sign in sign up
<<
Home , Religious conversion

View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE

provided by Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University

Singapore Management University Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University

Research Collection School of Social Sciences School of Social Sciences

8-2012 The geographies of religious conversion Orlando WOODS Singapore Management University, [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132511427951

Follow this and additional works at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research Part of the Human Geography Commons, and the Commons

Citation WOODS, Orlando.(2012). The eg ographies of religious conversion. in Human Geography, 36(4), 440-456. Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2427

This Journal Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Social Sciences at Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Research Collection School of Social Sciences by an authorized administrator of Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University. For more , please email [email protected]. PublishedArticle in Progress in Human Geography, Volume 36, Issue 4, August 2012, Pages 440-456 https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132511427951 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) 440–456 ª The Author(s) 2012 The geographies of religious Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav conversion 10.1177/0309132511427951 phg.sagepub.com

Orlando Woods National University of Singapore, Singapore

Abstract The paper reviews the corpus of research that attempts to explain the process of religious conversion, and explores the ways in which geographers can add new perspectives to the discourse. It argues that religious conversion is a phenomenon that goes beyond the reorientation of individual , and is instead a process of change that involves the (re)definition of self and other. Five conceptual frames are proposed – (1) conversion of space; (2) spaces of conversion; (3) spaces of negotiation; (4) the (im)mobile convert; and (5) the (dis)embodied convert – which are used to help define the geographies of religious conversion.

Keywords conversion of space, (dis)embodied convert, geographies of religion, (im)mobile convert, religious conversion, spaces of conversion, spaces of negotiation

I Introduction or other forms of inducement to cause the conversion of a person from one religion or On 21 July 2010 three news reports from around to another’ (Compass Direct News, 2010). Asia drew attention to some key issues sur- Third, in multi-religious Singapore, new guide- rounding religious conversion. By doing so they lines on the use of commercial space by reli- also brought to light the gulf that has emerged gious groups have been outlined in order to between conversion discourse and real-world ‘protect the secular nature of the venues’ (The concerns. First, in the Islamic state of Indonesia Straits Times, 2010). Such guidelines, aimed a family of three American charity workers was primarily at the Christian groups that use hotel being expelled from their home in Aceh for function rooms and centres for attempting to convert local to Chris- purposes, seek to restrict the use of tianity. Their proselytizing reportedly provoked physical space, and the frequency at which anger from the local community, and their secular premises are converted into sites of deportation was to mitigate the risk of potential religious activity. conflict (Jakarta Globe, 2010). Second, in The similarities that thread these three stories Buddhist-majority Bhutan a government- together, and the differences that define them proposed ‘anti-conversion’ law is to restrict individually, highlight important gaps in existing the ability of Christian groups to reach out to the impoverished communities in which they serve. If enacted, the legislation means that ‘under sec- Corresponding author: tion 463 [of the Penal Code of Bhutan], a defen- National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, AS2 #03-01, dant shall be guilty of the offense of Singapore proselytization if the defendant uses coercion Email: [email protected] Woods 441 scholarly discourses surrounding religious which conversion processes occur; yet the conversion. In terms of similarities, Christian ramifications of conversion and converting are groups are the protagonists, even though each far-reaching, and currently under-appreciated. story is situated in a different Asian context. It Religious conversion discourses reflect pro- is also evident that conversion is not just a matter cesses of movement and change that affect of religious concern for the individual or the reli- individuals, communities, organizations and gious group. It affects nations and communities; localities, yet they are also embedded within, it is intertwined with secular issues, such as and influence, interreligious and religious- development, the provision of aid, and the leas- secular relations at the macro scale. Geographi- ing of commercial property; and more often than cal perspectives on conversion are noticeable in not religious conversion has political and sym- their absence, despite having the potential to bolic ramifications that extend beyond the reor- offer much to existing debates, and to open up ientation of individual belief. Yet each story is new avenues of inquiry. also unique. In Indonesia the juxtaposition of In charting the path for a more robust conver- an expatriate Christian family and the local sion discourse, the paper also reflects a growing Islamic context in which they work shows, in its trend among geographers seeking to carve out simplest sense, a modernist tension between a their own niche in the social scientific study of prevailing religious order and the proselytizing religion by ‘bring[ing] forward approaches that mission of Christian globalism. The fact that the will enable us to engage in larger, related family are charity workers further illustrates the debates that are animating other disciplines’ conflict that results from the (perceived) inter- (Brace