Avis de soutenance - doctorat - Florence OLLIVRY

Born from epistemological questions about the way in which the concepts conveyed by research cut out the real and about the place of subjectivity in the academic study of religion, this thesis analyzes Louis Massignon's (1883-1962) vision of Muslim mysticism. It highlights in particular the hermeneutic posture of this researcher who, after having demonstrated the Qur'anic origin of Sufism, makes the figure of al-Mansûr b. Hallâj (d. 309/922) the paradigm of holiness in Islâm. The analysis shows that his vision of the studied reality depends on his own spirituality: he perceives authentic mysticism as a path of asceticism, of purification through suffering. At the heart of the mystical union, the mystic becomes the witness of God. To this path, he opposes that of Ibn 'Arabî (d.638/1240), in which he perceives the influence of Neoplatonism as an alteration of primitive ascetic purity. The purest mysticism is, in his eyes, a mysticism of annihilation (fanâ') in which the inconsistency of the human being renders them unworthy to endorse the divine attributes and to know the state of subsistence (baqâ'). His quest, driven by existential questioning, illustrates the difficult reconciliation between the quest for “truth” and the quest for “Truth”. This study shows the extent to which the researcher's subjectivity supports research and hinders it at the same time. It suggests, in order to construct the conditions of understanding, that it is important to become aware of the peculiarity of one's hermeneutical situation, to state one's intention, to question one's conceptual categories, to maintain a critical distance from one's work, and to wonder about one's practice in a reflexive way, so that subjectivity no longer deforms reality, but illuminates and reveals it.