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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
life. For example, the Swedish author, Laura Petri,! writes in
her book about Catherine Booth: ‘On account of her Methodist
education, C. considered a Methodist conversion necessary for
her religious life. The term conversion is probably not the
correct one for her experience in youth. Conversion means a
change in the tendency of the soul. She did not experience any
such change. Her tendency of soul was and continued to be the
same, with the soul steadily directed towards God. God had,
for as long as she could remember, been her centre of energy and
her centre of interest.’
It is clear that from William James’s point of view Laura
Petri is right in saying that Catherine Booth’s life and experience
from early years made it impossible for her to experience
conversion. She was not unhappy nor had she had a bad
conscience. But Laura Petri defines conversion as a change of
‘tendency’, and it rather looks as if she thinks of a tendency as
something static. A tendency of the soul certainly is not that.
An aeroplane moving steadily northwards can change its
direction relative to the ground. The life of the soul has heights
and depths; and conversion has much to do with this dimension
of the spiritual realm as well as with critical -changes of
direction.
But despite differences of emphasis, both William James and
Laura Petri define conversion as a process. They use the word
as a collective term for experiences of a kind fundamental for
the religious life. A different point of view is expressed by George
A. Coe.? Discussing the problem of religious decision, he
attempted to distinguish between conversion and revival. From
a mass of historical material he had collected, Coe reached the
conclusion that what we usually term a ‘conversion’ is the
consummation of a long process of development. It is an awakening
which most often occurs at adolescence, perhaps spontaneously;
and is to be understood only in relation to the fundamental
tendencies established in the personality in early childhood.
Coe is alone among writers on the psychology of religion in
thus interpreting conversion, and his point of view has much to
commend it. Like most psychologists, the theologians also
tend to treat the word ‘conversion’ as a collective, using it to
1 Catherine Booth och salvationismen, Lund, 1925.
2 The Spiritual Life, Philadelphia, 1903.
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