Language and Self-Transformation: A Study of the Christian Conversion Narrative (Publications of the Society for Psychological Anthropology)

165 Pages·1993·7.37 MB·English

by  Peter G. Stromberg

Lan ua e
----and---
self-trans ormation
A study of the Christian conversion narrative
Peter G. Stromber -----
Social scientists have long been fascinated by the Christian conversion, a
form of religious experience that believers say both strengthens their
faith and changes their lives. This study looks at the performance of
conversion narratives and argues that the performance itself is central to
the efficacy of the conversion. Through detailed analysis of a number of
conversion narratives. Peter Stromberg shows how these narratives can
be understood as a form of ritual, in which believers invoke central
emotional conflicts and then attempt to resolve these conflicts by
reframing them in terms of the language of Evangelical Christianity.
Although the Christian conversion narrative is used as the primary
example. the approach in this book also illuminates other practices -
such as psychotherapy - in which people deal with emotional conflict
through language.
Language and self-transformation
Publications of the Society for Psychological Anthropology 5
Editors
Robert A. Paul, Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory
University, Atlanta
Richard A. Shweder, Committee on Human Development,
. "The University of Chicago
Publications of the Society for Psychological Anthropology is a joint initiative of
Cambridge University Press and the Society for Psychological Anthropology, a
unit of the American Anthropological Association. The series has been established
to publish books in psychological anthropology and related fields of cognitive
anthropology, ethnopsychology and cultural psychology. It includes works of
original theory, empirical research, and edited collections that address current
issues. The creation of this series reflects a renewed interest among culture
theorists in ideas about the self, mind-body interaction, social cognition, mental
models, processes of cultural acquisition. motivation and agency, gender and
emotion.
I Roy G. D'Andrade and Claudia Strauss (eds.): Human motives and cultural
models
2 Nancy R. Rosenberger (ed.): Japanese sense of self
3 Theodore Schwartz, Geoffrey M. White and Catherine A. Lutz (eds.): New
di,.ections in psychological anthropology
4 Barbara Diane Miller (ed.): Sex and gender hierarchies
Language and self-
transformation
A study of the Christian conversion narrative
Peter G. Stromberg
Uni,'ersily of Tulsa. Oklahoma
UCAMBRIDGE
: UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
The Pitt Building. Trumpington Street. Cambridge CB2 I RP
40 West 20th Street. New York. NY 10011-4211. USA
10 Stamford Road. Oakleigh. Melbourne 3166. Australia
© Cambridge University Press 1993
First published 1993
A catalogue record.for this book is available .from the British Library
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data
Stromberg. Peter G.
language and self-transformation: a study of the Christian
conversion narrative / Peter G. Stromberg.
p. cm. - (Publications of the Society for Psychological
Anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 44077 7 (hard cover)
I. Conversion - Case studies. 2. language and languages - Religious
aspects - Christianity. I. Title. II. Series.
BRIIO,S76 1993
248.2'4-dc20 92-34071 elP
ISBN 0 521 44077 7 hardback
Transferred to digital printing 2003
UP
For my father, Melvin Stromberg
· .. the most central issue in the understanding of human culture [is] the relation
between the conscious and the unconscious ...
Robert Bellah (1970: 235)
Contents
Preface page xi
A cknowledgemen t s xiv
Conventions of transcription xvi
I Introduction I
2 Character and intention 17
3 Boundaries 31
4 Dreams 55
5 Miracles 76
6 Roles 101
7 Against a theory of volition 120
Notes 132
Bibliography 138
Index 145
ix