Includes bibliographical references (pages 210-235) and index.

Print version record.

Introduction: Vertigos and lies -- 1. The destabilization of the self -- Comparing fiction and reality: some epistemological notes -- Preaching and conversion after the Council of Trent -- The mute word: cultural obstacles between preaching and conversion -- The eloquent icon: sermons of images and images of sermons in early-modern Catholic evangelization -- 2. The crisis of the self -- Conversion and treason -- Conversion and controversy -- Conclusion -- 3. The re-stabilization of the self -- Introduction -- The conversion of ideas: the fig tree -- The conversion of passions: the mirrors and the ointment -- The conversion of actions: the horse.

"The author traces the paradigm of conversion and identity in relation to the spiritual turning points of three protagonists of Christianity: Saint Augustine, whose mainly intellectual conversion is studied through the analysis of the symbol of the fig tree; the Magdalene, whose emotional turning point is approached through a semiotic analysis of both the mirror and the ointment; and Saint Paul, whose 'conversion of actions' is studied through a semiotic investigation of the symbol of the horse. Religious Conversions and Identity focuses mainly on the early-modern epoque, especially in the Catholic area, but also considers the way in which modern authors (such as Saramago, Claudel, Rilke, Proust and Pasolini) adopted previous stories of conversion as models for the representation of the turning points of human life."--Jacket

English.