Date

12-19-2023

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (EdD)

Chair

Deidra Jackson

Keywords

Salvific testimony, Salvation, African-Americans, Protestant, Christology, symbolic interactionism, intentionality, reflection, converts

Disciplines

Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Humanity's frailty and mortal existence create the space for a spiritual conversion experience that resolves matters of life and death. However, spirituality is an abstract concept with an ambiguous definition, and activities surrounding the application of its concepts are interpreted differently from one religious group or community to the next. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the salvation testimony of African-American males and females in the Protestant faith. A semi-structured interview and Conversation analysis are used for data collection and analysis to identify emerging themes for the descriptive essence of the salvation testimony. At this stage in the research, a salvation testimony is defined as an intrinsic revelation of one's redemption towards God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Bergel, 2019; Estes, 2011; Oliver, 2018). Three theories guided the study: Identity and Social Theory (Stets & Burke, 2000), Structural-Functional theory (Murray, 1998a; Stryker, 2008a), and Symbolic Interactionism (Blumer, 1969). Each theory assisted with interpretations about behavior adaptation within the social constructs for African-American converts in the Protestant faith. The researcher claimed that a salvation testimony is an incipient mechanism contributing to Christian identity formation and connectedness for African-American converts within the Protestant faith.

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