307 - From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament

From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament
By Beverly Roberts Gaventa
Philadelphia, Fortress, 1986. 160 pp. $8.95.

In this amplification of her doctoral dissertation, Gaventa examines the meaning of conversion in various contexts of first-century Christianity and compares her findings with contemporary understandings of being "born again." She begins by identifying a three-fold typology for change: "alternation," or change evolving from one's past; "conversion," or a pendulum-like change involving a rupture between past and present; and "transformation," or a change of perspective leading to changed understanding. Against this typology, Gaventa examines Paul's reports of his coming to faith in Christ, the accounts of Paul's and others' conversions in Acts, and references to new birth in John and I Peter, being careful always to analyze those portrayals of conversion in light of their literary contexts and of the authors' theological and historical contexts. She then raises questions arising from this examination to contemporary main-line and "evangelical" churches. Her work is both clear and insightful. Her title, however, is a puzzle. Although the move "from darkness to light" does function as an image for conversion in the biblical traditions, it is neither prominent nor central to the texts on which her study focuses. Given its potential for offense and hurt, I wonder why she and the editors at Fortress Press selected this image as the title for so significant a work.

Sharon H. Ringe
Methodist Theological School in Ohio
Delaware, Ohio