et al., 2006: 29). Kong’s (2010: 763) connection of religious and secular goals. In recent call for geographers to ‘go beyond Bhutan the situation is more domestic in charac- insightful analyses of the micropolitics of reli- ter, and highlights the challenges to sovereignty gious spatial expressions to contribute to an associated with the encroachment of marginal understanding of larger social and political groups at the expense of a dominant religious events confronting the contemporary world, order. In Singapore it is clear that issues of including religious conflict and religious religious conversion pertain not just to individ- change’ provides the impetus for the paper, not uals, but to the conversion of space for reli- least because religious conversion drives gious purposes as well. All three examples change and conflict, and can influence percep- are from Asia, yet they all present different tions of and behaviours towards other contextual drivers that draw attention to impor- at both the micro and macro scales. In addition, tant problems surrounding religious conver- conversion processes are often a symptom, and sion in the contemporary world. a function, of the public resurgence of religion Drawing on the issues raised by these exam- (which, according to Beaumont, 2010: 8, is ples, the paper argues that a robust conversion ‘one of the defining features of the 21st cen- discourse should consider, but also transcend, tury’), with religion having become as much the changing religion or beliefs of an individual. a matter of public expression as it is private Religious switching is the apex of a consider- belief (see Habermas, 2006). Such resurgence ably more wide-ranging discourse; conversion reifies the latent role of religion in matters of represents an ‘unyielding form of conquest’ geographical inquiry, and underwrites the (Mills and Grafton, 2003: ix) that intersects with transgressive potential of the geographies of problems surrounding the co-existence of dif- religious conversion. ferent religious groups in manifold ways. More The paper is divided into three main sections. specifically, individuals are the pivots around I start by introducing existing approaches to the 442 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) discourse through a dual focus on the structural rationalization of society – has been seen as the determinants of religious change and human key structural driver of conversion (see Hefner, agency perspectives on religious conversion. I 1993; Jenkins, 2007; van der Veer, 1996). Con- go on to highlight some of the challenges that version as a result of modernization is based on are inherent, and the opportunities available to two premises: that the advancement of society move the discourse forward through consider- involves a continual reorientation towards more ation of the politics of the academy, the prosely- rational thought and action; and that a key distinc- tizing bias, and the silence of geography in tion between (e.g. , shaping existing frames of academic reference. , ) and their traditional counter- This opens the way for the final section, which parts (e.g. , ancestral worship) is the identifies how geographers can contribute to superior rationalization of the former.1 Asad both conversion discourse and the geographies (1996) provides a relevant metaphor to explain of religion subdiscipline by emphasizing the the process of modernization and, in doing so, value of spatial rather than temporal processes evokes the structural transition of society from only. Five conceptual frameworks are proposed – traditional to world religion: conversion of space, spaces of conversion, spaces of negotiation, the (im)mobile convert, and the Most individuals enter modernity rather as converts (dis)embodied convert – that are to be used to enter a new religion – as a consequence of forces consolidate the important role of geography in beyond their control. Modernity, like the convert’s the study of religious conversion. religion, defines new choices; it is rarely the result of an entirely ‘free choice’. And like the convert’s religion, it annihilates old possibilities and puts others in their place. (Asad, 1996: 263, original II Approaches to religious emphasis) conversion By now conversion discourse occupies a well- Over time the mundane instrumentalism of established place in the social and behavioural traditional religion (Asad’s ‘old possibilities’, sciences. A disparate field defined by manifold e.g. conforming to social conventions, supersti- descriptions, understandings and explanations tion) is replaced by world religion (the ‘new of what conversion entails, it has been given a choices’). Replacement occurs as rationaliza- degree of coherence by various review papers tion involves searching for answers to the ethi- that have helped consolidate trends and perspec- cal, emotional and intellectual challenges of tives (e.g. Rambo, 1999; Snow and Machalek, everyday life – a need that is met by world reli- 1984). In outlining existing approaches to reli- gions’ proclamation of ‘the existence of a trans- gious conversion I have broadened the scope cendental realm vastly superior to that of of inquiry by focusing first on the structural everyday ’ (Hefner, 1993: 8). For exam- determinants of religious change at the macro ple, Tong (2007: 4) argues that Singapore’s scale, followed by the more exhaustive, micro- science-oriented education system and associ- scale human agency approaches to religious ated ‘intellectualization’ of the population has conversion. facilitated a growing number of conversions to Christianity. Moving away from traditional Chi- nese practices towards the more ‘rational’ 1 Structural determinants of religious bible teachings of Christianity reflects a shift change ‘from an unthinking and passive acceptance of For more than a century, modernization – which religion’ to a religion that is believed to be more according to Weber (1956) equates to the ‘systematic, logical, and relevant’. Changes in Woods 443 the structure of society, perhaps unknown to deprivation thesis (i.e. that conversion is proof converts themselves, therefore