Religious Conversion, Transformative Experience, and Disagreement

Philosophia Christi 20 (1):265-276 (2018)
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Abstract

Religious conversion gives rise to disagreement with one’s former self and with family and friends. Because religious conversion is personally and epistemically transformative, it is difficult to judge whether a former epistemic peer is still one’s epistemic peer post-conversion, just like it is hard for the convert to assess whether she is now in a better epistemic position than prior to her conversion. Through Augustine’s De Utilitate Credendi (The Usefulness of Belief) I show that reasoned argument should play a crucial role in assessing the evidential value of religious conversions, both for the person who converts and for her (former) peers.

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Helen De Cruz
Saint Louis University

Citations of this work

Transformative Experience and the Problem of Religious Disagreement.Joshua Blanchard & Laurie Paul - 2021 - In Matthew A. Benton & Jonathan L. Kvanvig (eds.), Religious Disagreement and Pluralism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 127-141.
Religious conversion, philosophy, and social science.Oliver Thomas Spinney - 2023 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 94 (2):139-149.

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References found in this work

What do philosophers believe?David Bourget & David J. Chalmers - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 170 (3):465-500.
Epistemology of disagreement: The good news.David Christensen - 2007 - Philosophical Review 116 (2):187-217.
Irrelevant Influences.Katia Vavova - 2018 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research:134-152.

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