Many individuals regard religious conversion primarily or even solely et leuring one faith group and adopting another. In THE DYNAMICS OF RELIGIOUS CONVERSION, V. Bailey Gillespie shows persuasively that religious conver far deeper and more personalistic than just a switch of confessional allegiances, lo Gillespie's view, religious conversion is a profound transformational change in the whole personality and orientation of an individual, a change which leads the per son to a fundamentally new identity as a human being

This new identity forged in the dynamics of transformational change basically alters the deepest relationship which the person has with self, with God, with other human beings, and with the physical world.

Gillespie's view of conversion suggests that switches in confessional allegiances might not constitute genuine religious conversion if such switches are not characterized at bottom by that kind of profound personality change which leads the individual to come to a new identity

Correlatively. Gillespie's view of conversion suggests that religious conversion in the lives of most individuals is not so much a switch in confessional allegiances as it is the dynamic forging of a fundamentally new personal/religious identity within the context of their present confessional persuasion.

This intriguing book repeatedly demonstrates that personal identity is the path through which authentic and profound religious conversion travels. This book also illuminates how and why personal identity is the existential context through which faith is born and develops.