play a key role of prior deprivation – see Robbins, 2004) under- in determining religious choice. scores the value of more inductive approaches Alternative theories point to the conse- to religious conversion. Postcolonial theorists quences of modernization in initiating processes in particular have made important develop- of religious conversion. These include social or ments in this regard. Expressing sensitivity to economic deprivation (often termed ‘relative the complex, and often dialectical, relationship deprivation’ – see D’Epinay, 1969; Jenkins, between submission and resistance that arose 2007; Marshall, 1991; Parker, 1996), social dis- from mass conversion to Christianity during, organization (Talmon, 1962), or changing and after, colonial rule, they show that rather sociocultural contexts (Chen, 2002; Smilde, than passively accepting the consequences of 2007; Yang, 1998). The relative deprivation modernization, converts often pursued resis- thesis, for example, suggests that processes of tant and innovative strategies of emancipation modernization create situations of socio- (Rambo, 1999; Viswanathan, 1998). Structural economic deprivation and anomie that foster the determinism must therefore be balanced with a growth of small, independent religious groups degree of individual voluntarism in order to that are adept at meeting the felt needs of a pop- explain patterns of acceptance and dissent ulation. This has commonly been used to among potential converts (Hefner, 1993). This explain the phenomenal growth of evangelical shows the important role played by human and charismatic forms of Christianity through- agency in affecting conversion processes and out Latin America and Africa in the latter half outcomes. of the 20th century (e.g. Chesnut, 1997, 2003; Martin, 1990, 2002). In Latin America, Protes- tant churches appeal to migrants and the margin- 2 Human agency perspectives on religious alized, especially those found in the regions’ conversion sprawling megacities; whereas in Africa, Pente- The growing influence of psychologism in the costal churches flourish where ‘neoliberal forces latter decades of the 20th century has led to the have eroded the capacity of liberal democratic recognition of an acting and conscious human states to provide education, health, and welfare’ agent that exercises volition in deciding to con- (Comaroff and Comaroff, 2003: 121). Being able vert to a new religion (Richardson, 1985; Straus, to provide welfare and support, such churches 1979). Such approaches have been theorized as have managed to establish a foothold from a ‘sequential ‘funnelling’ process’ (Snow and which conversion takes place, and religious Phillips, 1980: 430) that track, monitor and seek alternatives flourish. to explain the conversion trajectories of individ- Structural perspectives hold a lot of deduc- uals from different socio-economic and psycho- tive value in explaining large-scale movements logical backgrounds, and life-stages. In doing so, between religions, yet they fail to account for there has been a tendency to focus overwhel- variance in conversion processes and outcomes. mingly on changes over time, especially in terms Relative deprivation, for example, fails to of the transition from ‘pre-convert’ to ‘convert’ account for why Christianity has struggled to (e.g. Beckford, 1978; Gerlach and Hine, 1970; achieve similar rates of growth in Northern Lofland and Skonovd, 1981; Lofland and Stark, Africa, the Middle East and much of Asia where 1965; Rambo, 1989, 1993). Studying this transi- situations of deprivation and anomie also pre- tion has engendered a psychological bias that vail (Martin, 2005). Criticism of the tautological remains central to conversion discourses to the ways in which scholars deploy the relative present day.2 Such bias is evident in the 444 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) exploration of conversion ‘motifs’ – intellectual, influence within the macro (i.e. dominant mystical, experimental, affectional, revivalist or political, economic and religious systems) and coercive (Lofland and Skonovd, 1981); the meso (i.e. the intersection of the micro and effects of (Schein et al., 1961; macro contexts, such as local governance and Singer, 1979); the fulfilment of unmet emotional religious institutions) contexts (Rambo, 1993; or cognitive need; the provision of self- Rambo and Farhadian, 1999). For example, to expansion and fulfilment (Buxant, 2009); and the explain the phenomenal growth of Christianity relationship between changing religious belief in Korea, Kane and Park (2009: 366) argue that and psychosis (Penzner et al., 2009). While the the macro influences the micro by showing how inductive value of psychology is evident, there ‘geopolitical networks provoke nationalist is a tendency for such approaches to be myopic that alter the stakes of conversion at the and overly descriptive, and treat converts as microlevel’. In other words, Korean Christians autonomous operators that are divorced from the played an integral role in orchestrating national- social fields within which they exist. ist sentiment against Japan through the use of Social network approaches have proved to be ritual, and in doing so increased the number of relatively more enduring than a unitary focus on conversion networks available. While realiza- the individual convert (e.g. Long and Hadden, tion of the need to situate micro-level under- 1983). Networks of religious influence at the standings is not as new as some may think (cf. micro level, such as friends, family, colleagues Gerlach and Hine’s 1968 aforementioned study, and other social relations, have long been recog- which is clearly situated within, and engages nized as playing an integral role in influencing with, the hegemonic Catholic context of Latin conversion patterns and behaviours. Two stud- America), such awareness is a good reminder ies in particular are seminal in this regard. First, of the need to properly situate religious conver- Lofland and Stark’s (1965: 871) study of con- sion within various scales of contextualization. version to a millennial in America shows The depth and variety