Paul and Augustine: Conversion Narratives, Orthodox Traditions, and the Retrospective Self

Fredriksen, Paula

doi:10.1093/jts/37.1.3

Cited by 154 publications

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“…Linking conversion and apostasy as contrary aspects of one conceptual phenomenon, he calls the latter "the keystone of the pathology of conversion" (Morrison 1992: 91), and sees the text as a window not into the "mentality" of the convert but into that of the author who depicted him or the public that imagined him. The narrative approach, shifting from the history of the experience of entering or leaving religion to that of understanding these processes through stories, has been developed in numerous subsequent publications over the last twenty-five years (for example Fredriksen 1986;Deweese 1994;Hindmarsh 2005;Schmitt 2010;Hindmarsh 2014;Szpiech 2013). Similarly, a few studies (Barbour 1994;Viswanathan 1998) have explicitly treated leaving religion (apart from conversion) on the basis of narrative and discourse analysis.…”

Section: Methodological Perspectives and Turning Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion

Szpiech¹

2020

Handbook of Leaving Religion

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Introducing Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion In the early fourteenth century, the Castilian Jew Abner of Burgos (d. ca. 1347) embraced the Christian religion and began to call himself Alfonso of Valladolid after changing his city of residence. He passed the remaining three decades of his life writing extensive polemics against Judaism, not in Latin, but in Hebrew, some of which he and possibly others translated into Castilian. Although there is no evidence that the sincerity of his conversion was ever in question among his Christian brethren, Abner/Alfonso-he is known by both names, depending on the sources-became one of the Christian anti-Jewish polemical writers who was most often cited by Jews, a majority of whom roundly condemn him as a liar, traitor, and apostate (Szpiech 2013: 144-150). Abner/Alfonso's reputation among Jews as a notorious apostate has persisted to the twentieth century. Historian Yitzhaq Baer, states, "Abner did not belong in the fold of orthodox Catholicism; he was a typical mumar, a heretic within the Jewish camp" (Baer 1961: 1:334). Yet even though his "heresy" was commonplace, his reputation was not, for as word of his actions spread, he became no less than "the best known apostate ever to arise in medieval Jewry" (328). For Baer, Abner/Alfonso's identity as an apostate relies on the lingering persistence of his Jewish identity, his remaining within the Jewish fold rather than leaving it. For Baer, Abner/Alfonso "remained a Jew at heart." (334). Yet not all historians agree, and some see him as a traitor who left Judaism (for example, Shamir 1975: 53, who deems him a "true convert"). Raphale Jospe sums up the problem, posing the question, "Do we treat such thinkers and their works as Jewish, as Jewish until the time of their apostasy, or as non-Jewish and having no place in the context of Jewish philosophy?" (Jospe 1988: 9, my translation). If Abner/Alfonso was a "Jew at heart" who remained "within the Jewish camp," was his departure from Judaism insincere and incomplete? Must he be deemed a "true convert" (and so also a "true apostate") in order to "leave" one religion for another? Abner/Alfonso's life and works present historians with a vexing question about scholarly methodology: how can one approach without bias the subject of leaving religion in historical sources? The question springs from a broader © Ryan Szpiech, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004331471_022 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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Section: Methodological Perspectives and Turning Pointsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion

Szpiech¹

2020

Handbook of Leaving Religion

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“…Regnerus and Uecker (2006) speak of four kinds of religious or spiritual transformations in adolescence: (1) intensified devotion within the same religious structure, (2) a shift from no religious commitment to a devout religious life, (3) change from one religion to another, (4) losing faith -a transformation in which religious commitments or behaviors are suddenly left behind, replaced by nothing in particular (Gooren 2010). Fredriksen (1986) suggests that reflection on religious conversion begins with a retrospective glance: How did I get here? And it is by construction of a narrative account that the self is able to unify his past and present: "I'll tell you how I got here, it was like this [...]" (Ricoeur 1979: 123).…”

Section: Adolescent Identity: Formed Through Narrativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The journeying self: From narcissism to solidarity and doxology

Guyette¹

2017

Frontiers of Narrative Studies

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Under the sign of "the journeying self," I offer a sketch of a Christian pilgrimage from narcissism to solidarity and doxology. Developmental psychology can help frame questions about growth in self-awareness from childhood (Fivush) to early adulthood (Habermas). Often this kind of growth is expressed in the language of narrative (Ricoeur), but a "minority report" summarizes several different critiques of life narratives -in the work of Derek Parfit, Galen Strawson, Hayden White, and Jean-Francois Lyotard, among others. Nevertheless, a positive assessment of narrative recommences, thanks in part to Twenge's interest in how human beings can reach out beyond themselves to others and to God (Josselson, McAdams). A reflection on Psalm 51 seeks to help pilgrims further along a path from narcissism to solidarity with others and further on toward doxology.

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“…It reflected his present situation and the past was interpreted in terms of what he wanted to show. 106 Nor was he ignorant of storytelling skills, sacramental confession being an important preparation for him to tell his misdeeds. 107 Besides, he could have been tipped off what to tell the court.…”

Section: Suspected Of Heresymentioning

confidence: 99%

Conversion Narratives and the Roman Inquisition in Malta, 1650–1700

Ciappara¹

2015

Journal of Religious History

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This article analyses the conversion narratives which Christian renegades to Islam narrated to the inquisitor on their arrival in Malta in the second half of the seventeenth century. A few of them really believed in their new faith and were declared formal heretics, but the great majority had either been brought up as Muslims since a tender age or else were only suspected of believing that one can save oneself as a Muslim. The inquisitors were very indulgent with them and believed them when they said that they preserved the Christian religion in their hearts and were Muslims only on the outside.

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Paul and Augustine: Conversion Narratives, Orthodox Traditions, and the Retrospective Self

Cited by 154 publications

References 0 publications

Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion

Historical Approaches to Leaving Religion

The journeying self: From narcissism to solidarity and doxology

Conversion Narratives and the Roman Inquisition in Malta, 1650–1700

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