Religious Conversion Research Articles

Religious Conversion in Early Colonial Mexico - The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas. By Jennifer Scheper Hughes. New York: New York University, 2021. Pp. 244. $35.00 cloth.

Religious Conversion in Early Colonial Mexico - The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas. By Jennifer Scheper Hughes. New York: New York University, 2021. Pp. 244. $35.00 cloth. - Volume 79 Issue 4

Religious Conversion in the Sermons of Billy Graham during the All Scotland Crusade of 1955

Billy Graham was one of the world’s most famous Christian evangelists in the twentieth century. He visited Scotland in 1955 and led a six week Crusade at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Thousands of people attended these rallies and listened to Graham preach. At the end of the campaign, it was calculated that 26,457 people had responded to the Gospel message proclaimed by Graham. This paper, based upon a critical examination of twenty four sermons delivered by Graham, will discuss how the American evangelist presented Evangelical conversion during this Crusade in Scotland. It will explore how becoming a Christian was proclaimed by Graham to his Scottish audience in 1955.

“All Aboard for Natchez, Cairo, and St. Louis”: Minstrelsy and Conversion in T.S. Eliot’s Ash-Wednesday

An important inspiration for T.S. Eliot's Ash-Wednesday is the minstrel comedy of The Two Black Crows. Both puzzling and obscure, this inspiration has not yet received the critical attention it deserves. By reading Eliot's interest in minstrel comedy alongside his concurrent religious conversion and change of citizenship, a fuller understanding of the poet's attempt to transform earlier influences into a new, Christian identity can emerge. In this way, minstrelsy proves to be an essential source of inspiration for both his early, pre-conversion writing, as others have shown, as well as for his later work as a conservative polemicist and religious poet.

Transformation of Traditional Balinese House in Banjar Umacandi, Buduk Village, Bali, Indonesia

The phenomenon of the transformation of traditional Balinese houses in Banjar Umacandi is interesting to study. The perpetrators of the conversion of religion from Hinduism to Christianity, should live in the Christian world, but the perpetrators of the conversion in Banjar Umacadi still apply some of the values of traditional Balinese houses as a form of Balinese culture derived from the teachings of Hinduism. The change in traditional Balinese houses has three implications, namely: (a) the side of creating new concepts, (b) developing and strengthening existing concepts, (c) losing the original concept. This article will describe the transformation of traditional Balinese dwelling houses by simultaneously exploring the conversion of religion from Hinduism to Christianity. In the hope that it can be understood the extent of the change in traditional Balinese dwelling houses in the middle of an area with high religious conversion. These changes have an impact on the transformation of traditional Balinese values, especially in terms of Balinese building architecture, in addition to the values of social wisdom and other local wisdom values. Furthermore, this article aims to investigate the factors causing the transformation of traditional Balinese houses, the transformation process and the implications of transformation on socio-cultural and religious life in Banjar Umacandi, Buduk Village. The method used is qualitative research, because the emphasis is not on measurement but on trying to find the subjective meaning of the research subject. The results showed that economic factors are the main factors that influence the transformation of traditional Balinese residential houses in Banjar Umacandi. Ideological factors are not the main factors causing the transformation of traditional Balinese residential houses in Banjar Umacandi. The transformation of residential houses in Banjar Umacandi has not yet fully occurred. Local residences have transformed from traditional Balinese houses into modern houses (non-traditional architecture) in the traditional Balinese architectural style. The concept of a modern house in the Balinese architectural style that is still maintained, has implications for the socio-cultural life and the local waga religion. The fusion between the Hindu system of citizens and conversion actors who still maintain the concept of Balinese culture as a common thread, has an impact on the creation of harmonization in Banjar Umacandi to this day.

После политической религии: особенности российского постсекуляризма

The concept of a post-secular society proposed by Jurgen Habermas has become quite popular in Russia, and not only within the framework of scientific discourse. However, in the Russian context, the very concept of “post-secular” is most often interpreted through the prism of desecularization. According to the author’s conclusion, the special aspects of the religious revival in the country after the collapse of the Soviet regime can largely explain this. The article shows that the transition to a post-secular state in Russia included not only a rethinking of the perspectives of religion in a secular society and an awareness of the need for the participation of believers in public discussions, but also a change in the institutional position of religion, the rapprochement of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the authorities, the formation of a new idea of collective identity on the basis of Orthodoxy as the dominant confession, as well as an attempt to construct an official ideology, or a secular religion, an important element of which would be the symbolic heritage of Orthodoxy. Religion turned out to be in demand primarily for solving social and political problems: determining national specifics, reviving lost cultural traditions, and legitimizing political power. Religious revival in that form did not imply proper religious conversion and thus was not accompanied by a noticeable increase in real religiosity. The author explains the predominantly “secular” perception of the functions of religion by the authorities and a significant part of society by the legacy of the Soviet political religion, which pushed traditional religions with their transcendent sacred to the periphery of social life and gave rise to specific forms of the secular sacred.

