Conversion as the Path to the Recovery of Humanity in the Context of St John Paul II’s Theology of Holiness

The study focuses on Pope John Paul II’s view of conversion as an essential aspect of holiness. It explores why he emphasises the personal conversion of a Christian to God, and in a broader context, how conversion relates to the recovery of humanity and human dignity. The reflection is based on the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, especially as presented in the documents Gaudium et Spes and Lumen Gentium. Conversion is viewed from the perspective of spiritual theology and the union between God and the human person and focuses on some related features from John Paul II’s ‘Trinitarian’ group of encyclicals. The reflection also examines the importance of Christian conversion to God as an internal process of transformation in the human person in the context of both internal ruptures and external existential threats.

Dalit Conversion Memories in Colonial Kerala and Decolonisation of knowledge

This article seeks to decolonise knowledge of the conventional history of Dalits’ Christian conversion and its implications in colonial Kerala. As the missionary archive is the only source of Dalit Christian history writing in Kerala, in this historiography social historians have been unable to include the memories of Protestant missionary work at the local level by the local people themselves. Their experiences and rich accounts are marked by dramatic actions to gain socio-economic freedom and to establish a safe environment with the scope for future development. This article identifies how Dalit Christians themselves, in a specific locality, remember their conversion history, suggesting thereby the scope for a valuable addition to the archive.

From Saul the Pharisee to Paul the Apostle: The Conversion of Paul, a Prototype for Africans’ Conversion to Christianity?

This article grapples with the question of the relevance of Paul’s conversion in Acts 8-9 in relation to the current African conversion to Christianity. While for many years, scholars have considered the conversion of Paul on his way to Damascus as a proto-type for people’s conversion to Christianity from other religions, this article argues that it can hardly be regarded in that way for African people’s conversion from African Traditional Religion (ATR) to Christianity due to the nature of ATR and its major emphasis. Christianity mostly emphasizes “other-worldly” affairs neglecting “this-worldly” affairs of humanity being conceived as a religion of the “hereafter,” the heavenly religion having little to do with this-worldly affairs. Instead, ATR, due to its concern about people’s current world’s predicaments becomes a religion favored by most Africans even after their conversion to Christianity. Keywords: Paul’s Conversion, Prototype, Christian Conversion, African Traditional Religion.