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Religious Conversion (Anthropology)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Religious conversion is a process that entails a change in religious affiliation, worldview, and identity. In turn, the conversion process dialectically establishes (and often changes) the very entities to which and from which people convert. Anthropologists came to study religious conversion relatively late, possibly because of its Christian connotations and anthropology’s complicated relationship with Christianity (see the Oxford Bibliographies article “Anthropology of Christianity”). The wider field of conversion studies is old, interdisciplinary, innovative, and dynamic. Three dominant themes in the anthropology of religious conversion are the connection between religious conversion and modernity, the consequences of conversion, and the emphasis of conversion either as a rupture with the past or stressing elements of continuity. Subsequent sections review conversion to different currents in Christianity (especially Catholicism and Pentecostalism), Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and New Religious Movements. Conversion to Atheism and Agnosticism provides an overview of conversion to atheism and agnosticism (see also Oxford Bibliographies article “Secularization”). Additional sections explore the connections between conversion and gender, language, markets, mass media, and politics. Included in this article is an overview of the main academic journals, publishing regularly on (the anthropology of) religious conversion.
  4.  
  5. Journals
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  7. The journals listed here regularly publish anthropological research on conversion; hence, some major journals are omitted. American Anthropologist is the official journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) professional organization and covers all four fields. American Ethnologist emphasizes in-depth ethnographic fieldwork with a special focus on its relevance to solve contemporary world problems. Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research is an international journal, specialized in mission studies, ecumenism, world Christianity, and interreligious relations. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is the official journal of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the foremost interdisciplinary journal on religion. The Journal of Contemporary Religion is another interdisciplinary journal, focusing especially on new religions and theory. The Journal of Religion in Africa is the foremost interdisciplinary journal on religions in Africa. Missiology is the official journal of the American Society on Missiology, featuring anthropological research on conversion and mission with a Christian focus. Pastoral Psychology is an interdisciplinary journal focused on caring for, understanding, and exploring human beings as persons—in families, in small groups, and in communities. Religion is an interdisciplinary journal on religion published four times a year that frequently publishes (anthropological) work on conversion. Social Compass is the official interdisciplinary journal of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion published four times a year. Review of Religious Research and Sociology of Religion are the official interdisciplinary journals of the Religious Research Association and the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
  8.  
  9. American Anthropologist. 1888–.
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  11. Official journal of the American Anthropological Association, published four times a year. Reflects the US four-field approach and covers archaeology as well as biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology. Regularly publishes anthropological research on conversion.
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  13. American Ethnologist. 1974–.
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  15. Official journal of the American Ethnological Society published four times a year. Emphasizes in-depth ethnographic fieldwork and the social and political relevance of ethnography for addressing contemporary world problems. Frequently publishes ethnographic research on conversion.
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  17. Exchange: Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Research. 1971–.
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  19. International journal, specializing in the fields of missiology, ecumenism, world Christianity, and interreligious relations. Frequently publishes (anthropological) work on conversion and mission.
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  21. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 1961–.
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  23. Official journal of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion published four times a year. Foremost interdisciplinary journal on religion that frequently publishes research on conversion.
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  25. Journal of Contemporary Religion. 1985–.
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  27. Interdisciplinary journal published three times a year, often with a focus on new religions and theoretical issues. Frequently publishes (anthropological) work on conversion.
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  29. Journal of Religion in Africa. 1968–.
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  31. Interdisciplinary journal published four times a year. Emphasizes all religious traditions throughout Africa, with particular attention to Christianity and Islam in sub-Saharan Africa. Frequently publishes anthropological work on conversion and on mission.
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  33. Missiology. 1972–.
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  35. Official journal of the American Society of Missiology published four times a year. Christian-based publication that regularly features anthropological research on conversion and on mission.
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  37. Pastoral Psychology. 1950–.
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  39. Interdisciplinary journal published six times a year. Offers original papers that discuss the work of caring for, understanding, and exploring human beings as persons—in families, in small groups, and in community. Often publishes on conversion.
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  41. Religion. 1993–.
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  43. Interdisciplinary journal on religion published four times a year. Frequently publishes (anthropological) work on conversion.
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  45. Review of Religious Research. 1958–.
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  47. Official journal of the Religious Research Association published four times a year. Interdisciplinary journal on religion that frequently publishes research on conversion.
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  49. Social Compass. 1953–.
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  51. Official journal of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion published four times a year. Interdisciplinary journal on religion that frequently publishes (anthropological) work on conversion.
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  53. Sociology of Religion. 1992–.
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  55. Formerly named Sociological Analysis (1963–1992) and American Catholic Sociological Review (1940–1963). Official journal of the Association for the Sociology of Religion published four times a year. Interdisciplinary journal on religion that frequently publishes research on conversion.
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  57. Conversion Studies
  58.  
  59. The broader field of conversion studies is old, interdisciplinary, innovative, and dynamic. The earliest main theorist works are James 1958 and Nock 1933, stressing conversion as a radical rupture. Lofland and Stark 1965, cited under Conversion to New Religious Movements formulates the classic seven-stage sociological process model of conversion, also emphasizing rupture and sparking more literature in the 1970s and 1980s, like the Long and Hadden 1983 socialization model. Malony and Southard 1992 and Lamb and Bryant 1999 are interdisciplinary overviews, covering many religions. The classical seven-stage model in Rambo 1993 was very influential, and was updated, synthesized, and expanded in Gooren 2010 and Jindra 2014. Smilde 2007 analyzes the cultural and personal dynamics of evangelical conversion to show how and why Pentecostal men in Caracas, Venezuela, convert. Rambo and Farhadian 2014 provides a massive up-to-date overview of conversion to many religions through many (inter)disciplinary perspectives.
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  61. Gooren, Henri. 2010. Religious conversion and disaffiliation: Tracing patterns of change in faith practices. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan.
  62. DOI: 10.1057/9780230113039Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  63. Proposes the new “conversion career” approach as a way to understand conversion to and disaffiliation from religious organizations as a never-ending dynamic process, drawing on social scientific, historical, theological, and political science approaches to the field.
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  65. James, William. 1958. The varieties of religious experience. New York: New American Library.
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  67. Originally published in 1902. Includes the earliest psychological theory on religious conversion, emphasizing its healing propensities for a “sick soul,” especially during adolescence, following either a gradual or a sudden and radical Pauline conversion experience.
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  69. Jindra, Ines. 2014. A new model of religious conversion. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.
  70. DOI: 10.1163/9789004266506Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  71. Utilizes case studies for comparison of converts’ backgrounds, network influence, and conversion narratives. Illustrates a “fit” between the converts’ backgrounds and the religion they convert to, such as between disorganized family backgrounds and highly structured religions.
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  73. Lamb, Christopher, and M. Darroll Bryant, eds. 1999. Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. London: Cassell.
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  75. Twenty-two chapters analyze different theoretical perspectives, conversion to world religions, conversion into and out of Christianity, and contemporary cases of conversion (including to New Religious Movements and modern paganism).
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  77. Long, Theodore E., and Jeffrey K. Hadden. 1983. Religious conversion and the concept of socialization: Integrating the brainwashing and drift models. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22.1: 1–14.
  78. DOI: 10.2307/1385588Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  79. Uses socialization and role learning to integrate brainwashing and constructivist conversion models by coining “incorporating activities” to integrate new members, “creating activities” to display the requisites for membership, and “shaping activities” that sanction transgressions.
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  81. Malony, H. Newton, and Samuel Southard, eds. 1992. Handbook of religious conversion. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education.
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  83. Seventeen chapters analyze religious conversion through social scientific, historical, and theological perspectives and in several (world) religions, including different versions of Christianity.
