Personal identity in the history of ideas
The born-again Christian as a case study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12592111 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel M Gro (0000-0002-0612-2020, University of California, Irvine, corresponding author), Daniel M Gross |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 197-215 |
| Publication date | 2009-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Rethinking History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1364-2529 • E-ISSN: 1470-1154 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13642520902833825 |
| OpenAlex | W2006973774 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
The 'born-again Christian' is an idea that lies at the heart of early-modern Lutheranism as well as more recent evangelical Christianity of the sort famously practiced by George W. Bush. It is also, clearly, a way of being: the most unexceptional people can be born again. For scholars negotiating the boundary between intellectual history and cultural studies, the born-again Christian therefore provides a case study illuminating histories of personal identity generally, including identities of nation, location, race, class, gender, and religion. Immediately one notices that a strict history of ideas drawn from Christian doctrine will overstep the important domain of experience, while any cultural studies approach that ignores Christian doctrine will have a hard time explaining what counts as relevant experience and why. A history of identity categories must draw from both approaches. Despite recent efforts in the New dictionary of the history of ideas (2005) to advance a 'cultural history of ideas,' however, much work remains as we figure out how exactly this combination should look. When it comes to identity I argue, the missing element is a rhetorical theory of the subject that goes beyond tropology (White) and persuasion (Skinner) to account for horizons of possibility. Ultimately I use Reinhart Koselleck as a foil to advance a Heideggerian rhetorical methodology that situates allegories of the subject in horizons of possibility rather than in structures or traditions alone
Aesthetics · Art · Doctrine · Epistemology · Identity (music · Intellectual history · Literature · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Subject (documents · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Religion and Society Interactions
Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes
The Logic of the History of Ideas
The Content of the Form
Futures Past
Tropics of Discourse
The Practice of Conceptual History
The Evangelical Conversion Narrative
Gender Trouble
Michel Foucault , The Hermeneutics of the Subject
Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Power
Logic or Rhetoric in the History of Political Thought? Comments on Mark Bevir
From Hume's Intentions to Deconstruction and Back
Spiritual Autobiography in Early America
Spiritual Autobiography in Early America
Clarifications
The Analysis of Culture Revisited
Tropics of Discourse
The Hermeneutics of the Subject
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |