Understanding Religion and Social Change in Ethiopia

Mohammed Girma is a Postdoctoral Researcher at ETF, Leuven, Belgium, and Research Associate at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He previously worked at Yale University as a Visiting Research Fellow, and has published a number of articles in refereed academic journals and book chapters. He currently lives in The Hague, The Netherlands.

• Preface List of Abbreviations General Introduction One The Hermeneutic of 'Wax and Gold' Two The Hermeneutic of Demystification Three The Hermeneutic of Compartmentalization Four Toward a New Hermeneutic of Covenant Notes Bibliography Index

"This book is a wide-angled and original analysis of the past, present and future of Ethiopian society and politics, achieving what much secular social science still thinks cannot or should not be attempted. It effectively deploys a profoundly religious notion, that of 'covenant', both as an explanatory device to illuminate one of the most powerful, but often neglected, drivers of Ethiopian history and culture and as a fruitful normative resource to guide it into a more just and peaceful future." - Jonathan Chaplin, Director, the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, and Co-editor of God and Global Order: The Power of Religion in American Foreign Policy (Baylor University Press, 2010) "Writing into the tensions of cultural dynamism in a globalizing world, Mohammed Girma makes an important contribution to religious studies and political theory by exploring resources for Ethiopians to interpret and negotiate social change." - Willis Jenkins, Margaret Farley Associate Professor of Social Ethics, Yale Divinity School