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  85. Nock, Arthur Darby. 1933. Conversion. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  87. Early theory of conversion, emphasizing that Jewish and Christian conversion is a radical and exclusive rupture with the past, whereas religious change in the ancient pagan religious world was merely a convenient adhesion, or an add-on, to a person’s life.
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  89. Rambo, Lewis R. 1993. Understanding religious conversion. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.
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  91. Discusses the dynamics of religious conversion, presented as a seven-stage process model of change with personal, cultural, social, and religious implications. Draws on insights from psychology, anthropology, theology, missiology, and interviews with converts from disparate backgrounds.
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  93. Rambo, Lewis R., and Charles E. Farhadian, eds. 2014. The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  95. Thirty-two chapters illuminate the multifaceted nature of phenomena of conversion in a global context, providing the first major survey both of major religions and theoretical perspectives on religious change. Analyzes conversion through disciplinary perspectives and in several (world) religions.
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  97. Smilde, David. 2007. Reason to believe: Cultural agency in Latin American evangelicalism. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  99. Analyzes and theorizes the cultural and personal dynamics of evangelical conversion to show how and why people convert, and how they come to have faith in a new system of beliefs and practices. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork among Pentecostal men in Caracas, Venezuela.
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  101. The Anthropology of Conversion
  102.  
  103. Anthropologists were relatively late to study conversion, possibly because of its Christian connotations and anthropology’s complicated relationship with Christianity (see the Oxford Bibliographies article “Anthropology of Christianity”). Common themes are the connection between conversion and modernity, and either emphasizing conversion as a rupture with the past or stressing elements of continuity. Wallace 1956 develops a mazeway model for conversion to revitalization movements among Native Americans (see Conversion, Markets, and Prosperity). Willems 1967 explores conversion to Protestantism and Pentecostalism in Brazil and Chile (see Conversion, Markets, and Prosperity). Gerlach and Hine 1970 develops a seven-stage process model of conversion, stressing rupture through “bridge-burning public events,” based on ethnographic research in the Pentecostal and black power movements. Meyer 1999 analyzes how images of the devil related to modernity and influenced conversion to Pentecostalism among the Ewe in Ghana. Keane 2007 uses semiotics to explore conversion, colonialism, mission, and modernity in Indonesia. Hiebert 2008 stresses the role of worldview in mission and conversion. Luhrmann 2012 explores how US Pentecostals train their minds to make God real for them. Hefner 1993, van der Veer 1996 (cited under Conversion to Christianity), Buckser and Glazier 2003, Cannell 2006, and Pelkmans 2009 are essay collections analyzing conversion to Christianity across the world. Gooren 2014 gives a chronological and thematic overview of the main anthropological studies of conversion.
  104.  
  105. Buckser, Andrew, and Stephen Glazier, eds. 2003. The anthropology of religious conversion. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
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  107. Sixteen anthropological case studies cover Christian and other examples of conversion, challenging the assumption that conversion is a sudden one-time event and showing how personal transformations relate to wider forms of social belonging and political mobilization.
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  109. Cannell, Fenella, ed. 2006. The anthropology of Christianity. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
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  111. Twelve essays covering various branches of Christianity place the anthropological study of Christianity in historical perspective, arguing that for many years Christianity functioned as a “repressed” topic within the discipline while still significantly influencing its formation.
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  113. Gerlach, Luther P., and Virginia H. Hine. 1970. People, power, change: Movements of social transformation. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
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  115. Conceptualizes commitment as the basis for a seven-stage process model of religious conversion, emphasizing the role of “bridge-burning public events” to express the rupture with the former life. Based on extensive ethnographic research in the Pentecostal and black power movements.
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  117. Gooren, Henri. 2014. Anthropology of religious conversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 84–116. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  119. Analyzes important approaches to religious change in anthropology in chronological order, describing their main authors and ideas, their conceptualization of religious conversion, their methodologies, and how each identifies and analyzes the main factors in the conversion process.
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  121. Hefner, Robert W., ed. 1993. Conversion to Christianity: Historical and anthropological perspectives on a great transformation. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  123. Eleven case studies take a broad perspective, linking conversion to many aspects of life, including identity, politics, and morality. Places Christianity in the context of other world religions.
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  125. Hiebert, Paul G. 2008. Transforming worldviews: An anthropological understanding of how people change. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.
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  127. Offers a comprehensive anthropological analysis of the characteristics, history, and philosophy of dominant global worldviews and their role in the Christian conversion process.
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  129. Keane, Webb. 2007. Christian moderns: Freedom and fetish in the missionary encounter. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  131. Ethnographic and historical study of competing semiotic ideologies in colonial mission encounters in Indonesia, arguing that modernity processes are visible in the contested conversion to new systems of signification.
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  133. Luhrmann, Tanya M. 2012. When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. New York: Knopf.
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  135. Psychological anthropological study using ethnographic and experimental data to explore how God becomes and remains real for Vineyard Church members. Suggests that members train themselves to use their minds to focus on inner experience to constitute a relationship with God.
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  137. Meyer, Birgit. 1999. Translating the devil: Religion and modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
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  139. Ethnographic and historical study of the Ewe in Ghana as they encounter Christianity through missionary work and develop their relationship to Pentecostalism, showing how images of the devil help the Ewe deal with relations between past and present, extended and nuclear family.
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  141. Pelkmans, Mathijs, ed. 2009. Conversion after socialism: Disruptions, modernisms, and technologies of faith in the former Soviet Union. New York and Oxford: Berghahn.
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  143. Ten chapters show how conversion in the former Soviet Union is rooted in disruptive qualities of the new capitalist experience and document its unsettling effects at individual and societal level.
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  145. Conversion to Christianity
  146.  
  147. In spite of the discipline’s complicated relationship with Christianity, most anthropological literature deals with conversion to Christianity, especially Pentecostalism. Cucchiari 1988 is an important early contribution, as are Brusco 1995 (see Conversion and Gender) and Meyer 1999 (cited under the Anthropology of Conversion). Van der Veer 1996 is an important cross-cultural essay collection. Viswanathan 1998 and Mosse 2012 analyze Christian conversion in India, Robbins 2004 in Papua New Guinea (offering a new conversion model), and Early 2006 and Steigenga and Cleary 2007 in Latin America. Bryant 1999 and Kling 2014 analyze conversion to Christianity in general. Bryant, et al. 2014 analyzes Mormon conversion and retention throughout history and across the world.
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  149. Bryant, M. Darroll. 1999. Conversion in Christianity: From within and from without. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 177–190. London: Cassell.
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  151. Early overview of conversion processes to and from Christianity, both from a historical and a social science perspective, containing a useful review of the literature.
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  153. Bryant, Seth, Henri Gooren, Rick Phillips, and David Stewart Jr. 2014. Conversion and retention in Mormonism. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 756–785. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  155. Still the only publication to trace the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) conversion and retention processes from the church’s early 19th-century beginnings until the early 21st century, in the United States and across the world.
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  157. Cucchiari, Salvatore. 1988. “Adapted for heaven”: Conversion and culture in western Sicily. American Ethnologist 15.3: 417–441.
  158. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1988.15.3.02a00010Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Rich phenomenological account on Pentecostal conversion, arguing for the value of paying attention to the conversion experience itself rather than its social and cultural correlates.
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  161. Early, John D. 2006. The Maya and Catholicism: An encounter of worldviews. Gainesville: Univ. Press of Florida.
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  163. Analyzes Maya conversion to Catholicism and traces why and how significant elements of Catholic ritual and rites became embedded in Mayan religious systems.
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  165. Kling, David. 2014. Conversion to Christianity. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 598–631. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  167. Shows that while conversion, as concept and as process and event, is central to Christianity, it manifests itself in multiform ways over time and place. Argues that the complexity of conversion requires attention to semantics, history, and multiple theoretical and methodological approaches.
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  169. Mosse, David. 2012. The saint in the banyan tree: Christianity and caste society in India. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  170. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520253162.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171. Ethnographic and archival analysis of Jesuit missions in southern India, arguing that the cultural category of caste has shaped understandings of religion and culture by focusing on conversion in a context of religious pluralism.
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  173. Robbins, Joel. 2004. Becoming sinners: Christianity and moral torment in a Papua New Guinea society. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  175. Explores anthropological, historical, and theological questions to reflect on the cultural transformation, millennial expectation, and pervasive sense of sin that took root after the recent conversion to Christianity of the Urapmin in Papua New Guinea.
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  177. Steigenga, Timothy J., and Edward L. Cleary, eds. 2007. Conversion of a continent: Contemporary religious change in Latin America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
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  179. Using different perspectives, thirteen chapters analyze processes of religious conversion and their impact on national attitudes, activities, gender relations, and identity politics in Latin America.
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  181. van der Veer, Peter, ed. 1996. Conversion to modernities: The globalization of Christianity. London: Routledge.
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  183. Ten chapters explore the ideological and material implications of conversion in the context of the colonization of the non-Western world. Implications include rethinking ideas of nation, conscience, sincerity, and even religion itself.
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  185. Viswanathan, Gauri. 1998. Outside the fold: Conversion, modernity, and belief. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  187. Viswanathan’s collection of essays presents conversion as an act of cultural resistance, especially in the context of the construction of identities in the British colonial empire.
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  189. Conversion to Judaism
  190.  
  191. In spite of being the oldest religion of the book, conversion to Judaism has only been studied systematically by anthropologists since the early 21st century. One reason was doubtless that conversion is a controversial concept in Judaism and quite different from conversion in Christianity. Here both literal conversion (giur) is listed as well as conversion to different dimensions of being Jewish. Weil 2003 analyzes conversion to Judaism as an expression of a search for ethnic autonomy. Markowitz, et al. 2003 analyzes how black Hebrews in Israel develop a new model of citizenship. Kravel-Tovi 2011 explores how Israelites responded to non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union by endorsing a pro-Jewish conversion policy targeted at these new citizens. Handman 2011 analyzes discourses of the Guhu-Samane of Papua New Guinea stating that they are one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Kravel-Tovi 2012 analyzes how state agents construct the bureaucratic encounter with converts as a dramaturgical exchange to theorize performance. Egorova and Perwez 2013 examines how the Lost Tribes of Israel discourse translates itself into the emergence of a Jewish community in the modern world, focusing on the Bene Menashe. Jackson 2013 analyzes the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who believe that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. Kravel-Tovi 2014 shows how the conversion process of new citizens in Israel constitutes a reciprocal transaction by which each party to the exchange—the state and its subjects—provides the other with national recognition. Egorova 2015 analyzes how the Bene Menashe construct and enact their religious affiliation to become Israeli citizens. Lorenz 2015 draws on ethnographic fieldwork in a Polish Jewish congregation to discuss what it means to be a Jew in different countries.
  192.  
  193. Egorova, Yulia. 2015. Redefining the converted Jewish self: Race, religion and Israel’s Bene Menashe. American Anthropologist 117.3: 493–505.
  194. DOI: 10.1111/aman.12293Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195. Analyzes how members of the Bene Menashe community from India and Burma have to construct and enact their religious affiliation to be able to become Israeli citizens and to be considered part of the Jewish people by their “hosts.”
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  197. Egorova, Yulia, and Shahid Perwez. 2013. The Jews of Andhra Pradesh: Contesting caste and religion in South India. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  198. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199929214.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. Examines ethnographically how the time-old discourse about the Lost Tribes of Israel translates itself into the emergence of a Jewish community in the contemporary world, focusing on the Bene Menashe on the border between India and Burma.
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  201. Handman, Courtney. 2011. Israelite genealogies and Christian commitment: The limits of language ideologies in Guhu-Samane Christianity. Anthropological Quarterly 84.3: 655–678.
  202. DOI: 10.1353/anq.2011.0045Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. Focuses on discourses among the Guhu-Samane of Papua New Guinea stating that they are one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, even as they denounce their own egocentric genealogies as nothing more than histories of sinfulness.
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  205. Jackson, John. 2013. Thin description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
  206. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674726253Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Analyzes the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, who believe that African Americans are descendants of the ancient Israelites and that veganism leads to immortality, to make the point that ethnographic “thick description” (Geertz) is nowadays impossible.
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  209. Kravel-Tovi, Michal. 2011. “National mission”: Biopolitics, non-Jewish immigration and Jewish conversion policy in contemporary Israel. Ethnic and Racial Studies 35.4: 737–756.
  210. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2011.588338Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Explores how the Israeli state responded to the late 1980s arrival of a large number of non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union by endorsing a pro-Jewish conversion policy targeted at these new citizens.
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  213. Kravel-Tovi, Michal. 2012. Rite of passing: Bureaucratic encounters, dramaturgy, and Jewish conversion in Israel. American Ethnologist 39.2: 371–388.
  214. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01370.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. Analyzes how state agents construct the bureaucratic encounter with converts as a dramaturgical exchange to theorize performance as an institutional mechanism through which bureaucratic knowledge is produced. Based on an ethnographic analysis of the state-run Jewish conversion project in Israel.
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  217. Kravel-Tovi, Michal. 2014. Bureaucratic gifts: Religious conversion, change, and exchange in Israel. American Ethnologist 41.4: 714–727.
  218. DOI: 10.1111/amet.12107Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. Shows how the conversion process of new citizens in Israel constitutes a reciprocal transaction by which each party to the exchange—the state and its subjects—provides the other with national recognition while also receiving and thus validating its own national identity.
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  221. Lorenz, Jan. 2015. Counting as one: Moral encounters and criteria of affinity in a Polish Jewish congregation. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 15.2: 301–323.
  222. DOI: 10.14318/hau5.2.017Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. Draws on ethnographic fieldwork in a contemporary Jewish congregation in Poland to discuss ethics in the context of different rationalities of affinity to Judaism and what it means to be a Jew in different countries.
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  225. Markowitz, Fran, Sara Helman, and Dafna Shir-Vertesh. 2003. “Soul citizenship”: The black Hebrews and the State of Israel. American Anthropologist 105.2: 302–312.
  226. DOI: 10.1525/aa.2003.105.2.302Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227. Analyzes how black Hebrews in Israel reject postnational splits among identity, legal status, and territory to develop a new model of citizenship that opens new space for displaced peoples to gain membership in states that meet their cultural aspirations and nourish their souls.
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  229. Weil, Shalva. 2003. Dual conversion among the Shinlung in North-East India. Studies in Tribes and Tribals 1.1: 43–57.
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  231. Analyzes the dual conversions of the Shinlung on the India-Burma border to first Christianity and then Judaism as an expression of a search for ethnic autonomy and an attempt at “re-traditionalization” through Judaism dovetailed with pre-Christian indigenous religion.
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  233. Conversion to Islam
  234.  
  235. Anthropologists were also relatively late to study conversion to Islam, and most studies focus on Western converts. Poston 1992 pioneers the study of Islamic recruitment in the West. Woodberry 1992 and Dutton 1999 provide early overviews of conversion to Islam; Hermansen 2014 gives a more recent overview. Köse 1996, Gilliat-Ray 1999, and the essays in van Nieuwkerk 2006 again deal with conversion of people in the West (and South Africa) to Islam. McDougall 2009 analyzes conversion to Islam in the Solomon Islands. Van Nieuwkerk 2014 develops a new multidisciplinary theoretical approach to analyze Western conversion to Islam involving the construction of identities, discourses, and a pious self. Peel 2015 analyzes the intertwined character of Islam, Christianity, and the indigenous Orisa religion among the Yoruba of Nigeria.
  236.  
  237. Dutton, Yasin. 1999. Conversion to Islam: The Quranic paradigm. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 151–165. London: Cassell.
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  239. Explores conversion to Islam in general, based on the original daʿwa concept and other texts from the Qurʾan, and how these were adapted to the demands of the Western context.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Gilliat-Ray, Sophie. 1999. Rediscovering Islam: A Muslim journey of faith. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 315–330. London: Cassell.
  242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. Personal story of the author’s (re)discovery of Islam, tracing relevant influences and referring to some of the social science literature.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Hermansen, Marcia. 2014. Conversion to Islam in theological and historical perspectives. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 632–666. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. Broad historical overview of conversion to Islam in the Middle East, Africa, South (East) Asia, and the United States. Also addresses mass conversions, personal embrace of enhanced commitment and piety, positions on apostasy, and how modernity impacts conversion patterns and processes.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Köse, Ali. 1996. Conversion to Islam: A study of native British converts. London: Kegan Paul.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. Examines the stories of seventy British converts to Islam, analyzing their childhood, religious background, socioeconomic characteristics (education, class), gender roles, and motivations. Also reviews recruitment strategies and mechanisms in Islam, especially Sufi Islam.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. McDougall, Debra. 2009. Becoming sinless: Converting to Islam in the Christian Solomon Islands. American Anthropologist 111.4: 480–491.
  254. DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2009.01157.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. McDougall’s ethnography focuses on local understandings of self and sin among converts from evangelical Christianity to Islam in a Melanesian society.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Peel, John D. Y. 2015. Christianity, Islam, and Orisa-religion: Three traditions in comparison and interaction. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  258. DOI: 10.1525/luminos.8Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. Analyzes the intertwined character of Islam, Christianity, and the indigenous Orisa religion among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. Explores religious conversion, new religious movements, relations between world religions, the conditions of religious violence, and the transnational flows of contemporary religion.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Poston, Larry. 1992. Islamic Da’wah in the West: Muslim missionary activity and the dynamics of conversion. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  263. Explores the reality of Islamic evangelism in the West by showing how the original daʿwa concept of the early followers of Muhammad was adapted to the demands of the Western context, ending with a discussion of the institutionalization of the new missionary strategy in North America.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. van Nieuwkerk, Karin, ed. 2006. Women embracing Islam: Gender and conversion in the West. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Investigates why non-Muslim women in the United States, Europe, and South Africa convert to Islam. Motivations include Islam’s high regard for family and community, its strict moral and ethical standards, and the rationality and spirituality of its theology as well as disillusionment with Christianity and with the unrestrained sexuality of so much of Western culture.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. van Nieuwkerk, Karin. 2014. “Conversion” to Islam and the construction of a pious self. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 667–686. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  271. Develops a multidisciplinary theoretical approach, building on Rambo 1993 (cited under Conversion Studies), in which conversion is understood as a complex contextual experience and long-term process that involves the construction of identities, discourses, and a pious self. Based on ethnographic fieldwork.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Woodberry, J. Dudley. 1992. Conversion in Islam. In Handbook of religious conversion. Edited by H. Newton Malony and Samuel Southard, 22–40. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. Useful overview of conversion in Islam, mostly in the Middle East and Asia, dominated by more historical and theological perspectives.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Conversion to Buddhism and Hinduism
  278.  
  279. Anthropologists were again relatively late to study conversion to Buddhism and Hinduism. Hiebert 1992 is an early overview of conversion both to Hinduism and Buddhism. Goswami 1999 and Seshagiri Rao 1999 are early overviews of conversion to Hinduism. Lamb 1999 is an early overview of conversion concepts in Buddhism. Gellner 2001 is an essay collection developing the anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism, building on Weber and extensive ethnography in Nepal and Japan. Sharma 2014 analyzes the relevance of conversion in contemporary Hinduism, which accepts multiple religious participation and identity. Mahadev 2014 analyzes how features of Christian charity and faith healing are contentious in Sri Lanka because they collide with local ideologies supporting traditional (Buddhist) religiosity. Tarocco 2014 lists attempts by governments since the 17th century to prohibit or control Buddhist proselytizing in China. Yü 2014 develops modern Buddhist conversion as related to different societies and psychological issues. Mahadev 2015 analyzes how interreligious competition for members with Pentecostalism urged a maverick Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka to recruit devotees to hasten the arrival of the messianic Maitreya.
  280.  
  281. Gellner, David N. 2001. The anthropology of Buddhism and Hinduism: Weberian themes. New Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  283. Essay collection that engages with Max Weber’s work, combined with detailed ethnography from Nepal and Japan, challenging critical questions in the anthropology and sociology about Buddhism and Hinduism.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Goswami, Tamal Krishna. 1999. Being Hindu in North America: The experience of a Western convert. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 278–286. London: Cassell.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. Personal story of the author’s conversion to ISKCON (Hare Krishna) in the United States, tracing relevant influences and describing his experiences as a Western convert.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Hiebert, Paul G. 1992. Conversion in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Handbook of religious conversion. Edited by H. Newton Malony and Samuel Southard, 9–21. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. Useful early overview of conversion to Hinduism and Buddhism, highlighting both significant similarities and differences.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Lamb, Christopher. 1999. Conversion as a process leading to enlightenment: The Buddhist perspective. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 75–88. London: Cassell.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. Useful early overview of conversion concepts in Buddhism, linked to its concept of “bodhi” (enlightenment; literally “awakening”) while also reviewing the limited social science literature.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Mahadev, Neena. 2014. Conversion and anti-conversion in contemporary Sri Lanka: Pentecostal Christian evangelism and Theravada Buddhist views on the ethics of religious attraction. In Proselytizing and the limits of religious pluralism in contemporary Asia. Edited by Juliana Finucane and R. Michael Feener, 211–235. Singapore: Springer.
  298. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-4451-18-5_11Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. Analyzes how features of Christian charity and Pentecostal faith healing are contentious in Sri Lanka because they collide with local conventions and ideologies that support traditional (Buddhist) religiosity and religious propagation.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Mahadev, Neena. 2015. The maverick dialogics of religious rivalry in Sri Lanka: Inspiration and contestation in a new messianic Buddhist movement. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22:127–147.
  302. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9655.12337Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Analyzes how interreligious competition for members with Pentecostalism urged a maverick Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka to recruit devotees to hasten the arrival of the messianic Maitreya.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Seshagiri Rao, K. L. 1999. Conversion: A Hindu/Gandhian perspective. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 136–150. London: Cassell.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. Useful early overview of conversion concepts in Hinduism, linked to Gandhi’s ideas including nonviolence, while also reviewing the limited social science literature.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Sharma, Arvind. 2014. Hinduism and conversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 429–443. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  311. Hinduism is comfortable with multiple religious participation, multiple religious affiliation, and even with multiple religious identity. Explores the significance of this feature of Hinduism for understanding the word “conversion,” since this inclusivism is shared by several Asian religions.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Tarocco, Francesca. 2014. Pluralism and its discontents: Buddhism and proselytizing in modern China. In Proselytizing and the limits of religious pluralism in contemporary Asia. Edited by Juliana Finucane and R. Michael Feener, 237–254. Singapore: Springer.
