In the Wakefield Second Shepherds' Pageant, a mid-to late fifteenth-century English mystery drama, the most profound aspect of Christian faith, the celebration of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is expressed in humorous terms. In a farcical subplot, Mak, a thief, steals a sheep from three shepherds, and, when the suspecting shepherds search his house, hides it in a cradle, pretending it is his and his wife Gill's newborn baby. Mak and Gill are exposed but let off with a merciful punishment, after which the brief main plot continues with the shepherds visiting the Christ child in Bethlehem. In the play's comical climax, Gill attempts to convince the searching shepherds of her honesty, drawing an analogy between the actual lamb and the Agnus Dei: 'I pray to God so milde / If ever I you beg[u]ild, / That I ete this childe / That ligys in this credyll'. 1 If the joke is funny, it is so because it is true on several levels, including a theological one: Gill is actually guilty of beguiling the shepherds, the disguised lamb is actually edible, and, according to late medieval Christian doctrine, Christ's flesh and blood are literally consumed as part of the Eucharist. Ostensibly a somewhat crude and simplistic farce, the play has been recognised for its complex portrayal of its characters, notably Mak, and its crafty combination of comedy and spirituality. 2 Rather than used as a L. Stelling (*)
T he study of religious conversion begins in the field of psychology, and focuses on subjective experiences of individuals. As such, it is defined by Protestant traditions of self-scrutiny, self-surrender, and fostering a personal relationship with a Christian God. In his seminal and classic work Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), William James defines conversion as follows: "to be converted, to be regenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, to gain an assurance, are so many phrases which denote the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto divided, and consciously wrong inferior and unhappy, becomes unified and consciously right superior and happy, in consequence of its firmer hold upon religious realities." James largely bases himself on the one hundred case studies of evangelical church members that are presented
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