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Wednesday April 15, 2009

Categories: Conversion

Did you see this? AN Wilson is a believer

ANWilson.jpgAN Wilson, known to many as a religious skeptic and critic of the Christian faith, tells his story of faith in public. I hadn't heard this before, and maybe I'm woefully outdated, but here it is.

A week ago, there were Palm Sunday processions all over the world. Near my house in North London is a parish with two churches. About 70 or 80 of us gathered at one of these buildings to collect our palms.

We were told by the priest: 'Where we are standing in Kentish Town does not look much like a Judaean hillside, and the other church to which we are walking does not look much like Jerusalem. But as we go, holding our palms, let us try to imagine the first Palm Sunday.'
Here's a second account from about two weeks back.

Wednesday December 31, 2008

Categories: Church History, Conversion

Jonathan Edwards on Revival

McDermott.JPGThe most famous sermon in American history is "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

The most famous theologian in American history is Jonathan Edwards, the theologian who preached that most famous sermon.

My friend and a Jonathan Edwards scholar, Gerald McDermott, has recently edited a book on Edwards called Understanding Jonathan Edwards: An Introduction to America's Theologian. Just in case you don't know much about Edwards, this book is for you -- though written by experts the book succeeds in avoiding the jargon. And Edwards needs such a treatment because most only know this sermon and only know it as a caricature.

Friday December 19, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Interview with Anne Rice 2

This just added: Beliefnet has a discussion group about Anne Rice.

Recently I read Anne Rice's new memoir, I reviewed it on this blog (part one, part two), and Beliefnet found a way for us to get in contact with Anne to interview her for this blog. Her memoir is called Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession Here is the second set of questions I asked Anne: annerice.jpg
The tell-tale sign of conversion is the re-working or re-imagining of one's autobiography, or one's personal story. You have all the marks of conversion - in fact, you have re-shaped your understanding of what your novels were ultimately seeking even though you admit you might not have known such things when you were writing them. Now my question: Why do you say your conversion is not being "born again"? Isn't a theme of your rediscovery of your faith a new lease on life or a new life for you?

Catholics don't tend to use the expression "born again."  I think that my return in 1998 was too unemotional to be called a "born again" experience, though in 2002, when I decided to write only for Christ, that was an intense emotional moment and a "born again" moment.  I was certainly born again at that time as a Christian writer, and only now some 6 years later am I realizing that I am born again to an entirely new literary world.  Not only does my writing emcompass the Christ the Lord series, of the utmost importance; but I am also writing Songs of the Seraphim, a series of metaphysical thrillers about angels and their activity with humans on Earth.  I see a whole spectrum of Christian novel possibilities before me: Christmas novels, novels about the early Christians, and other possibilities yet unimagined.  ---- I am born again. There seems no doubt of it.  The change after 2002 was total and pervasive and dramatic.  Before that time, though I was going to church, I was learning more and more every week about my religion and what it was asking of me.  I was in an interim stage. I'd returned, yes, but I did not know yet what Christ was asking of me personally, and that came to be that I write for Him, and also that I seek to understand His Gospels much more deeply and completely than ever before, and that I seek to live by them. 




Thursday December 18, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Conversion

Do you think folks convert at a single moment or do you think it happens (for some) over time? Do you think it happens different for different people -- some all at once and others over time?

Let me give a big sociological sketch first. Studies reveal that folks, in a general sense, "convert" to the Christian faith in one of three basic ways:

through a church process of being nurtured into the faith,
through another church process of ongoing exposure to the sacraments, or
through a personal decision emphasis.

My own contention is that denominations and local churches tend to favor -- putting it mildly -- one of these processes. The result is that nurturance converts can be a bit nervous with sacramental converts and personal decision converts can break out in a rash when they encounter either. Studying how conversions take place is discussed in two of my own studies: Turning to Jesus and Finding Faith, Losing Faith.

Tell me: Does your church tend to favor one of these models? Do you think conversion is a process? Or do you think there is a distinct, conscious moment of conversion for anyone who is converted?

