Korrel, Rebekah (2020) Discovering Faith: A Psychobiography of C. S. Lewis’ Religious Conversion. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
This psychobiography investigated the conversion to Christianity of author C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) best known for his works The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) and The Screwtape Letters (1942). Lewis is renowned for his writings on Christian Apologetics and his conversion from Atheism to Christianity. Despite Lewis’ thoroughly documented faith journey, there has been no systematic exploration of the psychological aspects of his religious conversion. This study used the psycho-biographical method to study his conversion through the theoretical lens of Lewis Rambo’s (1993) Heuristic Stage Model of Religious Conversion. The study aimed to arrive at a psychological understanding of Lewis’ conversion, as well as test the applicability of the model on an individual case study. It made use of a systematic collection of primary and secondary biographical data and used a deductive thematic analysis to identify and interpret themes relating to the seven stages of Rambo’s model. All seven stages could be clearly identified in Lewis’ conversion narrative suggesting the model was applicable to Lewis’ conversion and it is an appropriate religious conversion model to use for individual case studies. Some limitations of the study included theoretical limitations of the model’s stage descriptions and methodological limitations due to restricted source access and the restricted scope of the study.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Carol du Plessis |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2025 05:26 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Aug 2025 05:26 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | psychobiography; C. S. Lewis; religious conversion; Lewis Rambo; deductive thematic analysis. |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52476 |
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