Religious Conversion: Religion Scholars Thinking Together

Religious conversion is once again an issue of pressing global importance. This unique book addresses one of the most difficult questions in interreligious relations, exploring the key issues relating to conversion across the major world faiths.

Working together an international cast of religious scholars and leaders of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim traditions, discuss the key questions relating to the nature, methods, and effects of religious conversion. In a series of chapters, the history, development and current position on conversion of each major religious tradition is clearly explained and then put into dialogue with other traditions. Questions about religious freedom, legal considerations, and the future for religious conversion are also addressed.

Illuminating and thought–provoking, Religious Conversion is based on a ground–breaking project initiated by the World Council of Churches developing our understanding of a controversial topic that shapes societies and cultures around the world for centuries, now and for centuries.

Introduction Shanta Premawardhana

Part I: Preliminary Considerations

Chapter 1. Thinking Together: A Story and A Method
M. Thomas Thangaraj

Chapter 2. Defining Religious Conversion
M. Thomas Thangaraj

Chapter 3. Models of Religious Belonging
Rita M. Gross

Chapter 4. Conversion Sought and Feared
Hans Ucko

Part II: Views from Five Religious Traditions

Chapter 5. Buddhist Perspectives
Mahinda Degalle

Chapter 6. Christian Perspectives
Jay Rock

Chapter 7. Hindu Perspectives
Anantanand Rambachan

Chapter 8. Islamic Perspectives
A. Rashied Omar and Rabia Terri Harris

Chapter 9. Jewish Perspectives
Amy Eilberg

Part III: Conversion and Human Rights

Chapter 10. Conversion and Religious Freedom
Wesley Ariarajah

Chapter 11. The Right to Religious Freedom and Proselytism: A Legal Perspective
Ravin Ramdas

Part IV: Looking to the Future

Chapter 12. To Learn and To Encourage

A Study Guide

Shanta Premawardhana is President of the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) in Chicago, a member of the governing board of the National Council of Churches, and a member of the board of trustees of the Parliament of the World s Religions. He was the director of the Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation programme of the World Council of Churches during which time he convened the Thinking Together group of religious scholars. He has published numerous articles on religion, interreligious dialogue, and Christian mission, and is co–editor of Sharing Values: A Hermeneutics for Global Ethics (2011).