Stuart Devenish

Knowing Otherwise:: the Phenomenology of Meaning Change in Christian Conversion Stuart Devenish

The stimulus for this research came from the author?s experience of observing converts undergo a reattribution of meaning during and subsequent to their conversion experiences. It was clear that changed meanings took place; what was not clear was how and why such changes occurred, nor where the impulse for such change came from. Religious converts routinely report differences in the way they attribute meaning as a consequence of religious conversion. Previously known objects, events and persons are perceived differently as a result of a new plausibility structure being brought to bear. This research applies a phenomenological interpretive method to interview transcripts obtained from recent converts in order to explicate the meaning of transformative religious experiences. The Apostle Paul's statement "but we have the mind of Christ" (2 Cor 2:16) furnishes the central motif for this research, as exemplified by his own experience of having scales fall from his eyes at his own conversion on the Damascus road?an experience which has become archetypical for all Christian believers in every time and place.