Thursday December 18, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Interview with Anne Rice 1

I recently read Anne Rice's memoir (Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession ); the good folks at Beliefnet got me in touch with Anne for an interview -- and I'm most grateful for her time and for her answers. Here is the first of two sets of questions:
 Anne, your memoir singularly describes a girlhood of beauty and sensory experience and then a sensory-experience conversion, and my question is this: If it is accurate to observe a sensory dimension in your return to the Catholic Church, what would you say you were "lacking" at the sensory level that found resolution in conversion?

annerice.jpgYour question is a challenging one, but I was not lacking at the sensory level when I returned to the church. Rather the "going home" was all the easier because the sensory elements of Catholicism were still richly present, and they attracted me as much as an adult, as they had attracted and satisfied me as a child.  But my life was full of sensory elements at the time, especially paintings by my husband, religious statues that I had collected, numerous photographs of gorgeous places I had visited, etc.   The underlining key is this: Catholicism does embrace the senses, and has never sought to "purify" its sensuous elements, and for this reason I feel very comfortable in my childhood church.  The mystery of the Eucharist which drew me back to the church is enshrined in sensuous elements: the golden tabernacle, the ritual of the Mass, the incense, bells, the ritual of receiving communion etc.  I should add that as a child, I was shaped by this sensuality, and it marks all my work. 


Tuesday November 25, 2008

Categories: Conversion

The Christ-Haunted Vampire Novelist 2

Anne Rice's vampire novels have sold 100 million copies. She now writes, as she tells us so candidly in her memoir of conversion, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession , solely for God. This is our second post on...

Monday November 24, 2008

Categories: Conversion

The Christ-Haunted Vampire Novelist

Anne Rice's vampire novels have sold 100 million copies. She now writes, as she tells us so candidly in her memoir of conversion, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession , solely for God. Her story is an old genre:...

Tuesday September 23, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Elizabeth Chapin

This post is from Elizabeth Chapin. I've had this awhile but last week was occupied with other topics. Elizabeth's post is serious and stands alone. While Leonard Sweet considers Alan Jamieson’s Chrysalis as “destined to become a classic” I found...

Monday September 22, 2008

Categories: Conversion

More on the Liturgical Turn

What is going on? There is a rise, a burgeoning rise, of young college students converting from low church evangelicalism, with its anemic, unhistorical ecclesiology, to the great liturgical traditions: Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Three students this semester have...

Saturday September 20, 2008

Categories: Conversion

TruthQuest

Hauna Ondrey and I spoke at Willow Creek's excellent TruthQuest forum last Friday night. A good size gathering of folks came out for nearly two hours -- on a rainy night -- for our session. (Hauna and I wrote Finding...

Thursday September 11, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Apostasy from Orthodoxy

An informed reader of the blog has sent this letter into me and I want to post it and offer a response -- a brief one -- at the end. Scot, these are my thoughts on Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation...

Tuesday September 2, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: John Frye

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. This series on Chrysalis is about Alan Jamieson's book Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. Today's comes from John Frye. Having embraced...

Thursday August 28, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith, Losing Faith: RJS

We have asked a few folks to respond to our recent book, Finding Faith, Losing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy. Today "RJS" responds to the chapter that is about apostasy and its reasons, and this chp comes from someone...

Wednesday August 27, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith, Losing Faith: John Frye

Today I have asked John Frye to respond to the chp on why Catholics are moving to Evangelicalism, a movement of dramatic numbers in South America. As a pastor, John knows the substance of this chapter in Finding Faith, Losing...

Tuesday August 26, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith, Losing Faith: Art Boulet

In this series on our book, Finding Faith, Losing Faith, we have a chp on why Evangelicals become Catholics. Michael Spencer (iMonk) wrote one response. I also asked Art Boulet, who blogs at his excellent blog, and he has this...

Monday August 25, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Mark Farmer

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. This series on Chrysalis is about Alan Jamieson's book Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. Today's comes from Mark Farmer. The final...

Friday August 22, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Andrew

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. This series on Chrysalis is about Alan Jamieson's book Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. Today's comes from Andrew. Alan Jamieson’s Chrysalis...

Thursday August 21, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Scott Gay

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. This series on Chrysalis is about Alan Jamieson's book Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. Today's comes from Scott Gay. Alan Jamieson's...

Wednesday August 20, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Matt Staton

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. This series on Chrysalis is about Alan Jamieson's book Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. Today's comes from Matt Staton. I approached...

Tuesday August 19, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Rachel

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. We will suspend our "heaven" series, continue our books -- Wright and Bain -- but will also be having posts about our new book, Finding...

Monday August 18, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: A Brief

A book many of us are reading for this blog, and we will have a number of reviews from our readers, is by Alan Jamieson and is called Chrysalis: The Hidden Transformation in the Journey of Faith. I was reminded...

Monday August 18, 2008

Categories: Conversion

iMonk on Finding Faith, Losing Faith

A couple weeks back I mentioned that I wrote a book with Hauna Ondrey called Finding Faith, Losing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy, and I have asked a few folks to "respond" to specific chapters. (These are not "reviews"...

Monday August 18, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Chrysalis: Cindy

Conversion and conversions will be themes of this blog for the next couple of weeks. We will suspend our "heaven" series, continue our books -- Wright and Bain -- but will also be having posts about our new book, Finding...