  314. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-4451-18-5_12Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. Historical overview of the systematic attempts by subsequent governments since the 17th century to prohibit or control Buddhist proselytizing in China.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Yü, Dan Smyer. 2014. Buddhist conversion in the contemporary world. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 465–487. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. Argues that modern Buddhist conversion involves deconversion from one’s existing belief system(s), syncretization of Buddhist teachings and social conditions of the given society, and often transference of the individually manifested but collectively patterned psychological issues.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Conversion to New Religious Movements
  322.  
  323. Most early studies of New Religious Movements (NRMs) in the West were conducted by sociologists, starting with Lofland and Stark 1965. Richardson 1978 is an early essay collection stressing the serial character of conversion to NRMs. Downton 1979 is an early ethnography of conversion to the Divine Light Mission and the role of its guru. Barker 1984 is a classical ethnographic study of the conversion process in the Unification Church in London. Richardson 1992 is an overview of interdisciplinary theories and research trends on NRMs. Eggleton 1999 and Dawson 1999 contrast brainwashing and actor-oriented approaches to conversion to NRMs in the West, including the role of the anti-cult movement. Cowan 2014 debunks brainwashing to show the importance of social networks and responses to popular culture to explain NRM conversion. Wright 2014 analyzes conversion to and disengagement from NRMs in a single theoretical perspective (see also Conversion to Atheism and Agnosticism).
  324.  
  325. Barker, Eileen. 1984. The making of a Moonie. Oxford: Blackwell.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Classical analysis of the conversion process of Unification Church members, based on seven years of ethnographic study, surveys, interviews with (ex-)members, parents, spouses, friends of members, “non-joiners,” and control groups of uninvolved individuals from similar backgrounds.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Cowan, Douglas E. 2014. Conversion to new religious movements. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 687–705. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. Shows how the brainwashing hypothesis constructs the problem of NRMs by ignoring the issue of religious choice among converts. Concludes that conversion to NRMs is influenced by the strength of social networks, the nature of conversion careers, and responses to popular culture.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Dawson, Lorne L. 1999. Cult conversions: Controversy and clarification. In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 287–314. London: Cassell.
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  335. Critical overview of directions in the interdisciplinary field of conversion studies of New Religious Movements, tracing past trends, discussing the anti-cult movement, reviewing the existing literature, and delineating possible future research.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Downton, James V. 1979. Sacred journeys: The conversion of young Americans to Divine Light Mission. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. Analyzes a sample group of eighteen young Americans, their conversion process to the ideals of Divine Light Mission, and their relationship with its guru, based on five years of ethnographic research chronicling the followers’ personal changes and the evolution of the movement itself.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Eggleton, Martin. 1999. Belonging to a cult or new religious movement: Act of free will or form of mind control? In Religious conversion: Contemporary practices and controversies. Edited by Christopher Lamb and M. Darroll Bryant, 263–277. London: Cassell.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Overview of conversion to New Religious Movements in the West, contrasting the brainwashing perspective with new theories stressing the converts’ agency in the conversion process.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Lofland, John, and Rodney Stark. 1965. Becoming a world-saver: A theory of conversion to a deviant perspective. American Sociological Review 30.6: 862–875.
  346. DOI: 10.2307/2090965Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. Develops the earliest process model of religious conversion in seven stages as a sequential funnel, from tensions to seekership and social ties, based on extensive fieldwork among and interviews with members of a millenarian New Religious Movement in San Francisco.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Richardson, James T. 1992. Conversion process in the new religions. In Handbook of religious conversion. Edited by H. Newton Malony and Samuel Southard, 78–90. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education.
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  351. Early critical overview of directions in the interdisciplinary field of conversion studies of New Religious Movements, tracing past trends and delineating possible future research.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Richardson, James T., ed. 1978. Conversion careers: In and out of the new religions. Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
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  355. Nine chapters cover conversion to New Religious Movements (including a UFO cult, an occult group, the Unification Church, and the anti-cult movement), the Jesus Movement, and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, stressing and analyzing its dynamic and serial character.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Wright, Stuart A. 2014. Disengagement and apostasy in new religious movements. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 706–735. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  359. Argues that NRMs face contested terrain because they are often seen as challengers to established religions and a threat to the social order. Examines three concerns about the validity of ex-member accounts: retrospective reporting, temporal variability, and conflicting claims.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Conversion to Atheism and Agnosticism
  362.  
  363. (De-)Conversion to atheism and agnosticism is a more recent theme, originally dominated by studies from psychology and sociology. Barbour 1994 is an early study, based on the narrative analysis of deconversion stories. Altemeyer and Hunsberger 1997 juxtaposes conversion with deconversion stories to analyze similar trends and factors. Hunsberger and Altemeyer 2006 analyzes the social costs of different levels of commitment to atheism for people’s families and careers. Zuckerman 2008 analyzes how atheism correlates with happiness in Denmark and Sweden. Streib, et al. 2009 combines ethnographic and survey methods to comprehensively analyze deconversion in Germany and the United States (Streib 2014 develops and summarizes the same study and approach). Zuckerman 2011 analyzes deconversion based on interviews with US atheists and agnostics. Cragun 2015 is a secular activism manual with practical recommendations on how to weaken religion in society, based on solid scholarly research.
  364.  
  365. Altemeyer, Bob, and Bruce Hunsberger. 1997. Amazing conversions: Why some turn to faith and others abandon religion. New York: Prometheus.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. Juxtaposes the stories of people with a strong (often fundamentalist) religious background who eventually deconverted with people who grew up without religion who later became devout Christian converts, based on in-depth interviews and a survey of over four thousand college students.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Barbour, John D. 1994. Versions of deconversion: Autobiography and the loss of faith. Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. Narrative analysis of the reasons for loss of faith and how people interpreted that loss. For some, deconversion led to another religious faith, while others turned to atheism or agnosticism, or used deconversion as a metaphor to interpret their experiences of personal transformation.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Cragun, Ryan T. 2015. How to defeat religion in ten easy steps. Charlottesville, VA: Pitchstone.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. Manual for secular activism covering topics like education, welfare, sex, science, and capitalism. Suggests actions that research has shown can weaken religion, detailing why and how, concluding with recommendations for individuals, local groups, and national organizations.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Hunsberger, Bruce E., and Bob Altemeyer. 2006. Atheists. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Analyzes how people become atheists, the relevant socioeconomic variables, the social costs of atheism for family and career, and levels of dogmatism and religious prejudice found among zealous atheists. Based on a survey of three hundred members of atheist organizations in the United States.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Streib, Heinz. 2014. Deconversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 271–296. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. Offers a new way to conceptualize deconversion as a reminder of the depth and intensity of biographical change and the new orientation of one’s life associated with it. Also examines recent quantitative and qualitative research relevant for understanding deconversion.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Streib, Heinz, Ralph W. Hood, Barbara Keller, Rosina-Martha Csöff, and Christopher Silver. 2009. Deconversion. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Combines qualitative (ethnographic) and quantitative (survey) techniques with interviews to systematically study deconverts in Germany and the United States, coming from new religious movements and more traditional religions, although the focus was on religions in higher tension with society.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Zuckerman, Phil. 2008. Societies without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York: New York Univ. Press.
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  391. Most Danes and Swedes do not believe in God, pray, or give much credence to religious dogma of any kind. Analyzes how they create meaningful lives and face death, and why they score high on happiness, education, and wealth while scoring low on crime and corruption indicators.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Zuckerman, Phil. 2011. Faith no more: Why people reject religion. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  394. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199740017.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Draws on in-depth interviews with people who have left religion to show that leaving one’s faith is a highly personal, complex, and drawn-out process. So many Americans claim no religion (19 percent in 2012, against 8 percent in 1990) that this category now outranks all religions except Catholics.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Conversion and Gender
  398.  
