Metanoia

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.

In this memoir, Anna McGahan shares the story of reconciling with her body, mapping its journey from a cheapened product in a marketplace to a vessel of astonishing worth. This is a deeply personal and radical story, of a body rescued and set free. Of a life completely and irrevocably changed.

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.

How can one live an authentically Christian life? Although many books and articles delineate the content of the Gospel message, the form or shape of an existence based on faith has not been studied as thoroughly. To use a language correctly, it is not enough to know the vocabulary; one must have a good grasp of its grammar. This book attempts to deepen our knowledge of the grammar of the Christian life starting from the notion of metanoia. Generally translated as “repentance” or “conversion,” the word has in fact a much richer significance: it describes a total reorientation and transformation of our being, never accomplished once and for all, through the action of the Spirit of the risen Christ. Metanoia takes us out of our self-centered outlook and our limited and self-interested actions and brings us into God’s today, where we become witnesses to a real Presence, that of the universal Body of Christ.

This is a collection of poems, texts, and short stories Metanoia Metanoia: (n.) The journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life. The process of experiencing a “breakdown”, and the subsequent positive psychological re-building and healing. A transformative change of heart; a spiritual conversion. Language helped our species dominate planet Earth. The cognitive revolution reshaped and wired our brains to stories. That is why we write. That is why we use alphabets and sounds and rhythms. That is why we master new techniques of storytelling, and that is why we create fiction and imaginary characters and give them our truth.

Metanoia's Revelation is the author's personal journey of discovery and transformation through poetry, marking various events and stages in her life. This is a testament of obstacle, loss, survival, hope, renewal, and change. Above all, this book is a deeply embedded reminder that life in itself is a constant mystery. This collection of poetry embodies evident shifts in style, form, and expression, bringing the reader through the growth and metamorphosis of the author as a person as well as a writer. The design of her poetry is often noted as an art unto itself. Through the trinity of the physical, spiritual, and intellectual components of human nature, the author strives to reach into the heart of those elements and tantalize the senses through visual, auditory, and kinesthetic blankets of metaphor. The author revels in evoking and capturing the reader to find themselves within her work as if written directly to or for the individual and speaking from the marrow of their own life experiences.

Bourdieu once commented that what was needed was a ‘new gaze’ on the social world – a metanoia. This book describes this view and how to do it. Based on biographical detail and the socio-political contexts which surrounded him, it sets out his vision of society and culture. Grounded on the distinction between traditional and modern worlds, it shows how ethnographic experience led Bourdieu to an intellectual epiphany. It demonstrates the growth of his conceptual tools and the emergence of ‘field theory’ in various contexts: law, religion, fashion, sport, culture, fine art, philosophy, literature and politics. The book offers an up-to-date, extensive account of Bourdieu, his work and its significance. It centres on philosophical questions of social experience and intellectual practice. Based around his entire oeuvre, it features recent posthumous publications in French, providing important insights for the first time into his way of viewing the world. Including issues of the state, neoliberalism and resistance, this book explores the ways in which the social, philosophical and political came together for Bourdieu to shape how we see ourselves and our place in the contemporary world – a metanoia. Being both an introductory and advanced text, it is a valuable resource for the newcomer to Bourdieu as well as the experienced researcher. It will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers of Bourdieu’s work in the areas of sociology, media, philosophy, religion, economics, architecture, cultural studies, education, music, journalism, gender studies, politics, the law, fine arts and linguistics.