Rebuilding Identities amidst the Cultural Trauma in “Pali”

The Indo-Pak partition of 1947 has not only invaded the physical space by making two independent nations - secular India and Islamic Pakistan - creating a demarcation between Hindus and Muslims but also intruded upon their psychological space tearing and ripping off their mindsets with the clear division of cultural identities between the two. This paper examines critically how the aesthetics of art employed in the story “Pali” does full justice in distributing the equal burden of trauma on both the parties- Hindus and Muslims-to arouse a special affect in the minds of readers in the post-partition of 1947. Such affect is quintessential and very meaningful while reshaping and rebuilding the identities in the community to reconcile with peace and harmony. It also examines how the shadow of an individual trauma falls on communal families and then on the society caused by the handful of bigshots-Maulvi and Chaudhri for their identity politics. The story spins around the little boy, who was lost in Pakistan during the partition riots, got separated from the Hindu family, lived with the childless Muslim couple, and was restored to the Hindu family eventually. It portrays the sufferings of both the child-Pali Yashpal and his parents due to communal superiority and religious fanaticism. “Pali” by Bhisam Sahni can be analyzed in the light of trauma art - the trauma of the partition, traumatic experience of religious conversion, identity politics, morality, and ethical concern.

Policing Interfaith Marriages: Constitutional Infidelity of the Love Jihad Ordinance

AbstractThe Indian Constitution guarantees that individuals have the freedom to choose their partners free from state interference. However, the Uttar Pradesh Vidhi Virudh Dharma Samparivartan Pratishedh Adhyadesh, 2020 (Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Law, 2020) prohibits religious conversion to the extent that it assumes all conversions are illegal, which may have a negative impact on interfaith marriages involving consenting adults. The author argues that the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Ordinance forbidding religious conversion are vague and inadequate for addressing forceful or unlawful conversion for marriages, do not demonstrate any reasonable relation to the object of the legislation, and are constitutionally repugnant. The author concludes that by conferring police powers on state agencies to intervene in interfaith marriages, the Uttar Pradesh Ordinance erodes citizens’ freedom to choose a partner and their individual autonomy, privacy, and personal liberty—rights that are enshrined under India’s constitution.

The Impact of Religious Conversion on Social Identity in the Republic of Kazakhstan

This work contains a comprehensive overview of psychological research on religious conversion and spiritual transformation, which went through a remarkable growth in the past generation. The period from 1900 to the 1930s was marked by the work of James, Hall, Freud and their followers; subsequent restrictions stopped such work. In the 1960s, this area re-emerged; since then, it has significantly expanded. A new study examines the conversion to various religions, including Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. New religious movements and spirituality. Conversion is seen as a process varying in speed, motivation, context, and direction, including deconversion. World religions are similar in many ways; the scholar Stephen Prothero calls this resemblance a “family resemblance”. All religions include rituals, scriptures, holy days and gathering places. Each religion gives its followers instructions concerning the way that people should deal with each other. In addition, the three world religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have a common origin: they all go back to the biblical figure of Abraham. Nowadays there are few countries in the world with such a diversity of ethnic and religious groups as Kazakhstan. Keywords: religious conversion, social identity, sociology of religion, religious affiliation, phenomenon

New Books across the Disciplines

New Books across the Disciplines

On Moving Across Oneself, Collective Identity, Homo-Nationalis, and the Trans-Subject.

This paper contemplates two notions that I have been exploring in relation to the frontier between subjects and collectives. The first is what I call homo-nationalis, the subject formed by and along the organizing principles of nationalism. This subject, I argue, reflects the ideology and reality of the nation-state. It is animated by its imaginaries and unsettled by its fragilities in the deepest psychological sense. The second is what I call the trans-subject. I use this notion inspired by, and wishing to extend the sense of, transing as it pertains to trans-gendering to other categories of subjecthood, aiming to capture the subject's potential to re-form the precepts of subjectivity as it is prescribed for them. I engage these two notions as I reflect on my (countertransference) experience while working with an individual moving across various collective-social frontiers in the process of a religious conversion.

