Personal Models of Spirituality and Social Conscience

Abstract

In this chapter I analyze the women’s identity formation and the process of cognitive reconciliation, so prominent in the case of conversion when a new religious system is internalized and incorporated into a preexisting cognitive framework. I focus on the inner organization of a Muslim identity and the psychological appropriation of Islam through certain personal models and the meaning the women assign to different cultural and religious representations. This reflects a dialectical movement between the individual and the world, the tension and interaction between mental and public representations. The formation of the convert’s identity occurs parallel to the gradual shift in her world-view. The salient models discussed here define not only parts of the women’s perception of reality, but also their sense of self. By looking at the personal models of the converts we can gain an understanding of the personal appropriation of a religious belief and the simultaneous, and inseparable, cognitive processes of change and continuity.