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.

This book examines and critiques secular modes of self-writing in Ethiopia that put considerable emphasis on the enactment of national/ethnic identity leading to an equivocal situation wherein the ethos that binds people has been greatly eroded. Its analysis demonstrates that such modes of thought are flawed not only on the notion of the human subject, but also inappropriately position the religious or the theological. The book argues that a theological turn generates theological resources for a social horizon of hope for the apotheosis of the bond of togetherness which risks thinking politics in an altogether different way beyond the ethno-national logic. This, as the author argues, paves the way for the possibility of a new political subject and the reinvention of politics.

Autorentext

Theodros Assefa Teklu studied at the University of Addis Ababa and the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology (EGST). Afterwards he completed his PhD at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Currently, he is a lecturer in Theology at EGST.

Inhalt

Contents: Ideological interpellation Self techniques Agency Politics of integration Ethno-politics Integration Modes of self-writing and polarised subjectivities Divine-human agency Christian ontology The politics of Metanoia.