Symbol Reinterpretation as a Motivation for Integration of Chinese Muslim Ethnic Identity

This study focuses on research with a phenomenological approach regarding the symbolic meaning of the ethnic Chinese Muslim identity at the Lautze 2 Mosque in Bandung City, which focuses on concluding the meaning of ethnic symbols in Chinese New Year as a means to integrate in the form of friendship and participation with the Chinese extended family; the meaning of Ethnic Symbols in Feng Shui which is still used and believed among Chinese Muslims; the meaning of the ethnic symbols in the lion dance which is still preserved as an art in various Chinese performances and endeavors; and the meaning of ethnic symbols in the Lucky Cat, which is still practiced in some Chinese Muslim circles, and is valued as part of the wisdom of the Chinese ancestor. The study attempted to remain integrated with a more significant initial ethnic identity. For Chinese Muslims, family ties or relatives are essential in maintaining friendly relations, and believing Islam is the teachings of rahmatan lil 'alamiin. In addition, there is a reinterpretation of the symbols of Chinese ethnicity as a form of strengthening the identity of the Chinese Muslim ethnic group. This study can be used as theoretical knowledge in the form of theoretical conception to enrich the theories of the study of religions to assess the religious phenomenon associated with symbols of ethnic identity and religious identity, even acculturation between newcomers and natives. In addition, practically from the research, it is suggested to be an academic consideration for various government policies to build inter-religious harmony and harmony between ethnicities and groups, especially regarding religious conversion and belief and taboo issues in Indonesia.

Moving beyond faith: Muslim Jogis and religious conversion in north India

ABSTRACT This article historically and anthropologically examines the issue of religious conversion and identity formation among a Jogi community of religious converts. They were previously Muslims and changed their religious association to Hinduism after 1947. Individual and collective narratives of their religious conversion and the problems associated with forming a respected socio-religious identity indicate that religious conversion in South Asia is a non-linear event symbolising a complex process of becoming Hindu. The Muslim Jogis were not accepted by the Hindu Jogis after these conversions, leading to the formation of a new Jogi caste community called the Suddhi (purified) Jogis, popularly recognised in Alwar as a caste of converts. The community members still struggle to assert their Hindu identity. This article argues that converting to Hinduism may result in ‘social stasis’, signifying a ‘perpetual state of becoming’ due to the lack of complete social acceptance of converts by the traditionally recognised caste communities of ‘Hindus’.

Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics. By Rebecca L. Davis

Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics. <i>By Rebecca L. Davis</i>

Процесс обращения в контексте православной религиозности

The purpose of this article is a meaningful correlation of different methodological approaches to the analysis of the process of religious conversion from the point of view of Orthodox confessional interpretative specifics. The semantic field of the analysis includes important elements of the structure of conversion to Orthodoxy: the participants (subjects, agents) of conversion, motives of conversion, conversion practices, effects (results) of conversion, sub-effects of conversion, criteria (signs) of conversion. The convert, the social environment of the convert and the Orthodox preacher are considered as participants (subjects) of the appeal. The motives of the appeal are described: overcoming a difficult life situation, salvation from social disasters, getting out of a crisis psychological state. The emotional component of the conversion process is considered. The problem of multidirection, diversity and intensity of social influence on the treatment process is discussed. The subjects of conversion to Orthodoxy are described: participation in the church sacrament of baptism, repentance, free self-determination of a person to religious faith, participation in the church sacrament of confession, acquisition of religious faith. Special attention is paid to the analysis of conceptual provisions on the social factors of conversion to Orthodoxy. Among the main social factors of conversion to Orthodoxy, the following are considered: the religious and moral nature of the social environment, the degree of emotional and volitional influence of the social environment on the convert, the degree of consolidation of the social environment in the process of moral and religious influence on the convert. The parameters of conversion to Orthodoxy as a process are analyzed: awareness of conversion, speed of conversion, multiplicity, reversibility, depth of conversion. It is emphasized that the identified and substantiated parameters of conversion to Orthodoxy are of scientific interest from the point of view of their verification in sociological empirical studies.

The conversion of a missionary: A missiological study of Acts 10

This missiological study of the interaction between the Apostle Peter and the Roman Centurion Cornelius in Acts 10 demonstrates that missionaries need two conversions. The first conversion is a spiritual conversion to Christ to combat our egocentrism. The second conversion is to cross-cultural understanding and awareness to cleanse us of our ethnocentrism. Peter had to undergo a cross-cultural conversion to combat his ethnocentrism against Gentiles before he was able to lead Cornelius and his entire household to faith in Christ.

The Characteristics and Lifestyle of the Bharathava People in the Novel "Alaivaik Karai"