of human agency per- how members of the cult formed strong affec- spectives on religious conversion is exhaustive, tive bonds with potential converts, leading to with all showing a preoccupation with identify- the maxim that ‘conversion [i]s coming to ing and explaining the motives and processes accept the opinions of one’s friends’. Second, that result in an individual changing his or her Gerlach and Hine’s (1968) examination of the religion. But there is more to conversion than growth of in Latin America religious switching. Conversion itself is a dis- shows how pre-existing social relationships cursive construct that adopts different forms provide the ‘catalytic agent’ needed to trigger and meanings over space, time and tradition. religious conversion. What these two studies What follows is an exposition of three key show is that individuals seldom change reli- factors currently limiting the expansion of con- gion without first being influenced by their version discourses, and the opportunities that social relations (whether new or existing), present themselves for geographers in particu- meaning human agents have as much of a role lar to carve out a niche in the study of religious to play in conversion processes as the eco- conversion. nomic and political structures within which they are embedded. Attempts have also been made to reconcile III The paralysis and potential of the structural determinants of change and conversion discourses human agency perspectives. This has involved Religious conversion has become a subject of situating the micro-level networks of religious considerable debate within the academy, and Woods 445 by religiously motivated political groups (and in all fields of study that rely on, while call into politically motivated religious groups) around question, the: the world.3 Despite this the discourse remains parochial, and lacking engagement with the Transferability of culturally loaded concepts and keywords, usually from Western sources, to other contemporary problems that arise as a result traditions ... The most powerfully evocative terms of religious conversion. This section draws have some meaning for almost everyone but on attention to such limitations by highlighting closer inspection, turn out to mean substantially dif- some of the assumptions and biases inherent ferent things to different people, varying by context to the corpus of work that is, as Gillespie and audience ... Meaning thus unfolds through (1991: 4) lamented two decades ago, ‘uncriti- action and debate and hence should not be expected cal and riddled with personal opinion’. to be completely consistent, to conform to an easy ‘definition’ or set of prescriptions, either within or Although important developments have across cultures. (Nagata, 2001: 492–493) been made since then (notably the relatively recent empirical focus on ), In light of this, it is apparent that western Gillespie’s words ring true today. What fol- assumptions and biases have constrained the lows are three interrelated tranches of criti- development of conversion discourses by pro- cism concerning the politics of the academy, blematizing their application in the ‘contexts’ the proselytizing bias, and the silence of geo- and to the ‘audiences’ of the non-West. Indeed graphy, that, I argue, have paralysed the field. Comaroff and Comaroff (1991: 250) question By building upon this criticism, I highlight the ‘how well does it [conversion] capture the com- seemingly untapped potential of conversion plex dialectic of invasion and riposte, of chal- discourses. lenge and resistance’ that has been set in motion throughout much of the non-western, postcolonial world? By effectively highlighting 1 The politics of the academy the asymmetry between conversion discourses A theoretical and empirical blinkeredness to and the non-western peoples that they attempt understanding what conversion discourses to explain, the Comaroffs show how conversion could be is in part sustained by the long- is as much about resistance to, and the politics standing influence of the Anglo-American of, change, as it is about the change itself. The academy. The politics of the academy is under- framing of conversion according to the putative stood to be the effect of the limited frame of ref- linguistic and religious parameters defined by erence that is most commonly used by scholars western discourse is problematic, but can be to approach the study of religious conversion. remedied by a more critical engagement with More specifically the language of conversion what conversion is (and is not) in different reli- has often failed to adopt perspectives that are gious contexts around the world. Comparative broad or inclusive enough to cover the full studies between people and groups in different gamut of conversion processes and outcomes. religious and cultural contexts would provide Such restrictiveness lends credence to Rambo’s a welcome first step towards expanding the (1989) view that conversion should be treated as frame, as would a focus on where conversion a descriptive, rather than normative, enterprise. is viewed as a threat to existing power struc- It should be observed, understood, interpreted tures, and is therefore subjected to various and explained as it is practised in various local forms of structural opposition. Doing so will contexts and not, as some may argue, relative add nuance to the discourse, aiding its applica- to an all-encompassing canon. This is not tion in different sites of religious activity unique to religious conversion, but is apparent beyond the ‘normative’ West. 446 Progress in Human Geography 36(4)

