1.6.3

Conversion Experience

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Conversion Experience

Conversion – turning-towards – is usually used to describe the process of someone turning away from past sinful behaviour and beginning a new life based on faith in God.

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Meaning of repentance

  • Repentance, the word used in the Gospels to describe the action of leaving sin behind and beginning a new life in Christ, is translated from a Greek word metanoia, which has the sense of a turning away from sin, a complete and fundamental change of heart.
  • So conversion is a foundational element of Christian life. It can be gradual or sudden, but most practising Christians have some experience of it.
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St. Paul & Wesley's conversion

  • Radical examples of conversion can be found in St. Paul and John Wesley:
    • St Paul: Originally called Saul, Paul was a Jew who persecuted Christians until a sudden experience of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. He described himself as a new man, a new creation.
    • John Wesley: Initially aware that he did not have the same faith in a personal saviour that others had. He had a conversion experience in which he felt his heart warmed and felt trust in Christ that he had been saved from his sins.
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William James: sick & healthy soul

  • William James examines conversion in the light of his psychological account of the ‘sick soul’ and the ‘healthy soul’.
    • The sick soul is a personality type that is depressive and pessimistic; the healthy soul is conversely optimistic about life.
  • James claims that conversion affects the sick soul in a more profound and long-lasting way.

Jump to other topics

1Philosophy of Religion

1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato

1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle

1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body

1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation

1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason

1.6Religious Experience

1.7The Problem of Evil

1.8The Nature & Attributes of God

1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic

1.10Religious Language: 20th Century Perspective

2Religion & Ethics

3Developments in Christian Thought

3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings

3.2Death & the Afterlife

3.3Knowledge of God's Existence

3.4The Person of Jesus Christ

3.5Christian Moral Principles

3.6Christian Moral Action

3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology

3.8Development - Pluralism & Society

3.9Gender & Society

3.10Gender & Theology

3.11Challenges

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