Running head: CONVERSION
What is it to be converted? Does it mean that I take on the beliefs of other people’s religion? What if I am a strong believer in my own personal religion, and I just happen to agree with the viewpoints of another? Have I now abandoned my own practices and beliefs? In the article Conversion by James, he tells us that to be converted is to be regenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, and to gain an assurance. He states that to be converted is the process, which may be gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto, divided and consciously wrong inferior and unhappy, becomes unified and consciously right superior and happy, in consequences of its firmer hold upon religious realities.
Upon reading this article it furthered my knowledge about the fact that not everyone will become converted at the same time. So individuals wait until they have a life changing event happen to them and then they seek guidance from God or some other higher being that they believe in. it is also safe to say that when some people become converted, it is because they have been battling something that they no longer want to control their lives anymore, like some type of addiction. For instance a drug abuser or an alcoholic that was in the hospital and they know that they have to get themselves because they have come to the realization that they are going down the wrong rode and are ultimately self destructing. When people are living a sinful life they usually act like babies, only caring about themselves and being oblivious to the rest of the world around them. Dr. Starbuck says that when an individual is ready to be converted,” it takes the adolescent tendencies and builds upon them; it sees that the essential thing in adolescent growth is bring the person out of childhood into the new life of maturity and personal insight”
Although it was a well written and informative article, there was one part that I did not completely...