  399. Brusco 1995 pioneers the study of conversion and gender, showing how evangelical asceticism increases household income and benefits wives and children. Burdick 1998 pioneers how conversion is connected to poverty, race, and ethnicity. Hodgson 2005 analyzes why Maasai women convert to Christianity more than men and how this affects society. Van Nieuwkerk 2006 is an essay collection analyzing why women in the United States, Europe, and South Africa convert to Islam. Eriksen 2008 analyzes female agency and churches to explore how women see themselves in the context of wider changes in Vanuatu religion and society. Daswani 2011 innovatively contrasts individuality and “dividuality” (how Pentecostals relate to and help to constitute each other’s identities) in the lives of Ghanaian Pentecostal women. Van de Kamp 2011 analyzes why Brazilian Pentecostal churches in Mozambique attract upwardly mobile women and help them deal with tensions in relationships and money strains. Klaver 2011 argues for a more sensorial and embodied approach to better understand conversion, based on ethnographic study of two Dutch churches. Van Klinken 2013 pioneers how the construction, contestation, and transformation of local understandings of masculinity in Zambia are connected to sexuality and family responsibilities (van Klinken 2013 analyzes how masculinity changes after conversion in one Zambian church). Kent 2014 is a recent overview of how conversion leads to gender transformations in work, sexuality, family roles, kinship, public space, and social norms.
  400.  
  401. Brusco, Elizabeth. 1995. The reformation of machismo. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
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  403. Explores the intrahousehold motivations for evangelical conversion in Colombia. Shows how the asceticism required of evangelicals (no drinking, smoking, or extramarital sexual relations) redirects male income back into the household, raising the living standard of women and children.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Burdick, John. 1998. Blessed Anastácia: Women, race, and popular Christianity in Brazil. New York: Routledge.
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  407. Examines attitudes to race and ethnicity in Brazil through interviews with poor women from different religious backgrounds. Considers the implications for black consciousness of different attitudes on race, gender, religion, and the body.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Daswani, Garish. 2011. (In-)Dividual Pentecostals in Ghana. Journal of Religion in Africa 41.3: 256–279.
  410. DOI: 10.1163/157006611X586211Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411. Biographical study of two Ghanaian women showing that while claims to individuality are often significant in born-again religion, research also needs to address “dividuality,” or how Pentecostals relate to and even help to constitute each other’s identities.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Eriksen, Annelin. 2008. Gender, Christianity, and change in Vanuatu. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. Analyzes change, movement, female agency, and churches as institutions to discuss how women view themselves in the context of wider transformations in Vanuatu religion and society, based on long-term ethnographic research.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Hodgson, Dorothy L. 2005. The church of women: Gendered encounters between Masaai and missionaries. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. Critical gender analysis of why Masaai women have converted to Christianity more than men and the impact of this gendered pattern on Masaai women’s cultural and religious lives.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Kent, Eliza F. 2014. Feminist approaches to the study of religious conversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 297–326. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Shows how conversion leads to transformations in the sexual division of labor, the assignment of roles within the family, kinship relationships, sexual relationships, the organization of domestic and public space, and norms that govern how men and women should speak, dress, and walk.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Klaver, Miranda. 2011. This is my desire: A semiotic perspective on conversion in an evangelical seeker church and a Pentecostal church in the Netherlands. PhD diss., Vrije Universiteit.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Compares the conversion strategies of newcomers with strategies of conversion of a seeker and a neo-Pentecostal church in the Amsterdam area to argue for a more sensorial and embodied approach to understand conversion, stressing the importance of affects, emotions, and desires.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. van de Kamp, Linda. 2011. Violent conversion: Brazilian Pentecostalism and the urban pioneering of women in Mozambique. PhD diss., Vrije Universiteit.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. Traces the growth of Brazilian Pentecostal churches in Mozambique, which attract upwardly mobile women. Argues that conversion often brings tension in relationships and money strains.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. van Klinken, Adriaan S. 2013. Transforming masculinities in African Christianity: Gender controversies in times of AIDS. Farnham, UK: Ashgate.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. Groundbreaking ethnographic research on the construction, contestation, and transformation of understandings of masculinity in two Zambian churches and how these are connected to sexuality, AIDS, family responsibilities, and the search for more equitable gender roles.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. van Nieuwkerk, Karin, ed. 2006. Women embracing Islam: Gender and conversion in the West. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. Eleven chapters analyze why non-Muslim women in the United States, Europe, and South Africa convert to Islam. Motivations include Islam’s regard for family and community, its strict moral and ethical standards, and the rationality and spirituality of its theology as well as disillusionment with Christianity and with the unrestrained sexuality of so much of Western culture.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Conversion and Language
  442.  
  443. Anthropological studies document the importance of language in expressing, and possibly even causing, religious conversion. Harding 1987 pioneers the argument for Baptist fundamentalists in the United States (expanded in Harding 2000). Stromberg 1993 analyzes how language used by US evangelicals both expresses and reconstitutes their past religious experiences. Engelke 2007 analyzes a Zimbabwean church that rejects Bible reading, claiming they receive the Word of God direct from the Holy Spirit. Bielo 2009b is an essay collection documenting believers’ uses of the Bible worldwide. Bielo 2009a analyzes why group Bible study matters so much to evangelicals and their culture, based on nineteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the United States. Handman 2015 presents new models of Christian sociality, partly based on Bible translations, debated among Guhu-Samane Christians in Papua New Guinea. Hindmarsh 2014 gives an overview of narrative approaches to conversion stories, showing how they may be analyzed as eyewitness history, statements of self-identity, and ideological commitments. Stromberg 2014 gives an overview of the conversion narrative, how its stylistic features construct specific social situations, and the relationship between discourse and self.
  444.  
  445. Bielo, James S. 2009a. Words upon the Word. New York: New York Univ. Press.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. Draws on nineteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in 5 congregations to better understand why group Bible study matters so much to US evangelicals and for evangelical culture. Examines the defining themes of group life through a close analysis of participants’ discourse—from textual interpretation to spiritual intimacy and the rehearsal of witnessing.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Bielo, James S., ed. 2009b. The social life of scriptures: Cross-cultural perspectives on biblicism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. Twelve chapters cover a wide range of Christian traditions across the world, exploring the varied ways in which believers relate to and use the Bible.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Engelke, Matthew. 2007. A problem of presence: Beyond Scripture in an African church. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
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  455. Shows how the rejection of textual authority by the Friday Masowe apostolics in Zimbabwe poses a problem of presence—how the religious subject defines, and claims to construct, a relationship with the spiritual world through the semiotic potentials of language, actions, and objects.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Handman, Courtney. 2015. Critical Christianity: Translation and denominational conflict in Papua New Guinea. Oakland, CA: Univ. of California Press.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Presents models of Christian sociality debated among Guhu-Samane Christians, from early interaction with German Lutheran missionaries and the Summer Institute of Linguistics to the contemporary moment of conflict. Analyzes the media through which this critical Christian sociality is practiced, including language, sound, bodily movement, and everyday objects.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Harding, Susan F. 1987. Convicted by the Holy Spirit: The rhetoric of fundamental Baptist conversion. American Ethnologist 14.1: 167–181.
  462. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1987.14.1.02a00100Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. Much-quoted article that was among the first to analyze the role of language and discourse in processes of religious conversion, based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork among fundamentalist Baptists in the United States.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Harding, Susan F. 2000. The book of Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist language and politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
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  467. Pioneering linguistic anthropological study explores fundamentalist politics and culture through a focus on Jerry Falwell, based on more than a decade of ethnographic fieldwork among evangelicals and Baptists in the United States. Shows how Falwell encourages members to engage with his life and transformational scripture reading to get mobilized into politics.
