The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion

The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. Scholars from a wide array of religions and disciplines interpret both the varieties of conversion experiences and the processes that inform this personal and communal phenomenon.

This volume examines the experiences of individuals and communities who change religions, those who experience an intensification of their religion of origin, and those who encounter new religions through colonial intrusion, missionary work, and charismatic and revitalization movements. The thirty-two innovative essays provide overviews of the history of particular religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, indigenous religions, and new religious movements. The essays also offer a wide range of disciplinary perspectives-psychological, sociological, anthropological, legal, political, feminist, and geographical-on methods and theories deployed in understanding conversion, and insight into various forms of deconversion.

Lewis R. Rambo is Research Professor of Psychology and Religion at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He is the author of Understanding Religious Conversion.

Charles E. Farhadian is Professor of World Religions and Christian Mission at Westmont College. He is the author of Christianity, Islam, and Nationalism in Indonesia, Christian Worship Worldwide: Expanding Horizons, Deepening Practices, The Testimony Project: Papua, and Introducing World Christianity.