Center for Metanoia Studies (Centre d'Etudes Interdisciplinaires de la Métanoïa)

metanoia (n.) /ˌmɛtəˈnɔɪə/ the journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, way of life

The Center for Metanoia Studies is an ambitious project responding to contemporary scientific, social, and economic challenges. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the Center is dedicated to exploring processes of personal and collective transformation in different contexts, in order to provide theoretical and practical solutions regarding the management of change. By supporting innovative research, hosting thought-provoking meetings, disseminating ideas through media old and new, organising educational programmes, and engaging with the world of practice, the Center for Metanoia Studies is an open laboratory for the study of personal transformation.

The Challenge

Faced with a world in crisis, many people struggle to find meaning in their daily lives. Distrustful of collective and institutional projects, they see no future beyond an immediate horizon of seemingly inextricable structural challenges. Disruptive events seem to occur with increasing regularity and time itself feels as though it is accelerating. Paradoxically, this state of flux is accompanied by a sense of  stagnation and ‘running in place’. While everything around us seems unstable, nothing really seems to change for the better. This situation leads to a traumatic relationship with change, experienced as a source of loss, impoverishment, and empty promises, giving rise to reactions of defensiveness, rejection, and cynicism.

Yet change is integral to the lives of individuals and societies; indeed, change is necessary in order to break out of the deadlock of contemporary life. The Center for the Metanoia Studies is a response to this major challenge of our time. It provides theoretical and practical solutions to help people master the dynamics of collective transformation for the common good and to orient their personal transformations so as to live flourishing lives.  

Why Metanoia?

Phrases such as “to change one’s mind” or to have a “change of heart” often describe small and ordinary events in a person’s life, reflective of the dynamic interaction between the instability of our external environment and the inconstancy of our inner selves. I might want a certain job today and change my mind tomorrow; initially feel cold toward someone but gradually warm to them. However, a person’s experience of personal change can also be much more radical and definitive than these mundane phrases and examples tend to convey. The concept of metanoia describes this spectacular phenomenon in which a person’s entire ethos (i.e. their habitual way of being) is transformed: that which they were is cast off and discarded, and they begin again as a new self. Of course, whether metanoia corresponds to a momentary event or a gradual process, whether people are actually capable of genuine metanoic change, whether it is desirable, and how it might be achieved are all questions which have animated writers since ancient times.

Pierre Hadot (1968) held that “the idea of conversion represents one of the constitutive notions of Western consciousness and conscience. In effect, one can represent the whole history of the West as a ceaseless effort at renewal by perfecting the techniques of conversion, which is to say the techniques intended to transform human reality.” The evolving meaning of metanoia tracks the gradual development of this central notion over the centuries. Literally meaning “after-thought”, classical Greek rhetoricians spoke of metanoia to describe a persuasive figure of speech in which the speaker takes back an earlier statement and replaces it with a new one to reinforce their point. In doing so, the speaker performs a change of heart, but the change occurs in their words rather than in their forum internum – but if effective, it may effect a change within the listener.

The advent of Christianity brought a new emphasis on individual interiority, the ethical imperative for personal conversion, and the central idea of rebirth through a change of ethos. Under the Christian influence, metanoia came to signify an act of substitution of “the old sinful being with a new personal identity—an ethos that is defined by a penitent relation to the self” (Ellwanger, 2020). How is such a thing possible? That is of course Nicodemus’s question in John’s Gospel when Jesus tells him that a person must be “born again”. And it is a question which continues to animate us today, whether or not we phrase it in overtly Christian terms.

By bringing into dialogue studies of transformation from individual and collective/structural perspectives and from various traditions, the Center for Metanoia Studies encourages a holistic and nuanced understanding of this complex phenomenon, and fosters reflection on the epistemological issues that undergird the fundamental human question: What does it mean for a person to change?

Our Approach

The question of personal transformation can be approached from many angles: theoretical (what is personal change?), historical (what events have precipitated transformations of the self? how profound and lasting are such apparent transformations?), methodological (how can we measure such change?) and applied (how does a person change and how can people be supported in transformations which are deemed beneficial? how do institutional settings and practices such as prisons, psychotherapy, and pastoral spiritual direction encourage and orient certain kinds of change in persons).

Of course, all of these questions, and perhaps most pressingly  the latter, also elicit normative interrogations (whose vision of the good are served by transformational projects? what is the relationship between change and virtue? which moral presuppositions do we mobilise when distinguishing between desirable and undesirable instances of change? why is the question of change important and to whom?). We want to look at this issue at both individual/agency and social/structural levels. We also wish to examine examples of virtuous and vicious change, as well as the normative presuppositions that underpin these distinctions.

The process of radical personal transformation can be observed in a variety of contexts, such as religious and political conversion, ideological change, criminal desistance and radicalization. These processes involve complex interactions between internal psychological and spiritual factors and external social and environmental factors. For example, work on cognitive and emotional transformation and the construction of meaning (Garcet, 2021) shows how individuals adopt radical beliefs or become involved in extremist movements, often motivated by personal uncertainties and perceived injustices (Doosje et al., 2013). Transformative experiences can profoundly alter an individual’s knowledge, values and perspectives (Arvan, 2020, Brieley, 2023). Research into personal transformation and metanoia also raises questions about the notion of a “true self” that might be discovered through deliberate spiritual practice (Nouwen, 1991) or through the stages of individuation (Jung, 1951) or self-actualization (Rogers, 1961, Maslow, 1962). Others have questioned the conditions under which personal identification can be said to persist through change (Locke, 1690, Parfitt, 1984).

On a collective scale, radical transformations encompass phenomena such as the Christian transformation of Europe (Holland, 2019), the Cultural Revolution in China (Kyo, 2017, Fishman 2011) or the Nazi Cultural Revolution (Chapoutot, 2017). These revolutionary movements show how radical social transformations can redefine cultural norms and practices, permanently affecting social structures and collective attitudes (Drury & Reicher, 2000; Unger, 1998). These moments of rupture are often associated with the idea of “the birth of the new man” in the socialist (Marx & Engels, 1845, Trotsky, 1924, Mao, 1957) and fascist (Gentile, 1916, Rosenberg, 1930) traditions, describing either a transformative change in living people, or a seismic generational shift in norms and attitudes. At the same time, some revisionist historians have challenged the identification of revolutions with radical change, stressing instead the dynamics of social inertia and continuity over time (Furet, 1978, Doyle, 1980).

Understanding the very notion of transformative personal change poses a number of methodological and epistemological challenges as well. Can radical transformations be objectively measured? Quantitative and qualitative methods each have their advantages and limitations. Can each discipline learn from the others for a more complete understanding of these phenomena? Research into socially dysfunctional behaviour (e.g. Settoul, 2022) can enrich research into functional transformations (see, for example, the work of Johnson and Sung Json Jang). How can we question the very notion of rupture in academic discourse? Can it be demystified or, on the contrary, confirmed under certain conditions? What role do static theories of personality play in understanding the dynamics of change?

These questions will enable us to explore the interconnections between the different scales of the study of transformative change and develop more integrated and effective approaches.

Our Objectives

In all areas of life, to understand, measure, analyse and support personal and collective transformation.

• To study personal and collective transformation using an interdisciplinary approach involving philosophy, psychology, sociology, history and the religious sciences.
• To develop methodological tools for combining qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• To create specialist training courses for companies and institutions, to help them manage organisational, cultural and personal change.
• To respond to European calls for projects, particularly in the fields of interdisciplinary research, continuing education, and social innovation.

Our Research areas

Personal transformation

• Analysis of individual change processes: religious or political conversion, criminal desistance, radicalisation, or reconstruction of identity.
• Study of the psychological and spiritual conditions conducive to change, with references to the work of Jung (1951), Maslow (1962) and Nouwen (1991).
• Reflections on the persistence of identity through change (Locke, 1690; Parfit, 1984).

Collective transformation

• Historical study of social ruptures and continuities, such as the Christian transformation of Europe (Holland, 2019), the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Kyo, 2017) and the Nazi Cultural Revolution (Chapoutot, 2017).
• Examination of revolutionary dynamics and the concept of the ‘new man’ in the socialist and fascist traditions (Marx, Mao, Gentile).
• Questioning the phenomena of social rupture and the logics of continuity (Furet, 1978; Doyle, 1980).
• Study of the interactions between personal and collective transformations.
• Examination of religious and non-religious thinking that bases collective change on personal transformation (Tolstoy, 1894; Mounier, 1949).
• Examination of biographical trajectories linking individual conversion and global change ((Simone Weil, Gandhi, Malcolm X))
• Examination of experiences, particularly in the context of environmental transition, linking personal transformation and global transformation (e.g. the Transition Campus).

Methodology and epistemology

• Exploration of techniques for leading personal and collective change, particularly in business (e.g. U School for Transformation, social theatre, structured dialogue)
• Exploration of qualitative and quantitative tools for measuring individual and collective transformations.
• Interdisciplinary dialogue to overcome the limitations of each disciplinary field.
• Comparison of functional transformations (positive changes within a widely shared normative framework) and dysfunctional transformations (deviant behaviour, see for example the work of Elyamine Settoul (2022)).

Our Actions

Annual international symposium

• The first edition took place on 22 November at SciencesPo Paris.
• Objective: to bring together international researchers and practitioners to discuss the theoretical, normative, methodological and practical challenges of transformation.

Scientific output and publications

• Journal of the Center published annually in open access.
• Development of interdisciplinary articles for peer-reviewed journals.
• Creation of an online resource platform to share the Center’s work and tools.
• Participation in European calls for proposals:
• Submission of projects to Horizon Europe programmes for interdisciplinary research on personal and collective transformation.

Training and education

• Creation of modules for companies and institutions:
  • Managing organisational change.
  • Support for individual transformation (transformational leadership, personal development, change management).
  • Social theatre and structured dialogue

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