Conversion and Self-Transformation in Christian Monasticism: A Cognitive Perspective

Religious conversion involves changes in the convert’s way of thinking and behaving. This paper focuses on the unique form that this transformative process took within the Christian monastic movement in late antiquity. Treating monastic conversion as a gradual process in which the convert is an acti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religion and health
Main Author: Graiver, Inbar (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V. [2010-11-03]
In: Journal of religion and health
Further subjects:B Self-transformation
B Cognitive Science
B Attention
B Christian monasticism
B Conversion
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Religious conversion involves changes in the convert’s way of thinking and behaving. This paper focuses on the unique form that this transformative process took within the Christian monastic movement in late antiquity. Treating monastic conversion as a gradual process in which the convert is an active participant, it examines the ways in which monastic converts were able to intentionally promote such a change and influence its direction. This study draws on research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience on the cognitive underpinnings of self-transformation in order to reconstruct from the literary sources of Near Eastern monasticism the strategies and training methods that late antique monks employed in order to facilitate and sustain the transformation implicated in conversion.
ISSN:1573-6571
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and health
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10943-019-00941-4