Institutional Conversion

Wayne Oates in Psychology of Religion follows a somewhat similar line of thinking as William James in The Varieties of Religious Experience in the context of "Conversion" as a religious concept. Oates notes that conversion can be used in several ways (both inside the Christian realm, and outside). He notes that there are many different …

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“Faith” as 2nd Order Change

“Watzlawick et al (1974) discuss two levels of change--- first- and second-order change. First-order change refers to change within a given system. In other words, the system itself remains unchanged, while its elements or parts undergo some kind of change. First-order change appears to be linear, stepwise, and mechanistic (Adams, 1977). It is a change …

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