William James defines “saintliness” (Pals, 182) as a condition in which “spiritual emotions” are at the core of one’s energy. Saints express a sense of being greater than the secular world; they have known and experienced the effects of the divine through their conversion. A “conversion” (Pals 180) experience involves a division between the “consciously wrong” (Pals 180) and “consciously right” (Pals 180) parts of the body and soul divide, and the “consciously right” side takes over. Conversion involves a decision by a person to dedicate his or her life to spiritual and religious ideas, and these sets of ideas become “the centre of his energy” (Pals 180). Everything he does begins to revolve around these ideas, and eventually his life becomes a shining example of them. The religious ideas must take a “central place” and “religious aims form the habitual centre of his energy” (Pals 180). …show more content…
A “candidate for conversion” (Pals 180) must be aware of his “wrongness” (Pals 180) and ready to make this “escape,” and embody the spiritual ideas of his divine being. The conversion of the “candidate” involves “’a process of struggling away from sin,’” a process which brings him- or her-self closer to “any positive ideal” (Pals 180) that their higher power embodies. The goal is to aim oneself towards likeness of this divine being, to become more and more similar to god. This similarity to god, this likeness with him, is what characterizes a
"Conversion." In New Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by Bernard L. Marthaler, 231-242. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2003.
Today’s world is filled with technology and this technology, while helpful, has its downfalls. One of the major downfalls of technology is its overbearing presence. In order to develop a full plan for spiritual transition, we must include a time of solace that removes the distractions of technology and life from the picture. One we have a clear head, we can move forward towards deepening our spiritual life.
Religion is fraught with stories and myths of otherworldly journeys. There are a variety of reasons; however, the two main ones one may notice are humans’ innate pattern recognition, and our necessity to define and understand the world in which we live. These otherworldly excursions, out-of-body-experiences OBEs, near-death-experiences NDEs, and altered-states-of-consciousness ASCs are side effects of trauma rather than real experiences. In this paper ASC will be the basic reference unless otherwise noted. Therefore, it is prudent to explore those examples of forced ASCs, the causes, and the impacts on the society. An ASC experience within a religion may serve an important purpose in the belief system, yet it is a personal experience of the mind and not a legitimate experience in the real world.
In his “Versions of Deconversion” Barbour (1994), claims that deconversion is characterised by four factors which are intellectual doubt, moral criticism, emotional suffering and disaffiliation. Furthermore, Steib (2009) holds that every exit from a religion is a form of crisis for the individual and the end results in social and psychological change. Often, deconversion is an involuntary process. According to Hunsberger (2000), the process of becoming an apostate is “strongly intellectual and rational, and seems to result from a slow, careful search for meaning and purpose”, ending in “a dramatic transformation of self in becoming one’s own person’” (p.245.). They reported that they felt compelled to deconvert due to intellectual
All of humanity, even the one reading this paper, has had thoughts of doing things that are far from that of a saint, and although most do not act upon these thoughts there are those who have; those who kill out of spite, those who commit unspeakable acts against men, women and children, those who to everyone else are frightening and fearful and thus locked away from
The conversion experience deals with a transformation from an ‘old life’ to a ‘new’ one. This produces a change of conduct in the converts, who now consciously try not to return to their ‘old life’ represented by their pre-conversion years (Adeboye, 2003 ; 2004).
As previously stated Saint Augustine wasn’t always a Saint. Before he fully converted to Christianity, Saint Augustine encountered numerous acts, in which his decisions were not always that of a righteous Saint. The first noticeable co...
Scientists in fields connected to neurobiology and psychiatry remain mystified about the cause of Conversion Disorder. The disorder is characterized by physical symptoms of a neurological disorder, yet no direct problem can be found in the nervous system or other related systems of the body. This fact alone is not unusual; many diseases and symptoms have unknown origins. Conversion Disorder, however, seems to stem from "trivial" to traumatic psychological events and emotions rather than biological events. The extreme symptoms often disappear as quickly as they appear without the patient consciously controlling or feigning them. Thus, Conversion Disorder serves as a significant example of how blurred the conceived demarcated divisions of mind/body/behavior can be.
Many religious followers today would classify themselves of “Christian” theology and adherence. If there was a phenomenon that diminished Christian teachings to inaccuracy and abolished its presence from civilization there would be several alternative religions to consider. Of the other four major religions that we have covered this semester it would be a close race to decide which belief system would be the best substitute to prior knowledge taught about Christianity. It would be difficult to forget years of information that Jesus is the Son of God and choosing another religion would have to have some representation of Christianity. The decision has to compare the pros and cons of each alternative between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. Doing so provides a template that proves there would be no definitive winner between the four. If another religion had to be chosen besides Christianity it would be a close decision but Islam would edge out the others slightly.
The dictionary says a saint is "a person officially recognized as being entitled to public ...
84% of the people on earth claim to be religious.(2) One third of the world claims to be Christians, 1.6 billion people in the world claim to be Islamic, (3) and one out of five people in the world claim to be spiritual but not religious. (1) Spirituality and religion are often thought to be synonymous, but it’s important to understand the differences between the two. The two have been around for ages, but even though they contrast; they are not the same. One could be described as an outer look on acts and laws, the other more as an internal look of oneself.
When it comes to religious beliefs, people have opinions that can be very conservative, to people who have extremist opinions. It is nearly impossible to say whose opinions are correct, but one thing that can be found in their opinions is a middle ground. From religion to religion, people tend to have some degree of similarities in their beliefs or practices. I saw something parallel to this during my interviews. I interviewed four very different people, from different generations, and different religions, yet I found similarities within many of their answers.
There are two major religious beliefs on the soul, and though they may seem diametrically opposed, we must remember that our ideas on the soul exist only because of the conditioned acceptance of these religiou...
The doctrine of salvation contains various aspects. The intent of this research paper is to provide a general overview of salvation from the angle of justification, propitiation, grace, redemption, and sanctification.
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION. (2009). Journal of Psychology and Theology, 37(1), 72. Retrieved April 21, 2009, from ProQuest Religion database. (Document ID: 1675034711).