Born-again conversion offers the paradoxical promise of self-transcending self-transformation, which takes narrative form when converts attempt to recount their experiences: how to tell a story of self-transformation, in which oneself is neither the author nor the agent of change? Existing scholarship suggests that conversion narratives work insofar as they resolve underlying paradoxes and stitch together a sense of coherent selfhood. This paper tacks in the opposite direction: the analysis focuses on the tendencies of conversion narratives to blur, blend and double over categorical bounds of selfhood, highlighting paradoxes rather than looking for their resolution. The paper contends, therefore, that conversion narrative practices facilitate converts’ experience of conversion, not only insofar as they resolve paradox and stitch together coherent identity, but also insofar as they cultivate ephemeral experiences and explorations of narrative paradoxes that are inherent to—though often hidden from—most any attempt to find and feel identity.

中文翻译：

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使自我不安：基督教见证实践中叙事身份的悖论

再次出生的转换提供了自我超越自我改造的悖论性诺言，当转换者试图叙述自己的经历时，叙事形式就是叙事形式：如何讲述一个自我改造的故事，其中自我既不是变革的创造者也不是变革的推动者？现有的学术研究表明，转化叙事在解决潜在的悖论并且将连贯的自我感觉融合在一起的范围内起作用。本文的研究方向相反：分析重点放在转换叙事趋向于模糊，融合和超越自我范畴界限的趋势上，而是强调悖论而不是寻找其解决方案。因此，该论文认为，转换叙事实践有助于转换者的转换经验，