Implications Of Christian Conversions

Implications of Christian Conversions As Exposed by Judicial Commissions and other Reports Author: H.V. Seshadri

The essays in this volume study cultural conversions that arose from missionary activities in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries effected changes that often went beyond what they had intended, sometimes backfiring against the missions. These changes entailed wrenching political struggles to redefine families, communities, and lines of authority. This volume’s contributors examine the meanings of "conversion" for individuals and communities in light of loyalties and cultural traditions, and consider how conversion, as a process, was often ambiguous. The history of Christian missions emerges from these pages as an integral part of world history that has stretched beyond professing Christians to affect the lives of peoples who have consciously rejected or remained largely unaware of missionary appeals.

This study of the conversion of tribal peoples to Christianity combines case studies with the contributors' theories, challenging anthropologists and sociologists to reassess the varieties of religious experience and the convergent processes involved in religious change.

Conversion is intrinsic to the Christian religion. The most remarkable conversion recorded in the New Testament is that of Paul, and most Christians consider Christ's encounter with Paul to be a prototype of Christian conversion generally. This collection of eleven essays gives Paul's conversion a firmer rootage in the biblical materials while also emphasizing personal application. The contributors examine the nature of Paul's Damascus Road experience and the impact of that experience on his thought and ministry, and explore how Paul's experience functions as a paradigm for Christian thought and action today. Contributors: Bruce Corley, Terence L. Donaldson, James D. G. Dunn, Gordon D. Fee, Judith M. Gundry-Volf, G. Walter Hansen, Seyoon Kim, Bruce W. Longenecker, Richard N. Longenecker, I. Howard Marshall, Stephen Westerholm.

In Christianity and Conversion among Migrants, Darren Carlson explores the faith, beliefs, and practices of migrants and refugees as well as the Christian organizations serving them between 2014–2018 in Athens, Greece.

The United States has a long history of religious pluralism, and yet Americans have often thought that people’s faith determines their eternal destinies. The result is that Americans switch religions more often than any other nation. Lincoln Mullen traces the history of the distinctively American idea that religion is a matter of individual choice.

Using reflections, exercises, and suggestions for prayer and group sharing, this practical book explores five forms of conversion, the seven dynamics that structure the process and the significance for conversion of sacramental worship.