2 The proselytizing bias standing that enables the co-existence of two Religious conversion is more common among distinct belief systems. In a similar vein, some groups than it is others, with the prosely- the is a relatively recent phenomenon tizing religions (i.e. Christianity, Islam) court- that has taken root in many postmodern western ing most attention from the academy to date. countries where consumerism is strong. Con- This trend is not unwarranted given that, for version is less a process of religious switching example, the worldwide explosion of Pentecost- as it is of spiritual self-development: adherents alism and charismatic forms of Christianity in create their own bespoke spiritual syntheses by recent decades – variously described as one of choosing different spiritual commodities – a the greatest ‘success’ stories in the current era process of ‘spiritual shopping’ – that best suit of cultural globalization (Anderson and Tang, their personal needs (Hanegraaff, 2002). Both 2005; Robbins, 2004) – is attributed to the effi- examples counter the exclusivist claims asso- cacy of large-scale Christian in the ciated with converting to the Abrahamic developing world (Freston, 2001, 2009). It does, religions, and in doing so provide useful, yet however, raise concerns over the extent to solitary, reminders of how conversion dis- which alternative perspectives derived from courses can develop along more flexible, syn- ‘other’ religions are valued, used to challenge, cretic lines. and ultimately incorporated into existing under- standings of what conversion is. Conversion 3 The silence of geography discourses hitherto equate to the study of suc- The situatedness of religious conversion is a cessful outcomes and efficacious religious common theme that runs throughout the full agents. Narratives of the non-converts, the range of conversion phenomena, irrespective unconverted, or the unconvertible, the stratum of the politics of the academy or the proselytiz- of society that is ignored or rejected by religious ing bias. Conversion occurs in ‘a dynamic force groups, or those that actively oppose the field of people, events, , institutions, changes to the sociocultural milieu affected by expectations and experiences’ (Lamb and Bry- the practices and processes of proselytization all ant, 1999: 24), all of which are grounded within, present problems that existing debates do not, or and determined by, a given locality, context or have not yet, fully addressed. tradition. Attention therefore needs to be paid The proselytizing bias therefore underscores to where, and not just why and how, conversion the necessity of really understanding what con- happens. One of the most promising trends in version means and entails to other, substan- this regard has been the attention paid to Islam tively ‘non-proselytizing’ religious groups. in the West; in Europe, for example, it is recog- Speaking of conversion to Buddhism among the nized that ‘Islam is anchored in a social and animist hill tribes of northern Thailand, for symbolic milieu, a concrete geographical, geo- example, Keyes (1993: 268) shows that an political and ‘geo-religious’ space which was understanding of the law of , which is not at first very favourable to it’ (Allievi and taught by Buddhist through the use of Dassetto, 1999: 244). While such moves are a ‘moral stories and didactic teachings’, can co- positive indication of the direction in which the exist with traditional beliefs, meaning ‘con- discourse is headed, there are many more ‘geo- verts’ can ‘retain their belief in spirits’. In religious’ spaces that are as sensitive to the this sense conversion does not require the rejec- power dynamics that transcend individual reli- tion of one set of beliefs in place of another, gious switching, if not more so. Moreover, but more of an expansion of belief and under- the fact that such recognition comes from Woods 447 non-geographers suggests a worrying disinterest important insights into how each mediates the among geographers in establishing their own other through Foucauldian considerations of the niche in the study of religious conversion. embeddedness (and assumption) of power. In That being said, geographers are in a position order to address this relationship systematically, to play an important role in directing the future I propose a series of five conceptual frames – progression of the subdiscipline. As the three conversion of space, spaces of conversion, news stories used to open this paper show, the spaces of negotiation, the (im)mobile convert, consequences of converting into and out of reli- and the (dis)embodied convert – that will help gions are far-reaching, and a function of the define a more robust conversion discourse. idiosyncrasies of the ‘geo-religious’ context within which conversion occurs. The fact that ‘much nationalism and imperialism have found 1 Conversion of space purpose and justification in religious differ- Religious belief and doctrine provide potent jus- ences and in proselytizing’ (Agnew, 2006: tification for claims to territory. Fault lines 185; e.g. Kammerer, 1990) affirms the reality emerge when two or more groups clash over ter- that conversion can be as much a political act ritorial belonging, making the spatial encroach- as it is a religious one. Centuries of Christian ment of minority players via the conversion of and Islamic missionization and conversion have space symbolic, and conflictual. Power and led to the creation of ‘geo-religious’ spaces symbolism are invested in the codification of throughout the postcolonial world that are physical space, meaning that ‘whoever retains highly sensitive to contemporary conversion, the resources behind material codification and can easily trigger residual feelings of also has the power to produce social categories colonial resentment and domestic insecurity. and to maintain ‘‘Other’’ in these categories’ Attempts to better situate conversion discourses (Chivallon, 2001: 476). Nowhere has the deli- will see them engage with the challenges posed neation of territory along religious lines been by the groups involved, which more often than more contested than the conversion of Palestine not prefer to be in a position of religious control to the Jewish settlement of Israel, with both than a part of the compromising jigsaw of reli- sides claiming sovereignty through various spa- gious pluralism. Empirical grounding in the tial processes ranging from the renaming of spaces of the non-West will further help redress physical features and landmarks to the mapping the modernist, implicitly western bias imposed and counter-mapping of territory (Azaryahu and by the politics of the academy. Golan, 2001; Gorlizki, 2000). This example and others (e.g. Anderson and O’Dowd’s 2007 con- sideration of the role of religion in exacerbating IV New perspectives on old the struggle for Home Rule in Ireland; Hervieu- debates Leger’s 2002 discussion of religious spatiality; Building on the preceding critiques, which are Heuser’s 2009 study of how transnational Chris- applicable to all conversion discourses irrespec- tian crusades seek to establish hegemony in tive of the academic lens that is trained on them, Ghana’s public urban space) provide a clear this final section focuses specifically on illumi- expression of religion as a geopolitical idiom; nating ways in which geographers can contrib- one that reflects, challenges and enforces exist- ute to and help expand conversion debates. ing patterns of power and subordination. It Highlighting the recursive relationship between also serves as a reminder that religious conver- space and place on the one hand and conversion sion is not an exclusivist field of study that is practices and processes on the other will yield limited to geographers of religion only. Instead, 448 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) it intersects with, and gives meaning to, broader conversion processes and outcomes. Concep- processes of geographical change, and can often tualizing space, as Massey (2005: 59) does, as exacerbate the spatial politics contained therein. ‘open, multiple, and relational, unfinished and More specifically, the recent legislation always becoming’ provides a foundation from regarding the religious use of commercial space which engagement with the spatial politics of in Singapore should help attune discourse to conversion can begin. More specifically, to dif- how competing groups delineate boundaries, ferentiate between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegiti- and use space for specific, religiously oriented mate’ spaces of conversion (i.e. the spaces purposes. In doing so it will provide a ‘powerful wherein conversion practices and processes resource’ by which examination of places that occur, and politics are embroiled) presents, in are ‘ostensibly non-religious or secular but to a very loose sense, an extension of Kong’s which sacrality is nevertheless attributed’ (2001) well-heeded call for research to focus (Knott, 2005: 173) can begin. Taking this a step on the ‘officially’ and ‘unofficially’ sacred sites further, the recent furore surrounding plans to of religious activity. Reconstruing Kong’s dif- convert a parcel of land adjacent to the site of ferentiation in more perceptual, as opposed to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City into substantive, terms, I suggest that a focus on an Islamic centre shows how changing religious legitimacy presupposes a politics of the spaces landscapes can be as much about the politics of of conversion that is inherent, and situated location as they are the politics of converting within the competing interests of other religious space. Interpreting religious landscapes as groups. As Kong (2010: 757) recognizes, ‘there either hegemonic designs on the environment are many ways in which everyday spaces can or an articulation of subaltern patterns of resis- be implicated in religious meaning-making, tance and emancipation will open conversion legitimating, maintaining and enhancing, but discourses to issues of broader concern, such also challenging religious life, beliefs, prac- as the spatial dimensions of , tices and identities’. It is the conflation of prac- the politics of church planting (or the ‘planting’ tices and goals that muddies the water between of any other place of religion), and tensions sur- what are legitimate or illegitimate grounds rounding both permanent and impermanent for proselytization, as perceived by different places of religious activity. In addition, the religious groups. desanctification of religious space should not For example, there exists an uneasy symbio- be ignored. Converting defunct churches into sis between proselytizing groups and environ- housing, schools, nightlife venues and sites of mental, social and political upheaval. Sites of ‘other’ religious activity presents a growing degradation present opportunities for groups to trend in western countries that has a significant, conflate religious and proselytism yet hitherto overlooked, impact on the groups – with secular processes of reconciliation, devel- religious or otherwise – involved. opment and relief. In Sri Lanka, international religious NGOs were condemned for mixing aid distribution with Christian proselytization in the 2 Spaces of conversion aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, leading to alle- Consideration of the spaces wherein conversion gations of the ‘distortion of the right to freedom processes occur will help further contextualize of religion given the potential of conversion due religious conversion by expanding the discourse to allurement’ (Owens, 2007; 329–330; see also beyond the individual, situating it within differ- Jenkins, 2008; Matthews, 2007). Taken to the ent localities, and encouraging consideration extreme, such sites can become ‘illegitimate’ of how external conditions can determine spaces of , where relief may Woods 449 be contingent upon, and provide a pretext for, While the (postsecular) city provides an religious switching. Being fertile sites of empiri- important site of degradation from which cism they can help physically decentralize the research can develop, a focus on the relationship discourse away from its western core, engaging between young people and religious choice pro- instead with the real-world problems plaguing vides an immediate point of entry into the spa- much of the postcolonial world, such as tial politics of religious conversion. Being the ‘unethical’ conversion, religious imperialism, focus of many evangelization and proselytiza- (neo)colonization via religion, and the imbri- tion campaigns, youth are commonly believed cations for, and responses of, oppositional reli- to be more open to religious (and fundamental- gious groups (e.g. anti-conversion legislation). ist) alternatives than adults. Yet given their This will also disrupt liberal conceptions of position of dependence, conversion out of the religious choice, and instead focus attention family religion (if there is one) will also, invari- on how conversion can support or challenge ably, be more contentious and problematic. As a prevalent state or hegemonic discourses sur- result the space of conversion becomes all the rounding religion. more strategic. In , the spaces of the In addition, the city as site of multiple school and university have become sites of ‘some degradations (social, familial, moral, capitalist of the most vigorous religious experimentation, and so on), and polarizations, has created a void competition, and membership ‘‘poaching’’’ wherein religious groups take on roles tradition- (Nagata, 2005: 111; see also Hopkins, 2011; ally filled by ‘secular’ organizations, including Nagata, 1995). Beyond this realization, more the state. The transformation of the European needs to be done to reconcile the tension between city, from a site of secularity (see Cox, 1965) religious evangelization and youth dependence. to one of postsecularity (see Molendijk et al., Youth camps, campus crusades, Sunday schools, 2010), is defined by the realization that religion mission schools, the alpha course, and child transcends individual belief and worship, sponsorship and adoption programmes are all instead encompassing the gamut of social rich sites of empiricism that are waiting to be engagement, improvement and reform. Indeed, explored in detail. debates surrounding the postsecular city have been compounded in recent years by growing exploration of the role played by religious 3 Spaces of negotiation (often Christian) groups in providing welfare Conversion is a process of change that involves to the city’s inhabitants (e.g. Beaumont, the (re)definition of self and other in accor- 2008a, 2008b; Beaumont and Dias, 2008), with dance, or discordance, with a religious . a particular focus on the homeless (e.g. Cloke Invariably a space of negotiation prevails et al., 2005, 2010). This, alongside the fact that throughout this transition, given that conversion cities are traditional repositories of religious engages with, informs and ultimately disrupts pluralism, has caused faith to become an existing notions of meaning and identity, and ‘option’ (Taylor, 2007; see also Cloke, 2010) impacts individuals, families, communities and that is increasingly easy to exercise, and the religious groups that represent old and new increasingly difficult to ignore. Critical inquiry affiliation. The spaces of negotiation that exist is needed to understand the ameliorative, and at the intersection of religious belief and potentially predatorial, interconnections between national/territorial belonging, and the identity social marginality, welfare provision, faith- politics therein, present an area of especial inter- motivated groups and religious conversion est for geographers of religious conversion. For within the space of the city. example, McAlister (2005: 253) observes that 450 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) conversion to Christianity weakens territorial discourage/encourage backsliding, whether by and national attachment among Haitians, with force or . While Gerlach and Hine Jerusalem ‘displacing the image of Haiti as nos- (1968) draw attention to the importance of acts talgic homeland’. In Malaysia, Chinese conver- of desecration (e.g. the burning of Voodoo sion to Christianity galvanizes a similar sort of objects) used to induce commitment among displacement, with Malay agitators viewing the Haitian Pentecostals, discussion of the full rami- religion as a symbol of foreign exploitation that fications of such bridge-burning acts is, unfortu- keeps the nation mired in poverty (Jenkins, nately, lacking. 2007). As these examples show, identity politics provide one of the clearest justifications for why conversion research should actively seek to 4 The (im)mobile convert transcend the individual convert by situating Changing mobility that arises from social, them within competing spheres of influence and cultural, religious or territorial dislocation inter- consequence. with conversion processes in manifold Furthermore, Viswanathan (1996: 90) argues ways. For example, Nagata (2001: 494) argues that the spaces of negotiation that exist between that conversion to fundamentalist Islamic religious and national identity, and the narra- viewpoints is most prevalent among culturally tives produced therein, ‘shed visible light on the dislocated youth who are ‘geographically and strains and stresses in community self-identifi- socially mobile’ and, when provided with a pre- cation’, especially when such ‘self-identifica- scriptive world-view and set of principles, are in tion’ runs counter to that imposed from above a good position to convert others in support of by the nation state or local community. In north- their cause. Research needs to build on Nagata’s ern Thailand, for example, Keyes (1993: 262, cultural dislocation hypothesis by exploring 277) shows how worshipping during Bud- how conversion processes can enforce, reflect dhist rites in schools is interpreted as ‘an act of or challenge distinctions between rural immobi- defiance to the authority of the state’, meaning lity and urban mobility4 (in all its multivalent Christian converts ‘set themselves apart from guises), how conversion intersects with the the dominant religion of the society and also (im)mobility forced upon refugees living in con- place themselves in an ambiguous, at best, rela- flict zones or sites of environmental degradation, tionship to a state that rules in the name of the or how international movements of low-skilled Buddhist nation’. In such instances, religious labour intersect with processes of religious conversion is imbued with a politics that creates change, including the creation of opportunities tension and conflict within and between reli- for proselytizing religious groups that cater spe- gious groups, and dominant (often traditional) cifically to such demand. There is also a dearth conceptions