윌리엄 제임스와 그렌빌 스텐리 홀의 종교이론 비교 ― 회심논의를 중심으로 ―

초록

The academic study of religious conversion in the psychology of religion first arose and developed in New England America in the 19th century. At that time, this was seen as a uniquely American intellectual theme of interest which stands out if one looks at the dominant questions which were then current in European academic circles. Two schools within the psychology of religion arose and developed in New England Universities. One school developed at Harvard University under the influence of William James's concern of religious experience. The other school emerged at Clark University under the leadership of James’s former student, Granville Stanley Hall. These two schools frequently clashed because they employed different approaches. But, the range of their research was quite similar. One of these key researches was religious conversion issues. Furthermore, the early works of religious conversion exposed the dynamic interpretation of conversion issues as the deep human reality. However unfortunately, as things developed, if we attend to current developments as these have existed in recent years, we find that the range of the study on religious conversion issue has been narrowed down to the empirical statistical analysis. This current situation would be different from the early study of religious conversion. For the comprehensive study of religious conversion, above all, I think that the original dynamic hermeneutic spirit on conversion issues should be retrieved in the early works of religious conversion focusing on the two schools. Especially I think that it would be necessary to revisit critically William James' and his student, Granville Stanley hall's works on religious conversion in the context of psychology of religion movement. To do so, in this paper, I have compared critically the definition of religious conversion, the location or the matrix of religious conversion, the types of religious conversion, and the relationship of religious conversion and body.

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