This is a phenomenological study of individual conversion experiences to Christianity from different religious traditions in India. The author has collected 165 accounts of conversion experiences by using maximum variant sampling and multiple methods of data collection. By using grounded theory, the author has generated a step model of transformative religious experiences. The step model incorporates the religious experience in conversion to which the converts attribute great significance. It accommodates both the role of religious practices and social psychological factors in the conversion process. This study also brings to light the hostilities to conversion in a multi-religious context.
Keywords Religious experience . Conversion . Transformation . Conversion in IndiaReligious conversion has been a burning issue in India and recently it attracted the media's attention. Studies have approached religious conversions in India from theological, sociological, and missiological perspectives. Clarke (2003) has stressed the need of a psychological approach by saying that there is "a lacuna in our studies on conversion in India. … there needs to be much more work in the area of psychology of conversions" (p. 290). Wulff (1995) has emphasized the need for redeeming "experience" to the centre stage in psychological studies. Rambo and Reh (1992) have expressed the need for a phenomenological approach to the study of conversion. Recognizing these needs, the author has designed an inter-disciplinary study (Psychological, Sociological, and Religious Studies) to explore conversion experience from a phenomenological perspective. Phenomenology takes the experience of a person as it appears. It takes the experience as a whole, "examining entities from many sides, angles, and perspectives" (Moustakas 1994, p. 58). Phenomenology looks for the meaning of an experience while committed to "thick" descriptions as it appears.
This article argues that religious conversion cannot be explained simply as a psychological process, but involves a spiritual dimension which gains greater significance from a phenomenological perspective. Analysing a single narrative of conversion in light of the other studies, the author argues for an integrated, psycho-spiritual, approach, and points out the centrality of religious experience in conversion. He claims that conversion triggers transformation in various aspects of the converts’ life.
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