religious conversion

The article is devoted to the review of foreign theories of religious conversion. The interdisciplinary nature and degree of studying the phenomenon of religious conversion in foreign and Russian scientific discourses are identified. The theoretical models of religious conversion presented in the framework of positivist, interpretive and integrative paradigms of religious conversion are described. The main theoretical positions of foreign theories of religious conversion are considered.

The purpose of this article is a meaningful correlation of diff erent methodological approaches to the analysis of the process of religious conversion from the point of view of Orthodox confessional interpretative specifi cs. The semantic fi eld of the analysis includes important elements of the structure of conversion to Orthodoxy: the participants (subjects, agents) of conversion, motives of conversion, conversion practices, eff ects (results) of conversion, sub-eff ects of conversion, criteria (signs) of conversion.