Personal transformation and religious faith: A narrative approach to conversion

This dissertation argues that thick faith transforms character because it demands an embodied leap into an alternative narrative world. Illustrated with interviews of converts to Islam, Nation of Islam, and Christianity who were once extremely violent and destructive, it argues that central stories of religious traditions powerfully re-identify believers. These converts then rewrite their lives according to these master narratives in a way that affects every level of human experience. Methodological approaches that reduce conversion to one primary element (e.g., psychological, social, or even spiritual) fail to reflect the complex interaction of the believer with her faith tradition, the temporality and particularity of all contexts, and the incomplete knowledge of researchers.; Given its inherently storied nature, religious conversion must be read through a narrative lens. Like a prism separates light, this method allows us to focus on a particular feature of a convert's life while also appreciating how each element finds coherence in her faith's central stories. In her practices, habits, and rituals, the convert remembers and enacts the narrative, altering social relationships. In her personal spirituality and reflection on everyday experiences, she assimilates the story at spiritual and psychological levels. As she pursues faithfulness to a particular tradition, she develops virtues inherent in her quest, resulting in shifts in character and altered emotional responses. Doctrine informs not only her intellectual life but filters perceptions of her world. The convert adopts and adapts the collective wisdom of her faith within a specific community that retells and enacts religious narratives over time and within the larger socio-cultural context. Because of the dynamic interaction of these elements, converts and their communities engage in complicated, disciplined improvisation as they seek authentic embodiment of their religion.; Recognizing the narrative nature of religious conversion prevents the violence against converts too often inherent in the imposition of reductionistic models of their experience. This hermeneutical approach must also influence how we understand the role of religion in our intentionally pluralistic society, especially amidst calls for a larger role for faith-based organizations and accompanying warnings of a breach in the wall between church and state.