<< I regret to inform you that your paper proposal has not been accepted ...

... by the Academic Program Committee. They commented: "The paper is based merely on conjectures that cannot be historically proved." We do hope, however, that you will join us in the discussion at the Congress nonetheless.>> [email received by me some days ago].

The argument on which I wanted to speak at the 2015 Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) was:

Rational interpretation and dating of the Damascus road Christophany and understanding of Paul's conversion. The 150 words of the Abstract I sent had been the following:

This paper demonstrates that a definite and verifiable astronomical phenomenon permits a rational interpretation and dating of the Damascus road Christophany and an understanding of the sosaid Paul's conversion.

The phenomenon (the plain dynamics of which will be illustrated) is the double Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, the alignments of which occurred in constellation Leo in October A.D. 34 and in April 35. This phenomenon is to be identified with the phoenix return described in Tacitus' Annals 6,28 (as I demonstrated in previous congresses).

It was due to this phenomenon if the geocentric Saul's conviction (based on the Judaic sacralization of the single J-S conjunctions) underwent a crisis; the thought of the implied heliocentrism was the intellectual goad against which Saul-Paul tried in vain to resist. Phisically reasoning on the evolution of this phenomenon in the following months, the Christophany on the Damascus road can be dated at about August 24th, A.D. 35.