Ethno-national identity is an outcome of ideological interpellation, self-writing and narratives. Politics as the enactment of identity has led Ethiopian politics to a dead-end. A theological turn can open the ontological possibility of a new political subject and a reinvention of politics that transcends the impasse.

Western culture is in a moment when wholly new kinds of personal transformations are possible, but authentic transformation requires both personal testimony and public recognition. In this book, Adam Ellwanger takes a distinctly rhetorical approach to analyzing how the personal and the public relate to an individual’s transformation and develops a new vocabulary that enables a critical assessment of the concept of authenticity. The concept of metanoia is central to this project. Charting the history of metanoia from its original use in the classical tradition to its adoption by early Christians as a term for religious conversion, Ellwanger shows that metanoia involves a change within a person that results in a truer version of him- or herself—a change in character or ethos. He then applies this theory to our contemporary moment, finding that metanoia provides unique insight into modern forms of self-transformation. Drawing on ancient and medieval sources, including Thucydides, Plato, Paul the Apostle, and Augustine, as well as contemporary discourses of self-transformation, such as the public testimonies of Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal, Ellwanger elucidates the role of language in signifying and authenticating identity. Timely and original, Ellwanger’s study formulates a transhistorical theory of personal transformation that will be of interest to scholars working in social theory, philosophy, rhetoric, and the history of Christianity.

The essays in Theology and the Political—written by some of the world’s foremost theologians, philosophers, and literary critics—analyze the ethics and consequences of human action. They explore the spiritual dimensions of ontology, considering the relationship between ontology and the political in light of the thought of figures ranging from Plato to Marx, Levinas to Derrida, and Augustine to Lacan. Together, the contributors challenge the belief that meaningful action is simply the successful assertion of will, that politics is ultimately reducible to “might makes right.” From a variety of perspectives, they suggest that grounding human action and politics in materialist critique offers revolutionary possibilities that transcend the nihilism inherent in both contemporary liberal democratic theory and neoconservative ideology. Contributors. Anthony Baker, Daniel M. Bell Jr., Phillip Blond, Simon Critchley, Conor Cunningham, Creston Davis, William Desmond, Hent de Vries, Terry Eagleton, Rocco Gangle, Philip Goodchild, Karl Hefty, Eleanor Kaufman, Tom McCarthy, John Milbank, Antonio Negri, Catherine Pickstock, Patrick Aaron Riches, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Regina Mara Schwartz, Kenneth Surin, Graham Ward, Rowan Williams, Slavoj Žižek

From the PREFACE. The first of these Essays appeared in the ""American Church Review"" for July, 1881 - following the memorable day in May when the Revised Version of the New Testament was issued. The paper was soon afterwards reprinted separately, and in 1882 was put into book form by the present publisher. Although its point was made timely by the revision, and by the astonishing fact that, in a work expressly undertaken in this age to correct the misapprehensions of a former age, a mistranslation involving such consequences had been over-passed and perpetuated, yet the Essay did not set out to be a criticism of the New Version in this particular. It could not help falling into something like it, but its main purpose was to draw attention to, and to be a popular exposition of, a word in whose enormous potentiality of meaning lay, as I believed, a more true and more catholic, a more spiritual and more philosophical, interpretation of Christianity....

At the very beginning of the Gospels, Jesus calls us to a radical new way of life, saying: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). The word “repent” in Greek is metanoia — but the original Greek word means much more than just repentance. It means to change, to turn, to think differently. Metanoia is not a one-time event but a process, and as Christians we are called to live a life of metanoia. Living Metanoia explores what this looks like in our daily lives, encouraging believers in all walks of life to go deeper in their relationship with Jesus. In his down-to-earth, approachable style, Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, addresses basic topics such as who Jesus actually is (rather than who we think he is or who we want him to be); what we need to do in order to inherit eternal life; the reality of evil; and our daily call to a deeper commitment to Christ. Each chapter contains Sacred Scripture to give context and direction, along with reflection questions and a practical “metanoia moment” to help us live a life of change. We all need metanoia — over and over again. Realizing this should be a source of hope and encouragement, for only by living metanoia can we find true and lasting freedom and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR, is the president of Franciscan University of Steubenville. He has served for more than thirty years as a spiritual director, retreat leader, and formation director, and also served as the director of Franciscan Pathways. He is a well-known author, conference speaker, and pilgrimage leader. Fr. Pivonka is active in the charismatic renewal and serves on the board of Renewal Ministries.

This volume in the Political Theory and Contemporary Philosophy series examines one of the most important topics in contemporary political theory: how to conceptualize the relationship between the one and the many. The essays discuss how to reconcile multiple ontologies without subsuming them to a totalitarian unity. While one school of thought (Deleuze, Negri) seeks to create a new ontology based on the many instead of the one, (which, politically, is close to anarchy), another proposes to understand the "one" as the "ultra-one" of the event (Badiou). In this groundbreaking work, leading thinkers explore these debates and offer alternative concepts. Building on Jean-Luc Nancy's essay who proposes an ontology of "singular plurality," contributors aim to synthesize the one and the many and suggest different ways of forming collectives, beyond the dominant representative political forms. An original and challenging work, Politics of the One addresses new possible ways of bringing people together, integrating philosophy with theoretical and practical problems of politics.

Fusing speculative realism, analytical and linguistic philosophy this book theorises the fundamental impact the experience of reading has on us. In reading, language provides us with a world and meaning becomes perceptible. We can connect with another subjectivity, another place, another time. At its most extreme, reading changes our understanding of the world around us. Metanoia- meaning literally a change of mind or a conversion-refers to this kind of new way of seeing. To see the world in a new light is to accept that our thinking has been irrevocably transformed. How is that possible? And is it merely an intellectual process without any impact on the world outside our brains? Innovatively tackling these questions, this book mobilizes discussions from linguistics, literary theory, philosophy of language, and cognitive science. It re-articulates linguistic consciousness by underlining the poetic, creative moment of language and sheds light on the ability of language to transform not only our thinking but the world around us as well.