  468. Find this resource:
  469. Hindmarsh, Bruce. 2014. Religious conversion as narrative and autobiography. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 343–368. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
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  471. Shows how conversion narratives may be analyzed as formal systems, political declarations, and ethical rhetoric, and how as autobiographies they may be further studied as eyewitness history, statements of self-identity, and ideological commitments.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Stromberg, Peter. 1993. Language and self-transformation: A study of the Christian conversion narrative. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Shows how detailed analysis can indicate the ways in which the language used by American evangelicals in conversion stories both refers to and reconstitutes past religious experiences.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Stromberg, Peter. 2014. The role of language in religious conversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 117–139. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. Reviews the narrative features of conversion accounts, the poetics and rhetoric of conversion narratives, how stylistic features of the conversion narrative construct specific social situations, linguistic ideologies in conversion narratives, and the relationship between discourse and self.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Conversion, Markets, and Prosperity
  482.  
  483. Early anthropological studies explore connections between conversion and economic change. Recent studies employ or criticize the sociological “religious market” model of churches competing for members in a free religious economy. Wallace 1956 pioneers how “mazeway reformulation” by a prophet can lead to transformative cultural, economic, political, and religious changes among Native Americans. Willems 1967 pioneers how conversion to Protestantism and Pentecostalism in Brazil and Chile impacts cultural, economic, psychological, and social variables. Sexton 1978 argues that conversion to Protestantism both accompanies and supports penny capitalism among Indians in the Guatemalan highlands because of Protestantism’s emphasis on an ascetic lifestyle and its future-oriented worldview. Gooren 1999 analyzes church, firm, and household among Catholic, Mormon, and Pentecostal microentrepreneurs in a poor neighborhood of Guatemala City. Coleman 2000 analyzes the incorporation of television, video, and the Internet into Christian worship and prosperity theology among Swedish Pentecostals. Stark and Finke 2000 develops the religious market approach to analyze the dynamics of religious groups in societies. Chesnut 2003 uses the religious market approach to analyze why and how Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African diaspora religions gain followers in Latin America. Bielo 2011 analyzes the Emerging Church movement that started in the 1990s, opposing what it considers overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of Christian faith. Elisha 2011 challenges that US evangelicalism is narrowly individualistic, stressing recent efforts in some megachurches to renew interest in compassion, poverty, racial justice, and urban revivalism. Offutt 2015 shows that Christianity in the Global South, previously poor and marginalized, is now socioeconomically diverse, internationally well connected, and increasingly socially engaged.
  484.  
  485. Bielo, James S. 2011. Emerging evangelicals: Faith, modernity, and the desire for authenticity. New York: New York Univ. Press.
  486. DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9780814789544.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Analyzes the Emerging Church movement that developed in the mid-1990s in response to the increasing divide between conservative evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Chesnut, R. Andrew. 2003. Competitive spirits: Latin America’s new religious economy. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  491. Analyzes why and how Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African diaspora religions such as Brazilian Candomblé and Haitian Vodou emerged as the most profitable religious producers in a situation of increasing religious pluralism in Latin America.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Coleman, Simon. 2000. The globalization of charismatic Christianity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  494. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488221Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. Examines globalization not only as a social process, but also as an embodied practice involving forms of language and ritualized movement. Analyzes the incorporation of television, video, and the Internet into Christian worship and prosperity theology, based on ethnography in Sweden.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Elisha, Omri. 2011. Moral ambition: Mobilization and social outreach in evangelical mega-churches. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  498. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520267503.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. Challenges conventional views of US evangelicalism as narrowly individualistic, elucidating instead the contradictions that activists face in their efforts to reconcile religious conservatism with a renewed interest in compassion, poverty, racial justice, and urban revivalism.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Gooren, Henri. 1999. Rich among the poor: Church, firm, and household among small-scale entrepreneurs in Guatemala City. Amsterdam: Thela.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Analyzes and theorizes the connections between church, firm, and household among Catholics, Mormons, and Pentecostals in a low-income neighborhood of Guatemala City. Based on fifteen months of local ethnographic fieldwork research.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Offutt, Stephen. 2015. New centers of global evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  506. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139939713Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. Shows that new growing centers of Christianity in the Global South, previously poor and marginalized, are now socioeconomically diverse, internationally well connected, and increasingly socially engaged. Argues that local and global religious forces, as opposed to other social, economic, or political forces, are primarily responsible for these changes.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Sexton, James. 1978. Protestantism and modernization in two Guatemalan towns. American Ethnologist 5.2: 280–302.
  510. DOI: 10.1525/ae.1978.5.2.02a00060Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. Argues that conversion to Protestantism edifies and legitimizes indigenous populations in the Guatemalan highlands as penny capitalists because of Protestantism’s emphasis on an ascetic lifestyle and its future-oriented worldview. Based on almost two years of local ethnographic fieldwork research.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Stark, Rodney, and Roger Finke. 2000. Acts of faith: Explaining the human side of religion. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Analyzes the observable, human side of faith, from the religiousness of individuals to the dynamics of religious groups, and then to the religious workings of entire societies as religious groups contend for support. Fully develops the religious markets approach to conversion.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. Wallace, Anthony F. C. 1956. Revitalization movements. American Anthropologist 58.2: 264–281.
  518. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1956.58.2.02a00040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  519. Early process model of conversion and socioeconomic change, based on Native American ethnography, showing how “mazeway reformulation” by a prophet can lead to transformative cultural, economic, political, and religious changes.
  520. Find this resource:
  521. Willems, Emílio. 1967. Followers of the new faith: Culture change and the rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Univ. Press.
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Classic early anthropological study of conversion to Protestantism and Pentecostalism, based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in several regions of Brazil and Chile, paying special attention to cultural, economic, psychological, and social variables.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Conversion and Mass Media
  526.  
  527. Recent anthropological research explores and theorizes the role of electronic mass media in conversion and church growth. Coleman 2000 pioneers the incorporation of electronic media like television, video, and the Internet into Christian worship and the prosperity gospel, based on ethnographic research in Sweden. Oosterbaan 2006 analyzes violence, consumption, and love in the mass media of Pentecostal churches in Brazil as well as its socioeconomic and sociopolitical consequences for slum dwellers. De Witte 2008 explores the intersection between modern mass media and religious practice in contemporary Ghana by examining two new mass-mediated forms of religion: charismatic Pentecostalism and an institutionalizing African traditional religion. Guadeloupe 2008 shows how radio DJs—whose formulations of Christian faith, musical creativity, and capitalist survival express ordinary people’s hopes and fears—promote tolerance in Saint Martin. Larkin 2008 charts how the material qualities of technologies and the cultural ambitions they represent feed into the everyday experiences of Nigerians, concentrating on the northern Muslim city of Kano. Schultze and Wood 2008 is an essay collection analyzing evangelical use of mass media in faith promotion, both traditional (books, radio, and TV) and nontraditional (theme parks, games, and the Internet). Stout 2012 provides a comprehensive overview of media and media genres as they relate to denominational, world, and cultural religions. Engelke 2013 traces how a small group of socially committed Christians tackle the challenge of Biblical publicity in a largely secular UK culture. Meyer 2015 analyzes and theorizes the technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects of popular religious filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and for evangelization.
  528.  
  529. Coleman, Simon. 2000. The globalization of charismatic Christianity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  530. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488221Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. Examines globalization not only as a social process, but also as an embodied practice involving forms of language and ritualized movement. Analyzes the incorporation of electronic media like television, video, and the Internet into Christian worship and the prosperity gospel, based on ethnographic research in Sweden.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. de Witte, Marleen. 2008. Spirit media: Charismatics, traditionalists, and mediation practices in Ghana. PhD diss., Univ. of Amsterdam.
