Baptism

New Testament
De-stabilisation Disorientation Re-orientation
Conviction/
confession
Repentance
New birth
Lewin (1945) Unfreezing Change Re-freezing
Lifton (1961) Confrontation Re-ordering Renewal
Mezirow (1978) Alienation Re-framing
Contractual
solidarity
Adult conversion requires all these three different stages. Atherton gives a
graphic representation of the process as follows:
We can see here the reason why Jesus called this change a New Birth. We
can also see why Paul called this process a Death and Resurrection with
Christ. It needs a removal of Old Belief System and its total erasing and then
relearning. The relearning process is enhanced with the intense field in which
the disoriented, melted is placed.
However if the person comes from the same belief system and was brought up
with the same belief system, there will be no need of the first two steps. It is
no more a relearning process but a re-inforcing process. Thus there is no need
188