Metapher - Narratio - Mimesis - Doxologie

The essays collected in this volume deal with the founding essentials of ancient Christian ethics - metaphor, narration, mimesis and doxology - and were delivered during the four symposiums of the 2012-2014 Mainz Moral Meetings. An interdisciplinary approach encompasses the forms in which Early Christianity constructed a specific ethos outside of explicit, rational-ethical reflection which still determines Western thinking today. The authors of the contributions examine the metaphors through which the ethical power of persuasion is derived, the implicit value-discourse of the »narrative-ethic,« the conforming of the self to a person or ideal within the framework of a »mimetic-ethic« and finally the justification of action »doxology-ethic« which is offered as a speech act of praise and celebration. It is thereby shown that forms of speech do not just represent insignificant vehicles but also defining ethical mediums of expression for ethics.