ABSTRACT
Reflection on the biblical depiction of conversion ought to help people understand the conversion process of members of new religions. Examples of well-known converts to Christianity throughout the history of the Church should also help. According to Wittgenstein, religion constitutes one such language game. Those who understand it hold the key to the community of believers. The importance of context and participation for religious language was also recognized by Paul Tillich, who wrote that "faith needs its language, as does every act of personality". Until recently most people in the Western world assumed that sensible and intelligent people operated in terms of reason. The assumption was that there is only one objective truth and that we can determine that truth by employing inductive, deductive, or abductive reasoning. In the sixteenth century, the Western European, Christian God-centered vision of life was shattered by a series of events and new ideas that gave birth to the modern world.
