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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012
Such keys include concrete examples, analogies, case-studies, pictures,
and life histories. They yielded much more fruitful results
than abstract questions would have done. In addition to my planned
questions, a good deal of unanticipated material emerged as interviewees
opened up with their joys and sorrows.
4.4.5 Research Significance
My study seeks to make a modest contribution to the underresearched
field of convert identity, in the following ways:
- to hear the voices of Christian converts from Islam on issues of identity,
for this has rarely been done before in academic studies;
- to provide an ethnographic sketch (not a full ethnography) of a community
of Christian converts from Islam in an urban setting;
- to apply identity theory to the field of religious conversion, drawing
comparisons with studies on converts to Islam, and on issues of migrant
identity;
- to offer to the current missiological debate on “insider movements” an
alternative framework which may assist progress.
4.4.6 Research Findings
Analysis of the interview data is currently underway and will be
written up over the next few months. In this present article I describe
a few tentative and interim findings on just one topic, the topic
of marriage. This and other topics will be explored in much more
depth in my forthcoming PhD thesis.
5 Marriage: a critical Identity Issue
5.1 Dilemmas for believers from Muslim background
I described earlier how the first convert I met, Hussein, lost his wife
and children when he turned to Christ. He faced growing old alone.
Since then I have met many like him who faced tough dilemmas in
the area of marriage.
Some were already married to Muslims at the time of their conversion.
In some such cases their spouse subsequently joined them in
their new faith, in others they divorced, and in others they continued
to live together but with a long-term tussle between their different
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