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. Analyzes the intersection between modern mass media and religious practice in contemporary Ghana by examining two new mass-mediated forms of religion: the audiovisual culture of charismatic Pentecostalism and the public representation of an institutionalizing African traditional religion. Based on more than a year of local ethnographic fieldwork research.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Engelke, Matthew. 2013. God’s agents: Biblical publicity in contemporary England. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  538. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520280465.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. Traces how a small group of socially committed Christians tackle the challenge of Biblical publicity in a largely secular UK culture, showing how conceptual divides such as public/private, religious/secular, and faith/knowledge are challenged and redefined by social actors on the ground.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Guadeloupe, Francio. 2008. Chanting down the New Jerusalem: Calypso, Christianity, and capitalism in the Caribbean. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  542. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520254886.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. Shows how the island nation of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, where livelihoods depend on tourism, has managed to encourage all social classes to transcend their ethnic and religious differences. Credits the island radio DJs, whose formulations of Christian faith, musical creativity, and capitalist survival express ordinary people’s hopes and fears and promote tolerance.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. Larkin, Brian. 2008. Signal and noise: Media infrastructure and urban culture in Nigeria. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.
  546. DOI: 10.1215/9780822389316Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  547. Charts how the material qualities of technologies and the cultural ambitions they represent feed into the everyday experiences of Nigerians, concentrating on the Muslim city of Kano in the north.
  548. Find this resource:
  549. Meyer, Birgit. 2015. Sensational movies: Video, vision, and Christianity in Ghana. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  550. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. Captures the dynamic process of popular filmmaking in Ghana as a new medium for the imagination and tracks the interlacing of the medium’s technological, economic, social, cultural, and religious aspects. Unpacks the affinity between cinematic and popular Christian modes of looking and showcases the transgressive potential haunting figurations of the occult.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Oosterbaan, Martijn. 2006. Divine mediations: Pentecostalism, politics, and mass media in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. PhD diss., Univ. of Amsterdam.
  554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. Analyzes the dramatized representation of violence, consumption, and love in the mass media of Pentecostal churches in Brazil as well as their socioeconomic and sociopolitical consequences for slum dwellers. Based on eleven months of intensive, local ethnographic research.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Schultze, Quentin J., and Robert H. Wood Jr., eds. 2008. Understanding evangelical media: The changing face of Christian communication. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity.
  558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. Twenty-one chapters provide a historical overview and critique of evangelicals’ efforts to support and promote their faith both through traditional and nontraditional modern mass media, like theme parks, games, and Christian merchandise. Concluding chapters give Jewish and Roman Catholic perspectives on evangelical media culture.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Stout, Daniel A. 2012. Media and religion: Foundations of an emerging field. New York: Routledge.
  562. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  563. Combines history, theory, and cultural context to provide a comprehensive overview of professional and social aspects of media and of media genres as they relate to denominational, world, and cultural religions.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Conversion and Politics
  566.  
  567. Anthropological studies of the intersection between conversion and politics are as recent as those of Conversion and Mass Media. Falla 2001 is a pioneering study on how religious conversion was used by indigenous populations in the Guatemalan highlands to readapt to the changing natural, economic, political, and social environment. Harding 2000, cited under Conversion and Language explores fundamentalist politics and culture through a focus on Jerry Falwell, who encourages members to engage with his life and transformational scripture reading to get mobilized into politics. Steigenga 2001 analyzes the impact religious affiliation has on political activity and belief, and the influence of cross-denominational religious beliefs and practices on Latin American life, especially in Costa Rica and Guatemala. Marshall 2009 argues that the born-again experience in Nigeria brings both religious and political salvation to the fore in a context marked by corruption, inequality, and state failure. Tomlinson 2009 analyzes how Christian conversion in Fiji simultaneously generates a sense of loss and the means of recuperation. O’Neil 2010 examines how the culture, practices, and politics of a megachurch in Guatemala City contribute to, but also restrict, citizenship in the context of postwar reconstruction and democratization efforts. Hefner 2013 is an essay collection analyzing the impact of Pentecostal conversion on political participation, citizenship, gender relations, and economic morality in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. Patterson 2014 evaluates the hypothesis that Protestants’ attitudes toward and involvement in politics are markedly different from that of Catholics, focusing on Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Steigenga 2014 gives an overview of studies of politics, secularization, and religious change, indicating areas where the study of conversion can enrich such research. Bauman 2015 explores the targeting of Pentecostals in India through a detailed analysis of Indian Christian history, contemporary Indian politics, Indian social and cultural characteristics, and Pentecostal belief and practice.
  568.  
  569. Bauman, Chad M. 2015. Pentecostals, proselytization, and anti-Christian violence in contemporary India. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  570. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190202095.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. Explores the targeting of Pentecostals in India through a detailed analysis of Indian Christian history, contemporary Indian politics, Indian social and cultural characteristics, and Pentecostal belief and practice. Based on extensive local ethnographic fieldwork research and interviews.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. Falla, Ricardo. 2001. Quiché rebelde: Religious conversion, politics, and ethnic identity in Guatemala. Austin: Univ. of Texas Press.
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. Originally published in 1978. Excellent translation of this standard work by a Guatemalan Jesuit priest and anthropologist on how religious conversion was used by indigenous populations in the Guatemalan highlands to readapt to the changing natural, economic, political, and social environment.
  576. Find this resource:
  577. Hefner, Robert W., ed. 2013. Global Pentecostalism in the twenty-first century. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.
  578. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579. Ten chapters analyze the impact of Pentecostal conversion on political participation, citizenship, gender relations, and economic morality, presenting useful introductions to global issues and country-specific studies drawn from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Marshall, Ruth. 2009. Political spiritualities: The Pentecostal revolution in Nigeria. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
  582. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226507149.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. Uses ethnography as well as political and philosophical theory to analyze the success of Pentecostalism in Nigeria. Argues that the born-again experience brings both religious and political salvation to the fore in a context marked by corruption, inequality, and state failure.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. O’Neil, Kevin L. 2010. City of God: Christian citizenship in postwar Guatemala. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  586. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. Examines the culture and politics of a megachurch in Guatemala City in the context of postwar reconstruction and democratization efforts. Shows how neo-Pentecostal practices contribute to, but also restrict, actions in relation to citizenship.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Patterson, Eric. 2014. Latin America’s neo-Reformation: Religion’s influence on contemporary politics. New York: Routledge.
  590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. Evaluates the hypothesis that Protestants’ attitudes toward and involvement in politics are markedly different from that of Catholics, focusing on the intersection between religion and politics in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico in particular.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Steigenga, Timothy J. 2001. The politics of the Spirit: The political implications of Pentecostalized religion in Costa Rica and Guatemala. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595. Analyzes the impact that religious affiliation has on political activity and belief, and the influence of cross-denominational religious beliefs and practices on Latin American life. Explores how two different political systems, the established democracy of Costa Rica and the transitional system of Guatemala, impact the politics of religion.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Steigenga, Timothy J. 2014. Political science and religious conversion. In The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. Edited by Lewis R. Rambo and Charles E. Farhadian, 401–425. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
  598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Provides an overview of the recent headway made in the study of politics, secularization, and religious change, and points to areas where the study of conversion can enrich such research, utilizing methods that better capture the complexity of interactions between religion and politics.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Tomlinson, Matt. 2009. In God’s image: The metaculture of Fijian Christianity. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
  602. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  603. Analyzes how beliefs about the superiority of the ancestors and the past in general provoke great anxiety, and that Fijians seek ways of recovering this strength through ritual and political action. Thus Christian conversion in Fiji simultaneously generates a sense of loss and the means of recuperation.
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