Turning to Jesus: The Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels - Book Review

Turning to Jesus: The Sociology of Conversion in the Gospels. By Scot McKnight. Louisville, London: Westminster John Knox, 2002. x and 214 pages. Paper. $18.95.

McKnight is concerned that "the evangelical, the Roman Catholic, and the mainline Protestant churches force each person to 'tell the same story"' about conversion (p. ix). He writes this book to help the churches recover the individuality and variety of conversion witnessed to by the New Testament. He develops a grid of conversion descriptions: a process of socialization, a liturgical process, and personal decision. He then draws on six dimensions of conversion from modem sociological descriptions: context, crisis, quest, encounter, commitment, consequences for life (pp. 49-50). Conversion involves an individual and a group.

McKnight then examines each of these six in turn, first using stories of modern conversions as a base for his analysis. Then he turns to the conversion stories in the Gospels, using the same six dimensions in the analysis. Conversion in the Gospels may be apostasy from something else, intensification of faith, affiliation, institutional transition, and/or tradition transition.

He concludes that conversion is a process, with infinite variation. Peter, not Paul, best represents that process. McKnight stresses that examining the Gospel narratives confirms the sociological description in modern works. While he does not draw out implications for evangelistic practice, a careful reading of this book will open many areas for thought and discussion about modes of evangelism, precisely because he does not end up with an evangelistic formula. McKnight's discussion, moving from biblical studies to the contemporary world, stimulates reflection--which makes his book valuable as a resource today.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Lutheran School of Theology and Mission
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group