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abstract: Conversion to Judaism has a long history, and changes in Jewish law for converts over the centuries have reflected changes in the relationship between the Jewish community and the larger societies within which Jews have lived. As American Jews now live in the most open society they have encountered, a split is developing between Orthodox and liberal Jewish rabbinic authorities in how they deal with potential converts. This split is evident in books written to advice potential converts and in conversion narratives by people who have converted to Judaism. For this project over 30 people who were in the process of converting to Judaism were interviewed. Their stories reflect the ways in which liberal Judaism has been affected by American ideals and values, including feminism and an emphasis on spiritual individuality. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Religious Studies 2013

Using documentary and ethnographic information, an analogy is drawn between conquest-period (ca. 1722) and contemporary political and religious institutions among the Cora (Nayari) people of the Sierra del Nayar in the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico. Fundamental to these political and religious institutions-then and now-is the idea that the deceased elders of the Cora people continue as active agents in the lives of living Coras, particularly as the seasonal rains. Based on this analogy, an inference is extended from contemporary attitudes of Cora people in the town of Santa Teresa toward the political and religious customs that mediate their relationships with these deceased ancestors, to the possible attitudes of Cora people toward their religious customs at the time of the Spanish conquest of the region. Millenarian fear, an anxiety that is widespread in Santa Teresa as contemporary Coras confront their own failure to adequately continue the customs of their ancestors, is inferred to have been a motivating factor in the Cora's acceptance of Catholic religious customs during the colonial period of their history.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PROBLEM: The problem of this dissertation is to determine the development of the views of conversion in the Christian church. This study is concerned with the two extreme schools of thought in regard to conversion which are evident in the church today. For the most part, the two trends of thinking have existed independently of each other, yet the objectives in general are the same for both. The gradual growth conversion has been associated with Christian education. The cataclysmic conversion has come to be associated with certain typee of evangelism and revivalism. This study seeks to indicate points of agreement and disagreement between the two methods of entering the Christian life and, further, to find a mediating position between the two. PROCEDURE: The major works of men who represent each era in Christian history, from the beginning of the ministry of Jesus to the present time, have been studied to determine the position the church has held, during these different intervals, concerning the method of entering the Christian life. The findings have been written in chronological order. Once the positions of either the gradual or the cataclysmic conversion have been established, the implications in favor of Christian education have been indicated. Careful analysis of the information gained from an adequate sampling of the books and articles written on the subject has made it possible to arrive at a mediating position between the two methods of conversion. [TRUNCATED]

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the choice patterns that lead to conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism and the role of Vodou after conversion. This study highlights disappointment with the church as the leading cause of conversion in Haiti. Other causes significant to the study were examined. In illness and healing lie the controversies of religious conversion in Haiti. The only way to cure Satanic Illness is by resorting to magic. However, conversion to Protestantism means rejection of Vodou and all of its practice. A secondary purpose is to determine the role of Vodou after conversion. A total of 100 participants between the ages of 18 to 44 were included in this study. Seven percent (7%) converted for economic reasons, 43% selected disappointment with the church, 17% community/environment encounter, 13% sickness/near death experience, 2% economic and disappointment, 7% community/environment encounter and disappointment with the church, 9% disappointment sickness and near death experience, 1% economic and sickness near death experience, 1% economic and community/environment encounter. Findings suggest that Vodou is deeply rooted in Haitian identity, though all Haitians may not practice Vodou; but there are characteristics in the Haitian society that suggest that Haitians are Vodouisant. For the conversion process to be successful in Haiti it has to deeply acknowledged Vodou, the religion practiced by the masses in Haiti.

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The subject of this dissertation is the course of religious conversion and the process of decision-making when converts decide which church they want to join. The theoretical part of the dissertation describes three models of conversion process which are based on psychological research works. Further it deals with a church as a large group and a small group because relationships with other believers (which fulfil the person's need to belong to a group of people) are one of important factors which could persuade a convert to join a church. At the end of the theoretical part there are stated the results concerning the number of believers and members of Christian churches from the census held in the Czech Republic, and there is also described a specific relation of the Czech society to Christian churches. The other part of the dissertation describes the results of qualitative research among 20 converts. The aim of the research was to compare the conversion process of young people with the models described in the theoretical part and to find out reasons which led to their decision to join a particular church. The respondents were chosen from the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and three pentecostal churches because the research also tried to find out if the reasons for...

During the First Crusade's onset, lay enthusiasm went unregulated. Popular preachers spread Urban II's call to crusade across Europe, and after Peter the Hermit left the Rhineland, religious tension flared and culminated in the 1096 A.D. Jewish massacres. This paper examines Christian crusader motivation during the 1096 massacres. Through textual analysis of contemporary Latin and Hebrew chronicles and medieval eschatological legends, I argue that the conversion of the Jewish communities to Christianity was the primary motivation of the Christian crusaders and neighboring burghers. I suggest that figures such as Count Emicho of Flonheim were likely inspired by the eschatological legend of the Last Roman Emperor and sought to destroy the Jewish communities to bring the second coming of Christ and the End Times. The Jewish communities' destruction was through conversion or the sword, however, I argue through primary source examples that conversion was preferable, and crusaders and burghers went to great lengths to see conversion through. This study is part of a growing body of research on conversion during the 1096 massacres, specifically conversion linked to Christian millenarianism. This study aims to add to the greater literature and offer another voice to the ongoing conversation.

Since the 1960’s there has been a marked increase in the number of known conversions from Islam to Christianity. This thesis asks whether certain of these ex-Muslim Christians engage in the process of theology-making and, if so, it asks what these theologies claim to know about God and humans’ relation to God. Utilizing the dialectic of contextuality-contextualization of Shoki Coe, and the sociology of theological knowledge of Robert Schreiter, the thesis seeks to answer these questions by the use of two case studies and an examination of some of the texts written by ex-Muslim Christians. Lewis Rambo’s theory of religious conversion and Steven Lukes’ theory of power will be used to clarify the changing dynamics of power which have helped to foster modern contexts wherein an unprecedented number of Muslims are both exposed to the Christian message and, if they choose to do so, able to appropriate it through religious conversion. The two case studies are of a Christian community which founded a Muslim-background church in the Arabophone world and some Iranian Christian congregations in the USA and UK Diaspora. Aspects of the contexts of these believers are investigated in some detail, including motives for religious conversion, numbers and locations of the converts, how apostates may be treated by Muslims, changes in migration and communications, and the Christian concept of religious conversion. The concept of inculturation which helps to describe the meeting of a specific community with the Christian message will aid in analyzing the communities and individuals being studied. The final chapter brings together the various threads which have been raised throughout the thesis and argues that ex-Muslim Christians are engaged in theology-making, that areas of interest to them include theology of the church, salvation and baptism, and that the dominant metaphor in these theologies is a conceptualization of love and power that sees the two divine traits as inseparable from each other; they represent a knowledge about who God is and what he is like, which, in their understanding, is irreconcilable with their former religion, Islam.

This diploma thesis aims for broad issue religious conversion especially in the case of the Apostle Paul. It is psychological and theological reflection of his conversion to Christianity, as described by the canonical New Testament texts. The forepartof the thesis reports theoretically into the location of the conversion of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's epistles. For the purpose of this diploma thesis the author describes briefly hagiotherapy method, a technique that combines knowledge of psychology and theology. The author focuses on the psychological perspective on religious conversion, its history and current state of research. The closing section of the thesis combines views of psychology and theology. Special attention aims at Paul's personality, which is described with the help of psychological terminology. Keywords: Religious conversion, The Apostle Paul, psychology of religion, hagiotherapy.