This volume seeks to explore the intersection of theology, philosophy and the public sphere not by referring the social and political to ethics and deontology as is often the case, but rather to ontology itself, to the very nature of beings. The meaning of history and historicity is most pertinent to this enquiry and is approached here both from the perspective of social reality and from the perspective of ontology. Joining together contributions focusing on theory of the public sphere and metaphysics, chapters explore subjects as diverse as the political implications of the Incarnation, the paradox between ontology and history, politically left and right appropriations of Christianity, the fecundity of Maximus the Confessor's insights for a contemporary political philosophy, modern Orthodox political theology focusing on Christos Yannaras and numerous thematic areas that together form the mosaic of the enquiry in question.

Jonathan Cole is a research fellow of the Centre for Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University, Canberra, Australia. He is the director of AIOCS Press, a contributing editor to The New Polis, and a lecturer at the Lachlan Macquarie Institute. He previously spent fourteen years working for the Australian government in a range of departments and agencies, including as a senior terrorism analyst at the Office of National Assessments (2010-14).