Journal article

Embracing Islam in Switzerland: (Re-)Conversion Between Searching for the Meaning of Life and Social Ties

BP2-STS

  • 23.04.2023
Published in:
  • Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. - Informa UK Limited. - 2023, p. 1-16
English The pioneer conversion model of Lofland and Stark suggests that people adopt a religion because experiences in their biography motivate them to seek answers regarding the purpose of life, and because they encounter followers of a religion that happens to provide them with convincing answers. We draw on the Lofland-Stark model while considering Lofland’s and Skonovd’s concept of conversion motifs to gain a deeper insight into the convert’s story of adopting a new faith. Furthermore, we integrate Paloutzian’s concept of spiritual transformation into our theoretical framework to cover both conversion and reconversion (reversion). Against this conceptual background and applying a combination of narrative-autobiographical interviews with qualitative network analysis, we interviewed 24 converts and reconverts in Switzerland. Based on the findings, we propose a typology along the dimensions of “seeking answers” and “social contacts”.
Faculty
Faculté des lettres et des sciences humaines
Department
Département de travail social, politiques sociales et développement global
Language
  • English
Classification
Demography, sociology, statistics
License
CC BY-NC-ND
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/324887
Statistics

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