http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/new-testament Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 16 May 2026 19:57:28 -0400 Sat, 16 May 2026 19:57:28 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/79/universal-grace-early-christian-texts-focused-on-conversion By Lindsay D. Clark - Christian conversion must be understood above all as a gift of God, a bestowal of grace, for “God is the author of this change, who by his spirit puts repentance, faith, love, and every grace into the soul”(Cruden 1958, 36). The human soul must take responsibility for accepting God but not credit for doing so; just as God breathed into it its first life, so now in holy conversion does he breathe in its second life—he, and only he. Where this is concerned people create their own hardships, as God never rests. He is always ready for the willing soul, as Augustine writes, &ldquo... Mon, 07 Dec 2009 09:58 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/79/universal-grace-early-christian-texts-focused-on-conversion