Religious conversion, philosophy, and social science

I argue that empirical studies into the phenomenon of religious conversion suffer from conceptual unclarity owing to an absence of philosophical contributions. I examine the relationship between definition and empirical result in the social sciences, and I show that a wide divergence in conceptual a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal for philosophy of religion
Main Author: Spinney, Oliver Thomas (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2023
In: International journal for philosophy of religion
Further subjects:B Philosophy of sociology
B philosophy of religion
B Conceptual Analysis
B Religious Conversion
B Social Science
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:I argue that empirical studies into the phenomenon of religious conversion suffer from conceptual unclarity owing to an absence of philosophical contributions. I examine the relationship between definition and empirical result in the social sciences, and I show that a wide divergence in conceptual approach threatens to undermine the possibility of useful comparative study. I stake out a distinctive role for philosophical treatments of studies into religious conversion. I conclude with the suggestion that use of the terms ‘convert’ and ‘conversion’ may not in fact be conducive to clarity in the present context, and that subsequent studies may improve their precision through replacing them.
ISSN:1572-8684
Contains:Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11153-023-09873-2