Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo

by A. D. Nock

Overview

Originally published in 1933, Conversion is a seminal study of the psychology and circumstances of conversion from about 500 B.C.E. to about 400 A.D. A.D. Nock not only discusses early Christianity and its converts, but also examines non-Christian religions and philosophy, the means by which they attracted adherents, and the factors influencing and limiting their success. Christianity succeeded, he argues, in part because it acquired and adapted those parts of other philosophies and religions that had a popular appeal.

Johns Hopkins University Press

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801859106
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/26/1998
Pages:	321
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.73(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Arthur Darby Nock (1902-1963) was the Frothingham Professor of the History of Religion at Harvard University. He was for years one of the world's leading authorities on the religions of later antiquity. He is also the author of Early Gentile Christianity and Its Hellenistic Background and Essays on Religion and the Ancient World.

Johns Hopkins University Press

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Idea of Conversion
2. The Idea of Conversion and Greek Religion before Alexander the Great
3. Greeks in the East after Alexander
4. The Opposite Current
5. The Path to Rome
6. How Eastern Cults Travelled
7. The Appeal of These Cults
8. The Success of These Cults In The Roman Empire
9. The Conversion of Lucius
10. The Last Phase
11. Conversion to Philosophy
12. The Spread of Christianity as a Social Phenomenon
13. The Teachings of Christianity as Viewed by a Pagan
14. Three Types of Conversion. Justin, Arnobius, Augustine

What People are Saying About This

Larry Hurtado

Conversion is still essential for anyone trying to understand the nature of 'religion' in the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

Lewis R. Rambo

"A. D. Nock's Conversion and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience are the two most cited books in the field of conversion studies.

— Lewis R. Rambo, San Francisco Theological Seminary/Graduate Theological Union

From the Publisher

A. D. Nock's Conversion and William James' Varieties of Religious Experience are the two most cited books in the field of conversion studies.
—Lewis R. Rambo, San Francisco Theological Seminary/Graduate Theological Union

Editorial Reviews

From the time when each petty State had its peculiar set of local deities down to the final triumph of the Catholic Church, [Nock] traces the history, and to some extent the psychology, of the processes by which religions were gradually syncretized and their minor differences canceled out.
—Odell Shepard, New York Times

There has been so much loose writing and talking in recent times about the relation of the so-called mystery religions to Christianity that Professor Nock's erudite and sympathetic presentation of the points of likeness and unlikeness between them . . . is a very valuable contribution to the history of religion.
—Times Literary Supplement

The reader will find much to fascinate him in the author's development of this theme. With a sure hand he traces the ways by which Eastern religious ideas penetrated the West, following paths of trade, carried by soldiers from one end of the empire to the other, communicated by Oriental slaves to Roman masters.
—Campbell Bonner, The Saturday Review of Literature

From the Publisher

From the time when each petty State had its peculiar set of local deities down to the final triumph of the Catholic Church, [Nock] traces the history, and to some extent the psychology, of the processes by which religions were gradually syncretized and their minor differences canceled out.

New York Times - Odell Shepard

The reader will find much to fascinate him in the author's development of this theme. With a sure hand he traces the ways by which Eastern religious ideas penetrated the West, following paths of trade, carried by soldiers from one end of the empire to the other, communicated by Oriental slaves to Roman masters.

The Saturday Review of Literature - Campbell Bonner

There has been so much loose writing and talking in recent times about the relation of the so-called mystery religions to Christianity that Professor Nock's erudite and sympathetic presentation of the points of likeness and unlikeness between them . . . is a very valuable contribution to the history of religion.

Times Literary Supplement

A seminal study of the psychology and circumstances of conversion from about 500 BC to about 400 AD, originally published in 1933 by Clarendon Press. Discusses early Christianity and its converts, and examines non-Christian religions and philosophy, the means by which they attracted adherents, and the factors influencing and limiting their success. Argues that Christianity succeeded in part because it acquired and adapted those parts of other philosophies and religions that had popular appeal. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews