A History of Christian Conversion

David W. Kling (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

852 Seiten

2020
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-532092-3 (ISBN)

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Conversion has played a central role in the history of Christianity. In this first in-depth and wide-ranging narrative history, David Kling examines the dynamic of turning to the Christian faith by individuals, families, and people groups. Global in reach, the narrative progresses from early Christian beginnings in the Roman world to Christianity's expansion into Europe, the Americas, China, India, and Africa. Conversion is often associated with a particular strand of modern Christianity (evangelical) and a particular type of experience (sudden, overwhelming). However, when examined over two millennia, it emerges as a phenomenon far more complex than any one-dimensional profile would suggest. No single, unitary paradigm defines conversion and no easily explicable process accounts for why people convert to Christianity. Rather, a multiplicity of factors-historical, personal, social, geographical, theological, psychological, and cultural-shape the converting process.

A History of Christian Conversion not only narrates the conversions of select individuals and peoples, it also engages current theories and models to explain conversion, and examines recurring themes in the conversion process: divine presence, gender and the body, agency and motivation, testimony and memory, group- and self-identity, "authentic" and "nominal" conversion, and modes of communication. Accessible to scholars, students, and those with a general interest in conversion, Kling's book is the most satisfying and comprehensive account of conversion in Christian history to date; this major work will become a standard must-read in conversion studies.

David W. Kling is the author of A Field of Divine Wonders: The New Divinity and Village Revivals in Northwestern Connecticut, 1792-1822; The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times; co-editor (with Douglas A. Sweeney) of Jonathan Edwards at Home and Abroad: Historical Memories, Cultural Movements, Global Horizons; and an area editor (American Christianity) for the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Miami.

Introduction

1. An Anatomy of Conversion

Part One: The Roman World

2. The New Testament (50-100)

3. The Early Church through Constantine (100-337)

4. The Western Imperial Church and Beyond (312-500)

Part Two: Medieval Europe

5. Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Europe (500-1000)

6. Rulers, Missionaries, Popes, and Patriarchs (400-1200)

7. Conversion by Coercion: Jews and Pagans (400-1500)

8. Interior Conversion: Monks, Mendicants, Mystics (1050-1500)

Part Three: Early Modern Europe

9. Protestants and Continental Reformers (1517-1600)

10. English Protestantism (1520-1700)

11. European Catholicism (1500-1700)

12. The Rise of Evangelicalism (1675-1750)

Part Four: The Americas

13. Catholics in Colonial America (1500-1700)

14. The Puritans and the Great Awakening in America (1630-1790)

15. American Evangelicalism in Black and White (1750-present)

16. Protestants and Pentecostals in Latin America (1900-present)

Part Five: China

17. The Church of the East and the First Catholic Mission (635-1840)

18. Protestant Entrance and Christian Expansion (1840-1950)

19. Independent Protestant Movements (1930-present)

Part Six: India

20. Upper Caste Conversions (1500-1900)

21. Lower-Caste Conversions (1530-present)

Part Seven: Africa

22. The Age of the Prophets (1900-1930)

23. The East African Revival (1930-2000)

24. Catholic East and Pentecostal West (1800-present)

Conclusion

25. Revisiting Themes in the History of Christian Conversion

Erscheinungsdatum	30.06.2020
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	257 x 180 mm
Gewicht	1724 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
Themenwelt	Religion / Theologie ► Christentum ► Kirchengeschichte
ISBN-10	0-19-532092-1 / 0195320921
ISBN-13	978-0-19-532092-3 / 9780195320923
Zustand	Neuware