Conversion to Christianity

==Social science ==
In his book ''[[Sociology of Religion (book)|Sociology of Religion]]'', German sociologist [[Max Weber]] writes that religious conversion begins with the prophet, as the voice of revelation and vision, calling others to break with tradition and bring their lives into conformity with his "world-building truth."{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=12, 13}} Weber believed that prophetic ideals can become, through the conversion of a community of followers, "a force for world transformation as powerful as anything in human history.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|p=13}}

Calling conversion and [[Christianization]] "twin phenomena", Hefner has written that religious conversion was an important factor in the emergence of civilization and the making of the modern world.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|p=3}} According to Hefner, the "reformulation of social relations, cultural meanings and personal experience" involved in conversion carries with it an inherent "world building aspect".{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=3-4}}

In the late nineteenth century, the development of world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism) was seen as part of the inevitable march toward human enlightenment in a linear upward evolution.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=6, 13-14}} Anthropology effectively demonstrated the failure of this model to provide explanation for religious variations.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|p=7}}

The world religions developed institutions capable of standardizing knowledge and some have argued that this helped them survive while "empires and economic orders have come and gone".{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=17-20}} But in fact, only a few religions have been successful in propagating themselves over the long term, and standardized doctrine does not necessarily impact individual conversion and belief.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=3, 4, 5}}

One of the most influential works in sociology of religion from the 1960s is Robert Bella's (1964) ''Religious Evolution,'' which argued that world religions all proclaim the existence of a transcendental realm that is superior to everyday reality, thereby legitimizing salvation/conversion experiences designed to link humans with that world.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=7, 8}} Bella describes the possibility of redemption/conversion under these terms as "world-shaking in its consequences".{{sfn|Hefner|2023|p=8}} The tension between ordinary reality and the transcendent creates recognition of a need for social reform, driven by a redemptive vision, that remakes the world rather than passively accepting it.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|pp=8, 9}} In this way, Hefner says, world religions loosened the grip of tradition and laid the foundation for human freedom.{{sfn|Hefner|2023|p=9}}