Conversion to Christianity
Lewis R. Rambo|Charles E. Farhadian|David W. Kling
This chapter examines issues and themes in the history of Christian conversion through lens a single twentieth-century evangelical narrative—that author’s father. It analyzes this narrative by examining historical factors (the immediate, proximate, distant context), autobiographical reconstruction, psychological theory William James, sociological categories type (tradition transition, institutional affiliation, intensification, deconversion) motif (intellectual, mystical, experimental, affectional, revivalist, coercive). argues that while conversion, as word concept process event, is central to Christianity, it manifests itself multiform ways over time place. The complexity phenomenon requires attention semantics (definitions explanations conversion), social, political, cultural, theological range theoretical models methodological approaches.
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