Research Catalog

Title

Version of deconversion : autobiography and the loss of faith / John D. Barbour.

Author

Barbour, John D.

Publication

Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1994.

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Holdings

Details

Description

238 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

• In Versions of Deconversion John Barbour examines the work of a broad selection of authors in order to discover the reasons for their loss of faith and to analyze the ways in which they have interpreted that loss. For some the experience of deconversion led to another religious faith, some turned to atheism or agnosticism, and others used deconversion as a metaphor or analogy to interpret an experience of personal transformation.
• The loss of faith is closely related to such vital ethical and theological concerns as the role of conscience, the assessment of religious communities, the dialectical relationship between faith and doubt, and the struggle to reconcile faith with intellectual and moral integrity. This book shows the persistence and the vitality of the theme of deconversion in autobiography, and it demonstrates how the literary form and structure of autobiography are shaped by ethical critique and religious reflection.
• Versions of Deconversion should appeal at once to scholars in the fields of religious studies and theology who are concerned with narrative texts, to literary critics and specialists on autobiography, and to a wider audience interested in the ethical and religious significance of autobiography.

Series Statement

Studies in religion and culture

Uniform Title

Studies in religion and culture (Charlottesville, Va.)

Subjects

• Apostasy > Case studies
• Ex-church members > Case studies
• Apostasy > Comparative studies
• Autobiography > Religious aspects > Christianity

Note

• Includes bibliographical notes and index.

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. Three Christian Versions of Deconversion: Augustine, Bunyan, and Newman -- 3. Deconversion as a Metaphor for Personal Transformation -- 4. Ruskin, Gosse, and the Aesthetic Critique of Protestantism -- 5. Christianity and "the White Man's Religion" -- 6. Hypocrisy and the Ethics of Disbelief -- 7. Sartre's Ambiguous Atheism: "A Cruel and Long-range Affair" -- 8. Apostasy and Apology in Christian Autobiography -- 9. Cults and Deprogramming -- 10. Gender and Deconversion -- 11. Conclusion: The Literary and Religious Significance of Deconversion Narratives.

ISBN

0813915465

LCCN

94012207

OCLC

• 30355348
• ocm30355348

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries