I’m working my way through James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience, and am currently on the chapter(s) about conversion. James has already described the “Healthy Mind” – or the sickening optimist, and the Sick Soul, or the depressed teenager. With conversion, James makes an interesting point quoting Dr. Starbuck... conversion is,
“a process of struggling away from sin rather than of striving towards righteousness.”
He further writes (not quoting Starbuck):
“When the new centre of personal energy has been subconsciously incubated so long as to be just ready to open into flower, ‘hands off’ is the only word for us, it must burst forth unaided!”
These are interesting points about conversion. First, one who is complacent, happy, and satisfied will most likely not convert. Second, conversion is something we cannot force, but we must let happen. Now it is a standard trick of Christianity (especially the evangelical ilk) to convince people why they are sad and why they need Jesus, but the passive waiting for conversion to truly happen is not a gift of most Christians. We preach a sad and sappy sermon about Jesus, then we sing “Just As I Am,” or “Softly and Tenderly,” or some new praisey kind of song again and again until people start coming forward, crying and weeping and ready to give their lives to Jesus (some for the third or fourth time). What James seems to be suggesting is that we cannot force conversion. We have to let it happen in its own time.
If this is the case, then perhaps the best way to convert someone is to convince them that they are sad, and then just invite them into the community to live, and pray, and work with everyone else. If the convictions of the community are true then in time the individual may convert. Can we be that patient with saving souls?
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