Jim
Wallis, The Call to Conversion: Why Faith
Is Always Personal but Never Private (London: HarperCollins, 2005)
A
revised version of his 1981 book, calling for conversion of life.
Biblical
Studies
J.D.G. Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (London: T&T Clark, 2003)
Chapters 5 and 6 are especially useful in discussing what Dunn calls the beginning of salvation and the process of salvation.
J.M. Everts, ‘Conversion and Call of Paul’, in Dictionary of the Pauline Letters (IVP, 156-63.
Beverly Roberts Gaventa, From Darkness to
Light. Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament (OBT), (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1986), 52-95
Richard N. Longenecker (ed.), The Road from Damascus. The Impact of Paul’s Conversion on His Life, Thought, and Ministry (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997)
Eleven studies which start from the Damascus Road Event and see what difference it made to Paul.
Scot McKnight, Turning to Jesus: The Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002)
A helpful study of gospel stories through the lens of Rambo’s theory of conversion.
Richard V. Peace, Conversion in the New Testament: Paul and the Twelve (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 1999)
A comparison of the conversion experiences of Paul and the Twelve disciples, arguing that both models, event and process, are important and Biblical. His analysis of the Damascus Road event, which he calls a ‘vision’, focuses instead on the movement in conversion through insight-turning-transformation, which he draws from various discussions of psychology and religious experience. Includes a good discussion of the practical implications.
Seyoon Kim, The Origin of St. Paul’s Gospel (WUNT 2), (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1981), 51-66.
Kim is particularly interested in showing how the ‘Damascus Road Event’, where the risen Christ appears to Paul, lies at the heart of Paul’s apostolic calling. A technical discussion.
David F. Wells, Turning to God: Biblical Conversion in the Modern World (Carlisle: WEF, 1997)
Evangelical account of conversion, partly concerned to counter what are seen as unbiblical views of conversion.
Tom Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said (Oxford: Lion, 1997), 25-37
Historical Studies
Augustine, Confessions
The classic account of the conversion of an individual.
D. Bruce Hindmarsh, The Evangelical Conversion Narrative: Spiritual Autobiography in Early Modern England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Discusses the massive growth in written conversion accounts in the 18th century and their importance for how conversion was understood.
Alan Kreider, The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1999)
Studies conversion from second to sixth centuries. He shows how the concept developed, but also continuity of concern to see change in behaviour, belief and belonging of potential converts.
Meic Pearse, ‘Soundly Converted?’ in Antony Billington, Tony Lane, Max Turner (eds) Mission and Meaning (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), 230-41
Expounds the case for gradual conversion in historical sources, especially the Puritan tradition.
Michael C. Questier, Conversion, Politics and Religion in England, 1580-1625 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Interprets the Reformation in England as a call to conversion and tests this by examining the lives of individuals. Concludes that conversions involved an interplay of religious beliefs and political convictions.
Sociological
and Empirical Studies
James Engel, What's Gone Wrong With The Harvest, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Press, 1975), p. 45.
His Engel scale assessing where a person might be on a journey of faith was explicitly constructed on the basis that conversion is a process, though with a decisive point of repentance and commitment. It has undergone modification and critique as beoing over prescriptive. Can be explored on the web.
John Finney, Finding Faith Today (Swindon: Bible Society, 1992)
Hugely influential study of how adults came to faith in Britain in 1990/1
Technical Report:
Pam Hanley, Finding Faith Today: The Technical Report (Swindon: British and Foreign Bible Society, 1992).
William K. Kay and Leslie J. Francis, Drift from the Churches (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996)
Christopher Lamb and M. Darrol Bryant (eds), Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Controversies (London: Cassell, 1999)
Highlights issues across world religions, though Christianity predominates, offering theoretical frameworks, histories of conversion in a variety of religions, and contemporary case studies.
J. Lofland and R. Stark, ‘Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective.’ American Sociological Review 30, 1965, 862-875
Influential article setting out a model of a convert, though from study of a religious cult, not a mainstream religion.
Christopher Partridge and Helen Reid (eds), Finding and Losing Faith: Studies in Conversion (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006)
Helpful essays on conversion to and, from and within Christianity.
Martyn Percy (ed.), Previous Convictions: Conversion in the Present Day (London: SPCK, 2000)
Essays exploring conversion from a range of perspectives, including psychological and sociological.
Lewis Rambo, Understanding Religious Conversion (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993)
A key text which synthesised and progressed the debate on the nature of conversion.
Sara Savage, ‘A Psychology of Conversion – from All Angles’, in Percy (ed.) Previous Convictions, 1-19.
D. A. Snow and R. Machalek , ‘The Sociology of Conversion’, Annual Review of Sociology, 10, 1984, 167-190.
Review article setting out possible social psychological factors in conversion.
Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, ‘Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects’ The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 85, No. 6. (May, 1980), pp. 1376-1395.
Another important article, arguing that ‘interpersonal bonds’ are as important in conversion as provision for the convert for their personal deprivations. Again shows how much of this research has been done on cults and sects.
http://www.jstor.org/view/00029602/dm992654/99p0166t/0
Gavin Wakefield, and Mark J. Cartledge, ‘Ministers finding faith’ Journal of Empirical Theology 15.2, 2002, 43-60
A critique of Finding Faith Today and discussion of ordinands coming to faith