the role of the lukan parables in terms of the purpose of luke's gospel

since he did not change religious affiliation, irrespective of the traditional view, 25 the fact
that he was converted must be argued in that Paul’s assessment of Jesus involves a redefining
of the nature of God himself, and demands a new hermeneutic which reconstructs his
theology by Scripture, the Law and the way to live for God. What is more, elsewhere he
views his conversion as an event of new creation outside of the power of the self. 26
things considered, it is legitimate to see the experience of Paul on the Damascus road as both
conversion and calling.
Now that we have examined the texts of conversion in Luke-Acts, what follows are some
elements in common from the conversion texts of Luke-Acts. First of all, conversion for Luke
is turning to God, discovering who Jesus is, and turning from sin, which entail a
transformation in thinking and behaviour.
27
turning from opposing Jesus to following Jesus. Third, there is the transformation from a zealous Pharisee into a
zealous apostle in preaching the good news about Jesus. For him repentance is when a person sees one’s true
state before God. At any rate, Paul’s conversion in three spheres comes to bring new insight into God as an
encounter with himself, new turning toward God as an encounter with Jesus, and a new life as an encounter with
his culture.
25. In the traditional view, Paul’s experience is regarded as inner experience that the harder a person tried, the
more he fell short under the threatening demands of the law. On the other hand, W. James expresses
psychologically very well conversion in this traditional view. Conversion is the process of strongly personal or
individual change by which a person who struggles with a sense of guilt and inferiority become a person with a
conscious sense of being right and unified as a consequence of achieving a firmer hold on religious realities. See
W. James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: Collier MacMillan, 1961). 172, 189; Walter E.
Conn, “Conversion: A Developmental Perspective,” Cross Currents 32 (1982), 323-28; Lewis R. Rambo,
“Current Research on Religious Conversion,” Religious Studies Review 8 (1982), 146-59; Brock Kilbourne and
James T. Richardson, “Paradigm Conflict, Types of Conversion, and Conversion Theories,” Sociological
Analysis 50 (1989), 1-21. More recently, the stage model which integrates the perspectives of anthropology,
psychology, sociology, and religious studies is offered by Rambo as follows: Context: The Ecology of the
Conversion Process, Crisis: Catalyst for Change, Quest: Active Search, Encounter: Advocate and Potential
Convert in Contact, Interaction: The Matrix of Change, Commitment: Consummation and Consolidation of
Transformation and Consequences: Effects of Converting Processes. Lewis R. Rambo, Understanding Religious
Conversion (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993), 165-70.
26. E. Käsemann, Perspectives on Paul (London: SCM Press, 1971), 8-9; S. Chester, Conversion at Corinth
(London: T & T Clark, 2003), 79; M.D. Scott, ‘Conversion in Luke and Paul: Some Exegetical and Theological
Explorations’ (PhD dissertation, Durham University, 2010), 200-201, 226-228.
27. Witherup claims that conversion as the underlying idea always contains a turning, whether a turning from
something or someone or to something or someone, whereas conversion for W.R. Nicholas results in salvific
repentance in that conversion involves a change of thinking about someone (i.e., oneself, God, or Jesus Christ)
or something (i.e., idols) in order to be saved from eternal judgment. See Witherup, Conversion in the New
Testament, 21; Wilkin Robert Nicholas, ‘Repentance as a condition for Salvation in the New Testament,’ (ThD
dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1985), 36-94, especially 93-94.
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All
That is to say, conversion is a reorientation or a
transformation of conceptual system by which life is reshaped. For Luke, there is not a stark
distinction between change of thoughts and actions, between cognitive and moral change,
between external and internal transformation, and between personal and community