Book Review: Finding God: A Treasury of Conversion Stories

Finding God: A Treasury of Conversion Stories, edited by John M. Mulder (Eerdmans, 2012), paperback, 418 pages

The process of conversion to the Christian faith, where someone truly confesses their belief in the redemptive power of Jesus, has always been shrouded in mystery.  Even the first disciples of Jesus who accepted his invitation to "Follow me" gave little indication about what happened within them causing them to leave their previous ways of life and to devote the rest of their lives to Jesus.

Through the centuries, Christians have tried to explain how the process of conversion works.  For generations, many congregations have offered some form of class to prepare people for baptism or confirmation (if they were baptized as infants), though the content and expectations of these classes have varied widely.  The Puritans in colonial New England had well-documented tests of conversion, requiring people to present stories of their conversions before groups of elders who determined if the experiences met their standard of Christian conversion.

No amount of formality, though, can really clarify this deeply personal process that occurs in the depths of the soul.  Moreover, those people of faith who have left accounts of their conversion experiences have shared stories with differing, and sometimes conflicting, details.  For some, conversion to Christianity was an instantaneous event, like the flipping of a switch; for others, conversion happened over time.  For some, conversion was the result of a repeated presence of God -- or the search for God -- in their lives; for others it was completely unexpected.  Some describe a sense of assurance of their salvation as part of their conversion experience; others have doubted their salvation, even after their conversion.

John Mulder, expanding on a collection of conversion stories that he edited with the late Hugh Kerr some 30 years ago, offers a wide variety of these accounts in Finding God: A Treasury of Conversion Stories.  This rich collection offers 60 well-chosen conversion stories, frequently of famous Christians throughout history, such as Martin Luther, C. S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, and Billy Graham.  The stories are taken mostly from memoirs, but also come from sermons, letters, and occasionally from third-person accounts.  Each is preceded by a short introduction, offering biographical details and setting the context for the conversion.

Some readers, if they have particular ideas about what constitutes a conversion experience, may find the book disorienting -- to be sure, those 17th Century Puritan elders would not know what to make of many of these stories (except to deny that they were Christian conversions).  However, I think the variety of these accounts is the great strength of this collection.  These 60 stories offer perspectives from throughout the 2000 year history of Christianity, from different theological traditions, from different places and cultures, from both men and women; this variety seeks to honor the mystery of Christian conversion as much as it seeks to enlighten.

In fact, my only quibble with the well-edited and well-presented book is that perhaps some effort should have been made to include stories from the not-so-famous alongside these iconic Christian leaders and writers in order to offer more variety of notoriety and fame.  (I certainly recognize that any anthology is going to tend towards famous names -- partially because their stories are more likely to have been preserved.  But, at the very least, there are many Puritan conversion stories extant; one could have been chosen to coincide with Jonathan Edwards' story.)  Still, this is a minor quibble.

Finding God offers an anthology of meaningful and sometimes poignant tales of personal encounters with God that changed people's lives completely.  Given the number of stories, it might serve as an alternative type of personal devotional material for a couple of months.  Overall, the collection certainly suggests a vastness in the ways God touches lives and the many ways that people respond to the age-old invitation of Jesus to "Follow me."