Monday July 28, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith, Losing Faith

Our book is now out! And this time "our" means "Scot McKnight and Hauna Ondrey." A real plural. The title is Finding Faith, Losing Faith: Stories of Conversion and Apostasy and Baylor has produced a book that fits well in...

Wednesday June 25, 2008

Categories: Conversion, Gospel

Evangelizing Postmoderns

A regular question I get asked goes something like this: "If you believe in a robust gospel, how then do you evangelize?" I've got two books to recommend to you: The first is from James Choung and it is called...

Thursday April 24, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Spiritual Birthline

One of our regular commenters, Bob Smallman, was a classmate of mine when we were seminary students and this blog reunited us. Bob has a brother who pastored for 40 years and is now teaching students about evangelism. Stephen Smallman...

Thursday January 10, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Conversion at Winebrenner

I was at Winebrenner Theological Seminary in Findlay OH the last two days, so my access to the blog was limited to just a few minutes each day ... got home Wednesday evening to see that there has been a...

Tuesday January 8, 2008

Categories: Conversion

Christian Biographies 2

"That sav'd a wretch like me!" These are words from the second line of America's favorite hymn, a hymn written by John Newton and a central chapter in Jonathan Aitken's fine, uplifting, and well-written biography called John Newton: From Disgrace...

Tuesday October 30, 2007

Categories: Conversion

Is Image Everything? 3

One of the beefs non Christians have with Christians is their perception that Christians want them to "get saved!" So, Kinnaman and Lyons, in unChristian, study this them in chp. 4. This chp, however, is less about the perception that...

Tuesday October 2, 2007

Categories: Conversion

Redemptive Story

Mariam, a regular reader of and commenter on this blog, posted this as a comment Sept 26 on our "Conversion" post. I wish here to record my thanks to her for telling her story, a truly redemptive one, at this...

Monday September 24, 2007

Categories: Conversion

Conversion

How were you converted? Readers of this blog will know of my interest in conversion and mapping conversion stories. In a recent conversation I was confronted once again with this reality: local churches tend to "institutionalize" conversion to fit one...

Wednesday September 5, 2007

Categories: Books, Conversion

Finding Faith/Losing Faith 5

Some people lose their faith and then find it again. In Timothy Larsen's new book Crisis of Doubt, we are treated to seven such figures in 19th Century England. They had a secularist crisis of (their) doubt. This way of...

Tuesday September 4, 2007

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith/Losing Faith 4

I continue to plug away in the late evenings by reading stories of those who have abandoned orthodox Christian theology as I try to map what losing faith looks like. In the last week I read two books. Howard Teeple's...

Tuesday August 14, 2007

Categories: Conversion

Finding Faith/Losing Faith 3

A letter from a former Christian who now is atheistic or agnostic, used with permission and now also leading to some observations about our study on the "anatomy of apostasy." Hi Scot, .... I was really surprised that I could...

Thursday August 2, 2007

Categories: Books, Conversion

Finding Faith/Losing Faith 2

One of the sources for my research into why and how some "lose" their orthodox faith is Edward T. Babinski, Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists. My research is not simply concerned with folks who begin as Christian and...

Tuesday July 31, 2007

Categories: Books, Conversion

Finding Faith/Losing Faith 1

I let the cat out of the bag Saturday in the Weekly Meanderings and the nice conversation that followed from it. I linked to the story of the reporter named Lobdell who, after a conversion to the faith and after...

Friday March 9, 2007

IVCF GSM

Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and early afternoon, and Thursday morning I spoke to the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Graduate Staff Ministries. To my delight, no travel: one mile west of my home is St Mary of the Lake Seminary and IVCF...

Wednesday December 20, 2006

Categories: Conversion, Missional

Catholic Flight to Evangelicalism

Catholics have been happy with me for three years -- for two reasons: I have embraced Mary in a Protestant sort of way but even more because I wrote an article a few years back that detailed why it is...

Thursday September 7, 2006

Categories: Conversion

Vocational Angst 2

Our conversation yesterday about vocation enlightened me and made me thankful for this blog. For me especially was the realization that I could insert into conversations with students the reality that many will change their minds over their lifetime about...

Monday September 4, 2006

Categories: Conversion

On Camps

Camps and camping have been special to many of us for a long, long time. My theory about what makes camps tick -- and I'd like to know your thoughts -- is that they "encapsulate" people. That is, people get...

Thursday May 18, 2006

Party Evangelism: A Churched Perspective

One of my students, Renee Dinges, did this project on party evangelism and she is working this out with another of my students, who must have one of the coolest names in history, "Lightning." He, too, is prayerfully considering becoming...

Tuesday May 16, 2006

What is Party Evangelism?

In the next few days I'm publishing here a student project by Renee Dinges, who is preparing herself for church-planting in the Vineyard. She, along with some young folk at the Vineyard Church in Evanston, have initiated a new "party...

Wednesday May 10, 2006

You Converted Me!

I have been interested in conversion for a long time, so I am thrilled that Paraclete has now come out with an updated version of one of my all-time classics, the original Christian conversion story, Augustine's Confessions. No other than...

Wednesday January 25, 2006

Categories: Conversion

Tell me your story (second time)

Many of you know that I have published a book on conversion, Turning to Jesus, and that I have also done two studies of conversion of a more particular nature: one on why Evangelicals convert to Roman Catholicism (see sidebar...

Thursday January 19, 2006

Categories: Conversion, Jesus Creed

You and Jesus

A test I give to my Jesus of Nazareth students at the beginning and end of the semester, which I may have put on this blog before, derives from the North England Institute for Christian Education. This test asks questions...

Tuesday January 17, 2006

Categories: Conversion

Tell me your story

Many of you know that I have published a book on conversion, Turning to Jesus, and that I have also done two studies of conversion of a more particular nature: one on why Evangelicals convert to Roman Catholicism (see sidebar...

Tuesday January 10, 2006

Categories: Conversion, Miscellaneous

Wheaton and Roman Catholic Professors

Perhaps you are unaware, but The Wall Street Journal, in its Jan 8-9 weekend edition, had a story about Prof Joshua Hochschild, a philosophy professor at Wheaton who converted to Roman Catholicism and then was released by Wheaton because his...

Friday July 22, 2005

Categories: Conversion

The Aim of Conversion: Consequences

In this post on conversion, I want to look at the sixth dimension of conversion: consequences.The first five dimensions, which are not "steps" but dimensions that often are intertwined and dialectical -- like any good relationship, are (1) context, (2)...

Thursday July 21, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Witness as indicator of conversion

In the fifth dimension of conversion (commitment), a person makes it clear that she or he is now committed to a relationship with Jesus. Conversion theorists say they are three "manifestations" of commitment: decision, surrender, and witness.We need to keep...

Wednesday July 20, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Gentle Nods of the Soul

A final thought on Peter.Let us accept that there are sudden or at least cataclysmic conversions like Paul's. We know little about Paul's experience prior to his conversion, but it is entirely possible that he had heard the gospel before...

Tuesday July 19, 2005

Categories: Conversion

When was Peter...?

The blog has been pretty busy today, so it is about time for me to jump and in and give my two cents worth.First, I believe that question, which is innocent in itself, assumes what I will call at this...

Tuesday July 19, 2005

Categories: Conversion

What about Peter? When was he converted?

The most stimulating discussions I have had over the years in classes and at churches when I am leading a discussion about conversion or about the Jesus Creed "emerge" from this question:What about you, when do you think Peter was...

Monday July 18, 2005

Categories: Conversion

The Christian temptation to tell clean stories

This is perhaps not what you are looking for.By "clean" I mean that Christians often want to tell conversion stories that are clean: I was a sinner and then I found Jesus and now I'm squeaky clean. This kind of...

Sunday July 17, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Emergence and Conversion

One of the more interesting features of the Emerging movement (I'm not keen on calling this a "church" until we see some world-wide church structures that encompass the whole) is how it intersects with a fascinating aspect of conversion theory.Conversion...

Saturday July 16, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Crises prompting Conversion

People convert to the Christian faith as a result of some crisis, though a word needs to be said about the meaning of "crisis." Before that, this: the standard form of "crisis" we often see is what is called the...

Friday July 15, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Conversion: Kinds and Context

In this series of reflections based on Turning to Jesus, I want to look today at the various kinds of conversion and then at the context out of which the convert comes.The process of conversion -- whether suddenly or gradually...

Thursday July 14, 2005

Categories: Conversion

After all, what is conversion?

Trying to define conversion in a meaningful way is not easy, so I will go to two major scholars of conversion theory. In doing this, let me emphasize that the scholarly discussion of conversion avoids specific theological terms, so sometimes...

Thursday July 14, 2005

Categories: Conversion

Church Orientations to Conversion

Each local church, whether radically independent or associated with a larger denomination, institutionalizes a conversion orientation. A church does this by the way it presents the gospel, by the way it teaches Sunday School, by the way it preaches from...

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About Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). A popular and witty speaker, Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and educational events. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986). Click to continue reading Scot McKnight's Bio...

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