Studies in Christian Conversion and Spiritual Autobiography

I have designed this course to stimulate you to think in a disciplined way about the nature of Christian conversion through the study of a number of historical examples. We will focus most intently in the second half of the course on the early evangelical tradition of spiritual autobiography or ‘conversion narrative’, though we will set this within—and sometimes against—the larger history of the response of women and men to Christian proclamation through the centuries. Attention will be paid chiefly to theological themes in the literature studied, but this will be augmented by some discussion of interdisciplinary perspectives on the conversion experience. We will explore the relevance of all of this to our experience of faith and ministry in the contemporary world, and you will be encouraged to think through your own theology of conversion

 

This syllabus was created for the Young Scholars in American Religion program.

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