Metanoia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Metanoia - Essay Example The notion â€Å"metanoia† literally means â€Å"change of mind† (Branch 55) and most widely is presented in the way that a person has a certain way of thinking and consideration of the phenomenon of the world and then something changes the way of thinking for good. This notion mostly concerns religious change of thinking. From the very beginning of a person’s religious path some acts can be called metanoic, for instance, it can be conversion into religion from atheistic point of view, or from another religion. The point is that metanoia requires a person to change one’s way of life according to the new understanding the person acquired from the act of metanoia (Clarkson 225). It is very important to divide different types of the notion â€Å"mind† considering metanoia. Dealing with spiritual realm we find that mind has certain gradation which is following. â€Å"Mind† as both intelligence and consciousness don’t really deal with metan oia in religious aspect. But â€Å"Mind† as spiritual intelligence (SQ) means the need of every human being to feel this life as something filled with meaning and spiritual power that rule everything (Powell n.pag.) and this kind of mind actually changes through the metanoic process. This means that metanoia works in changing of spirit which makes it totally existential even though some researches try to describe it as ethical process when a person realizes that one’s previous way of life was in some way unethical and decides to change it into a decent one (Friesen and Guhr 724). The difference between ethical and existential change (metanoic one) can be described through the famous biblical example from the Gospel of St. Mark, 10: 17-27. When a rich guy came to Jesus asking how he can reach the salvation, Jesus answered him that firstly he had to follow the God’s commandments and secondly he had to sell all his