The Conversion of Conversion (and the Need to Convert it Back Again)

Review of Alan Kreider, The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom, Wipf and Stock, (2007). 126pp. ISBN: 9781556353932.

In the branch of Christianity within which I converted most could answer (or at least invent an answer) to the question “when were you saved?”; Salvation was seen as an one time deal (if you're interested while I can't remember the exact date it was in November 1990). In this small historical survey of the changing understanding of conversion in the first six centuries of Church History Alan Kreider, who is Professor of Church History and Mission at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, shows that this was certainly not how the Church's salvation-story began.

Conversion in early Christianity was an intense and prolonged process, Kreider notes that the catechumenate took take upwards of three years to complete before one could even be admitted to the eucharist. The defining principle is summarised in one of the oft-cited biblical passages used in the catechism of new (would be) believers, in this case as relayed by Origen: “For who of all believers does not know the words of Isaiah [and Micah]? ... And he [God] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords in to ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more” (P. 27). In short, in the Church's rigorous initiation process it sought to teach initiates the necessity of following in the ethic of Jesus; hence the emphasis that to belong one not only had to believe right, but also behave right (hence the reason that one could not be a member of military and also a member of the Church). And then, – gradually, – Christendom happened. This emphasis on the countercultural ethic of Jesus and the Church's witness to it changed as, after Constantine, the Church entered into a position of power and with this the process of Christian Initiation gradually changes and conversion is separated from catechesis for if everyone is Christian what need is there to learn about it. By the end of the 6^th century Kreider shows that there had been a sea-change in how conversion was understood: “Conversion, which had made Christians into distinctive people – resident aliens – now was something that made people ordinary, not resident aliens but simply residents” (P. 90).

In 1999 the late Robert E Webber wrote a book (Ancient-Future Faith) that sought to re-imagine contemporary faith in a creative dialogue with traditional mainly patristic theology. The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom can I think serve a similar purpose. We are living in an age of declining church membership and the breaking down of the vestiges of Christendom. Unlike some I believe this is a positive phenomena. It is an opportunity to re-imagine a Christianity that again seeks to be resident aliens in this world witnessing in real ways and local communities to the peace of Christ. And as some no longer know of this Christianity of which we speak this is an opportunity in dialogue with our resident alien ancestors to reimagine what it means to be converted by renouncing the way of the sword (and the way of Christendom) and instead beating the swords into ploughshares.

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Comments

[Nathan]

I'm very distressed learning that Robert Webber is dead! I thought Ancient Future Faith was a great book. It even had me attracted to Anglicanism for a season.

[Tim]

I think this is one of Alan's most important books.