L'erede (Frassinelli, 2002) takes the form of a long letter, a spiritual testament, written by an aged pope, ill and approaching the end, to his successor on the throne of Saint Peter. The pope's writings become the vehicle for a profound reflection on his life and the baring of his soul, recording his attempt to understand the sacred in rational and analytical terms. But the pope comes to realise that around this comprehensible world there lies a dark area that eludes our understanding.
However, aware of the numinous mystery of the sacred, he gives himself up to divine grace, and awaits death, no longer experienced with the human and rational fear of death but as a mystical union and rebirth in the eternal youth of the divinity.
Il signore degli occhi (Frassinelli, 2004) introduces us to another aspect of the sacred, through the theme of sacrifice: that of Enrico Magnoni, who abandons his material wealth and power to retire in poverty to a monastery in the alps. Enrico's sacrifice is the renunciation of the Ego which has put down roots in worldly values, responding to a higher conquest: it is the violence of the Spirit which strips man of his assumed omnipotence and humiliates him, but simultaneously gives him the certainty of being chosen in a higher sphere.
A common theme unites these three works, that of the charismatic force of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity, sometimes overlooked in the Christian faith which focuses on the other persons, on God and Christ,here comes to the fore: the numinous experiences of Pazzi's characters are all dependent on the effusion of the Spirit, which blows where it will, which chooses the elect and fills him with grace, leading him to experience a personal Pentecost.
By way of contrast, L'ombra del padre (Frassinelli, 2005) stands back from this vision of grace. The God of this novel is the God of the philosophers, subjected to a lucid and penetrating analysis that penetrates the smallest cracks in theology. The work is dramatic and on an epic scale, and centres on the conflict between the Son, who wants to return to earth to complete the redemption of men from Evil, and the Father, who, an idle god wrapped in the impenetrable profundity of the heavens, tries to prevent him, making him understand the uselessness of his efforts and toying with the idea of ending Time and the human tragicomedy.
The explosive impact of the book lies in the way it tackles with inventive freedom and a deeply felt philosophical dialectic the central theme of the Christian faith, the problem of evil, linked naturally with that of free will. This is what gives an edge to the encounter between the two protagonists: the Son comes to think that the principle of Evil lies in the heart of the Father, who, creating man limited and subject to impulse, deliberately predisposed him to evil; and he then dreams of total redemption for humanity, an ideal perfection in which the body and the spirit are cosubstantial in a sacred and mystical union.
After a series of works focusing on an imaginary and visionary reworking of historical themes, Pazzi has taken an original look at the theme of the 'sacred'. Four novels have been published in the last five years (Conclave, L'erede, Il signore degli occhi and L'ombra del padre) in which religious issues become a deeply felt discussion of the manner and meaning of faith today. In the first novel in the series, Conclave (Frassinelli, 2001), the author brings us into contact with the essential aspect of the sacred, the sense of the 'numinous', through an account of a long and strange conclave attended by mysterious phenomena, horrifying events and demoniac scenes. The divinity is a Numen, who is revealed unexpectedly as an ineffable, superior and unbearable mystery a sublime and disquieting being inspiring a sense of worthlessness in human creatures who can only bow before his tremendous power. But the numinous, as well as tremendum is also fascinans, it confuses and enchants, 'terrifies and revives, distresses and consoles'.
L'erede (Frassinelli, 2002) takes the form of a long letter, a spiritual testament, written by an aged pope, ill and approaching the end, to his successor on the throne of Saint Peter. The pope's writings become the vehicle for a profound reflection on his life and the baring of his soul, recording his attempt to understand the sacred in rational and analytical terms. But the pope comes to realise that around this comprehensible world there lies a dark area that eludes our understanding.
However, aware of the numinous mystery of the sacred, he gives himself up to divine grace, and awaits death, no longer experienced with the human and rational fear of death but as a mystical union and rebirth in the eternal youth of the divinity.
Il signore degli occhi (Frassinelli, 2004) introduces us to another aspect of the sacred, through the theme of sacrifice: that of Enrico Magnoni, who abandons his material wealth and power to retire in poverty to a monastery in the alps. Enrico's sacrifice is the renunciation of the Ego which has put down roots in worldly values, responding to a higher conquest: it is the violence of the Spirit which strips man of his assumed omnipotence and humiliates him, but simultaneously gives him the certainty of being chosen in a higher sphere.
A common theme unites these three works, that of the charismatic force of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity, sometimes overlooked in the Christian faith which focuses on the other persons, on God and Christ,here comes to the fore: the numinous experiences of Pazzi's characters are all dependent on the effusion of the Spirit, which blows where it will, which chooses the elect and fills him with grace, leading him to experience a personal Pentecost.
By way of contrast, L'ombra del padre (Frassinelli, 2005) stands back from this vision of grace. The God of this novel is the God of the philosophers, subjected to a lucid and penetrating analysis that penetrates the smallest cracks in theology. The work is dramatic and on an epic scale, and centres on the conflict between the Son, who wants to return to earth to complete the redemption of men from Evil, and the Father, who, an idle god wrapped in the impenetrable profundity of the heavens, tries to prevent him, making him understand the uselessness of his efforts and toying with the idea of ending Time and the human tragicomedy.
The explosive impact of the book lies in the way it tackles with inventive freedom and a deeply felt philosophical dialectic the central theme of the Christian faith, the problem of evil, linked naturally with that of free will. This is what gives an edge to the encounter between the two protagonists: the Son comes to think that the principle of Evil lies in the heart of the Father, who, creating man limited and subject to impulse, deliberately predisposed him to evil; and he then dreams of total redemption for humanity, an ideal perfection in which the body and the spirit are cosubstantial in a sacred and mystical union.