According to the title of lower class people's history in literary works, Mrs. Rajam Krishnan's fictional painting "Alaivaik Karayil" is a biographical reference to the people of the fishery and Bharathavar clans, the lower class built along the coast at the border of the town. Sangam literature mentions Bharathavas as a division of Neithal (sea and land around the sea) people in Tamil Nadu. Living along the coast, the livelihood of the fishermen is based on the resources of the sea. The community of fishermen is a race that has not left the lap of the ocean mother who provides them life without settling in cities in search of livelihood. Toiling in the deep sea, enduring the vagaries of nature, drifting ashore, getting caught in nets, not being paid according to labour—there is no sure income for the labourer who is toiling in the sea. The scales of sharks are called thuvi. It is more valuable than fish. There is a compulsion to pay the thuvi and other things as a compulsory tax to the temple of Matha. Without trying to eliminate ignorance, addiction to drugs and sensuality, middleman troubles, the dominance of churches, resorting to drugs to forget life's dissatisfactions and disappointments, resistance to modern mechanised boats and the mechanised boat industry, etc. are considered to be the fuel of their greed. The status of referring to the power boat as a "Visapadaku", religious conversion, the pious fishermen who say "Mary is merciful," the religious fishermen, the inability to give dowry for the virgins, and conversion to Hinduism to escape the tax-extorting domination of the religious priests are implied. The fact that the author uses the same speech dialect after studying their speech reflects her fascinating experience. It has been shown that there are separate Tamil words that are not in our colloquial language today and that there is a separate case language that is a mixture of Portuguese, Sinhala, and Malayalam languages. The essence of this review article "Alaiyoram" is to explore the precious matters like pearls buried in the novelty in various situations.

From Orthodox Christianity to “Jewish Law”: Unusual Conversion in the Russian Empire of the Early 19th Century

This article is a piece of microhistorical research of a court case investigating religious conversion in Russia in the 1820s. It presents the story of an Orthodox Christian girl who adopted ”Jewish law” and married a Jewish man. The article attempts to define the background and peculiarities of the conversion and clarify the context in which this was taking place. The work uses various methods: narrative, comparative, contextual analysis, text interpretation, etc. Analysis of the court case establishes that the girl’s change of faith was the result of: (1) close contacts with the Jews and lack of social ties within the Christian community; (2) poverty and extremely low social status; (3) lack of “religious capital”. Jewish social assistance practices, ways to legalize a new status, finding a job, and personal freedom turned out to be attractive to the serf woman. The novelty of this study involves the introduction of a previously unknown archival source representing a very rare phenomenon of conversion to Judaism in imperial Russia. In addition, the article presents the paradoxical case of an attempt at re-socialization by transitioning from the dominant confession to the faith of a religious minority and integration into a community whose rights in Russia were heavily curtailed.

A Pragmatic Piety: Experience, Uncertainty, and Action in Charles G. Finney’s Evangelical Revivalism

Abstract This article focuses on the evangelical theology and revival practice of Charles Grandison Finney, popular in his time yet critically under-explored in American philosophy, specifically regarding his role in the emergence of American pragmatism. Spearheaded by American philosophers like Charles Sanders Peirce and William James, pragmatism argues that the significance of abstract concepts lies in their practical consequences in lived experience, as opposed to their internal logic or conformity to intellectual traditions. Whereas this philosophical method is often seen as predominantly secular in its origins, this article approaches pragmatic thinking and practice from the point of view of the spiritual conversion strategies of Charles Finney and antebellum evangelical culture more broadly. I expand on what Leonard I. Sweet has called Finney’s “pragmatic philosophy of revivalism,” addressing his theology and revival practice to disclose its latent pragmatic tendencies and those within antebellum evangelical culture. I argue that by looking at Finney as an early practitioner of this method, we must reappraise his and evangelicalism’s role in the emergence of philosophical pragmatism, challenge its putative secularity, and – as Charles Taylor has recently demonstrated – reassess what academic disciplines mean when they cite the presumed distinction between the religious and the secular.

Relics and Icons: Their Role in Healing, Conversions, and Miracles

This paper explores recent claims and experiences of healings, miracles, and religious conversions as expressed by members, parishioners, laity and clergy from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches located in northeastern Pennsylvania. I choose the term more recent to describe the experiences of consultants which have occurred within the past ten years or less as opposed to those experiences described from previous years or centuries ago. The claims and experiences described by these consultants have had profound effects on them, leading to life changing beliefs. The claims are very real to the aforementioned interlocutors and many border on the realm of the supernatural. In the past, such beliefs in divine intervention have been dismissed by social scientist and cultural anthropologist camps as well as others who strongly adhere to objective, traditional science. In this paper, I will seek to demonstrate how prayer, relics and icons have had life changing effects on people who came into contact with them or had sought out help through prayer. The relics, icons, and prayer, therefore, are all authentic and instrumental to the faithful.

Conundrums of Religious Conversion in Tribal Areas of India

India is a land of multiple religions, faiths and beliefs where every individual has the freedom of choice to practice, profess and propagate the religion of their choice. However, the coerced form of conversion has been the subject matter for a long period of time. Recently, there have been different instances of conversion that have been marked by enticements, deception and dishonesty, which is a grave matter of concern in the country. Various state governments have proposed to enact laws and have made amendments and passed ordinances to check conversion in their respective States. This author seeks to draw an overview of the recent issues related to religious conversion, and it looks into the various legislations that have been passed by different states of India to curb it. Emphasis has been laid on changing paradigms and judicial interpretations with respect to religious conversion.