Conversion Experience
Religious Studies: OCR A Level, topic 1.6.3
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.
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.
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.
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.
Test yourself on Conversion Experience
Which of these are true of James' theory of the soul and conversion?