Sep 5, 2026

Marguerite of Navarre is presented as a powerful theological and political figure whose writings draw on and creatively rework traditions of knowledge, non-knowledge, wisdom, and folly. The essay centers on Paul’s λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ in 1 Corinthians, reading the Cross as contradiction that exposes the heart’s secrets and an incomprehensible divine logic. It traces how exegesis develops around logos, folly, and power, including the “Fools of Christ,” and compares Pauline excess with Platonic and mystical concepts, supported by historical exempla.

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Paul and the logos of folly

The Cross as contradiction and divine logic

Exegesis: logos, folly, power

The “Fools of Christ” and mystical theatrics

Maria FalliCa* Marguerite of Navarre: a mysticalfable1 Marguerite d’Angoulême, duchess of Alençon, queen of Navarre, sister and wife of kings, patron of reformers and monasteries, was a figure of indisputable authority, which she wielded in the theological and political realms to the extent of what was possible for her times and gender. However, her writings are diffused with figures that represent truth, knowledge, and meaning as shrouded in the weak, the little, the inconsequential, the fool. In this, she poetically draws and re-elaborates traditions of knowledge (and non-knowledge), wisdom and folly, in an original and creative fashion, which restructures mystical and hermeneutical traditions and destitutes and recomposes language. 1. Paul and the logos of folly The unintelligibility of God’s wisdom to humanity, the scandal of Christ’s cross in the eyes of worldly wise, and the exaltation of the humble, the “nothing”, the rejected, the foolish, are at the center of Paul’s λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ in his First Letter to the Corinthians ( 1 Corinthians 1:18–25; 3:19) and reverberate throughout the Pauline epistolary.2 In Paul, the Cross is a sign of contradiction which reveals the secrets of the heart and the incomprehensible logic of a God who * Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italy [maria.fallica@uniroma1.it](maria.fallica@uniroma1.it); ORCID 0000-0001-7486-9356 1 This essay is part of HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01-01, project n. 101105789—Folly and the Feminine in the Renaissance (Folie) . 2 1 Corinthians 1:28-29; 2 Corinthians 12:10-11 . Storia delle Donne, 21 (2025) <[https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/sdd/](https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/sdd/)> DOI: 10.36253/sd-19554-CC BY 4.0 IT, 2025, Firenze University Press 92 Marguerite of Navarre: a mysticalfable elects without reason or merit, choosing «what is low and despised in the world» ( 1 Corinthians 1:28), what is nothing (τὰ μὴ ὄντα), to reduce the things that are to inconsistency and nothing, to destroy them (ἵνα τὰ ὄντα καταργήσῃ, 1 Corinthians 1: 27-29) . This is the folly of the message which Paul announces: ἡ μωρία τοῦ κηρύγματος( 1 Corinthians 1:21) . The logos of the cross is folly, scandal, excess; but «the word (logos) of the Cross is folly for those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God» ( 1 Corinthians 1:18) . This foundational text has been the engine of multiple exegeses, a “semantic energy” focused on the three elements through which the cross is presented: logos, folly, and power, which allows different «plays of possibilities» and «displacements of accents», as in the analysis by French philosopher and theologian Stanislas Breton.3 The relationship between God’s power and human response, the possibility to see in the folly of the Cross an ultra-wisdom available to the human mind, able to generate speculative knowledge, are only some of the hermeneutical possibilities played out in the endless exegeses of the Pauline text. One of this chapters is the “Fools of Christ”, where the Pauline text interacts fruitfully with the Platonic concept of «an outburst of love, inspiration, enthusiasm, and the reciprocal dwelling of God in the soul and the soul in God», as Plato expressed it e.g. in works as the Symposium, the Phaedrus, and Ion.4 These figures of the excess are characterized by what Breton calls a «representation, on condition that it be understood as closely as possible to the theatrical meaning», a «bodily conversion of the ineffable» which is reproduced in the world as a stage.5 Fools from the East and the West embody the «folly, excess, alienation»6 of the logos of the cross in their thoughts and actions. In a similar vein to Breton’s, Michel de Certeau’s reflection on the emergence of a new kind of mystical ‘science’ in the 16th-17th centuries pointed to a late antique episode from Palladius’ Lausiac History (5th century), chapter 34.7 An ignorant woman, servant in 3 Stanislas Breton, The Word and th

FAQs

How does the essay characterize Paul’s λόγος τοῦ σταυροῦ?

It frames Paul’s message around the unintelligibility of God’s wisdom, the scandal of the Cross, and the exaltation of the humble and rejected. The Cross becomes a sign of contradiction revealing the heart and a logic beyond human comprehension.

What three elements does the essay use to explain cross-focused exegesis?

The essay highlights logos, folly, and power as the core elements through which the Cross is presented. This “semantic energy” enables multiple interpretive possibilities and shifts in emphasis.

Which other traditions and examples does the essay connect to the “Fools of Christ”?

It links Pauline material to Platonic concepts of inspired love and to Michel de Certeau’s account of mystical “science.” It also uses Palladius’s Lausiac History episode to illustrate theatrical madness and a reversed hierarchy.

Sep 5, 2026

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