Abstract This essay is intended to provide a wide-ranging reconstruction of the history of the concept of parrhesia in relation to its political implications.  Moving from Michel Foucault’s reading of the concept, the paper gives a succinct overview of its use in classical Greece and

Abstract There is no one consistent translation of the term parrhesia in the Vulgata. This would seem to create an insurmountable obstacle to the reception of the concept, not so much in the Paleochristian world – still close to Hellenistic influences – but rather in the studia and th

Abstract The theme of parrhesia clearly emerges in a few dense pages, dating back to the 1950s, by two of the greatest theologians of the 20th Century. At first sight Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Rahner seem to be restating two different but already traditional interpretations: the

Abstract This paper shows that while the Greek parrhesia is above all concerned with the public and political spheres, the one of the Jews integrates and directs both spheres towards a different perspective, in which the religious dimension is strongest. In this new dimension parrhesi

Abstract This essay attempts to examine Foucault’s use of the concept of parrhesia and to understand why he makes it so central to his interpretation of classical and late classical thought. Such an interpretation is not in fact random or impolitic, but actually of critical importance

Abstract This contribution is a reading of Momus by L.B. Alberti which highlights the “freedom” with which the main character, Momo, interacts with Jove and the ambiguous status of the “truth” of his words. After having shown briefly that Momo is described as a parrhesiasta on a numbe

Abstract For Kant the duty to make public, rather than private, use of reason entails the possibility of contributing to the progress of humanity.  It implies an opposition between the use of reason according to the norm and that against the norm, or the ‘illegal’ use of r

Abstract This paper encapsulates the Evangelical theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reasons for working with the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany and, when arrested and tortured, hiding his own position. This dissimulation is understood as an example of renouncing parrhesia, for which Bo