| 英文摘要 |
Conversion is a popular topic in psychology of religion. But in different disciplines, it has different definitions. The paper aims to explore the history of conversion study, the theories and methods developed in the west (especially in the US) as the reference for further researches in Taiwan. Its found that the history of conversion study in the US progresses from psychological, sociological to interdisciplinary approaches. The paradigm shift comes from the old paradigm, affected by Pauline experience, to the new one, focusing on subjectivity and process, and recently the paradigm of interdisciplinarity. Over one century, so many conversion theories developed have been divided into four approaches: personal, social & cultural, religious & theological, and convergent. Scholars use the methods of quantitative, qualitative, narrative and multi-level interdisciplinary paradigm to investigate conversion. For further researches, recent trends in religious conversion research are mentioned for reference. |
