Rediscovering the Spiritual in Religious Conversion Studies

Abstract

This article is a review of conversion research and how it views the spiritual within conversion. Central to missions is the understanding of the process of conversion. Missiologists, psychologists, sociologists, and theologians have all studied the process of conversion. An evaluation of conversion studies shows that researchers tend to ignore or downplay the role of spiritual agency or the supernatural in the process of conversion. Recent studies in a majority world context have identified spiritual agency or the supernatural as central to conversion. We need to reexamine our models of conversion and further study the universality of spiritual agency in consideration of these results.