There is an unpublished paper in the Agamben archive in Yale, 'On Speech Acts'. In that paper, Agamben deals more comprehensively with the linguistic feature of the capacity of words to act than his more brief forays elsewhere (The Time That Remains, Opus Dei, The Sacrament of Language). There are many interesting features of Agamben's 'speech acts'. One important feature for theology is Agamben's preference for the great Parisian linguist, Émile Benveniste over and above J.L. Austin. Benveniste's work on performatives, engaging productively with Austin, delved into ancient notions of religion and religious practice, with fascinating excursions on terms such as 'credendi', 'supplicandi', and 'fides'. But the real interest in Agamben's speech acts for theology is how Agamben puts his version of the theory to work (inspired by Odo Casel) to argue for the efficaciousness of liturgy. When it comes to Pauline interpretation, for instance, Agamben is unabashed in drawing attention to the performative potential in words normally swallowed in modern translations, 'leitourgia', and 'mysterion'. This paper will ask, however, did Paul have a notion of speech acts, and if so, can they be seen to apply to ecclesial rites? This paper, therefore, will argue that Agamben's pursuit of performative utterances is secure (even if his novel preference for Benveniste over Austin relies on a not entirely fair reading of Austin). However, what is less secure in Agamben is the application of that material to theological language and practice.