of society, culture and nation. of understanding regarding how individuals Taken to the extreme, conversion can result in whose mobility is limited, restricted or other- (and cause) persecution and violence, as shown wise dependent on another party – such as by subsequent waves of anti-Christian pogroms youth, the elderly, disabled, prisoners, and in Orissa, India, since the 1980s. From this armed forces – intersect with conversion prac- stems a need to understand the coping strategies tices and processes. used by converts to negotiate the conflicting pro- The interrelationships between religion and cesses of religious adoption and distinction, and transnationalism present a burgeoning field how they intersect with the dislocation strategies of research that intersects with conversion used by religious groups to encourage/discou- discourses in multifarious ways. Moreover, rage commitment, reduce/increase attrition and Sheringham (2010) has recently expounded the Woods 451 need for geographical scholarship to pay compromise or strengthen a convert’s sense of attention to the ‘everyday dimensions of trans- religious belonging, their social relationships national mobility’ (Conradson and Latham, and their engagement with public life are impor- 2005: 229) within a religious schema. Focusing tant areas that require closer consideration. on the interplay between mobility and religion, and the associated networks of religious believers and organizations, geographers are 5 The (dis)embodied convert well positioned to explore how local contexts At the most intimate scale of analysis is the can expose migrants to alternative religious embodied experiences of converts and conver- beliefs and needs. As Kemp and Raijman sion. Straus’s (1979: 163) recognition that ‘it (2003) show in their study of Latin American is not so much the initial action that enables the labour migrants in Israel, the dislocation asso- convert to experience a transformed life but the ciated with movement causes some migrants to day-to-day actions of living it’ foreshadows turn to religion as a response to their new cir- Holloway’s (2003, 2006; after Kong, 2001) cumstances, even if it was previously shunned. call for geographers to embrace the embodied How the spaces of transnationalism produced practices of the everyday and ordinary in order by religious agencies and experienced by reli- to develop new ways of thinking about spiri- gious adherents intersect with conversion pro- tual practice. Despite some developments, the cesses, the role of transnational conversion embodiment of the sacred remains an area of networks in effecting such processes, and the marginal concern for geographers of religion, impact of conversion on sending and receiving and is conspicuously absent from existing con- communities presents some of the most imme- version discourses. In going beyond the immu- diate areas of inquiry in this regard. table markers of race, ethnicity, gender and Alternatively, changing mobility that arises caste, research needs to begin exploring how from conversion itself presents another process individual choice and/or change intersect of reorientation that is associated with, yet goes with the body. How the imbrications of mark- beyond, changing religious belief. Looking at ing the body through tattoos and piercings, the conversion to Islam in particular, the restric- embodiment of disease, deformity and sexual tions placed on female converts’ mobility out- orientation intersect with converting, and of side the home presents an inviolable source of being converted, presents a future politics of tension, especially in western societies, where the convert(s’/ed) body that warrants consid- ‘at the end of the day, it might not be a ‘‘minor erable attention. thing’’ to hand over to your husband the right to On a more immediate note, embodiment and decide where you are and are not allowed to go’ heightened sensory perception are important (Sultan, 1999: 330–331). Freedom to move in signifiers of the presence of spirits and , public spaces, displacement from the places that and play an integral role in conversion pro- converts used to frequent, often difficult pro- cesses. They can cause the body to become a cesses of resocialization, and an inherent gender ‘site of signification in and of itself’ (Holloway, imbalance all point to the everyday difficulties 2003: 1962) through the production of religious faced by female converts to Islam (e.g. Sultan, identity (see Wohlrab-Sahr, 1999: 355), the 1999: 325; Wohlrab-Sahr, 1999: 355–358). It channelling of a spiritual presence (e.g. inspir- is this redrawing and redefinition of boundaries ited worship – see Connell, 2005; exorcism), the that can lead to cathartic emotions, and inter- correction of physical ailments (e.g. spiritual sects with questions of religious and social healing) or the manipulation of emotion. As acceptance, and freedom. How immobility may Kong (2010: 757) points out, the ‘different 452 Progress in Human Geography 36(4) sensuous ways in which the sacred is experienced the plethora of issues associated with religious and reproduced’ remains ‘unexplored’ by geogra- change. By situating the discussion within a phers, with emotional geographies in particular geographical frame of inquiry, I have shown being able to develop, and be developed by, con- how geographers can engage with, challenge version discourse. Given that ‘emotions are an and develop current and future understandings intensely political issue’ (Anderson and Smith, of what religious conversion is, and could be. 2002: 7; see also Davidson et al., 2005), research The effect of such engagement will be palpable. can explore the role of emotion as an arbiter and Not only will it ensure the cross-pollination of response to religious conversion that affects ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries, but in not only the individual, but the family and doing so it will help propel the geographies of community as well. Investigation of how emo- religion subdiscipline forward in ways that are tion affects personal conversion trajectories accessible, and relevant, to the rest of the acad- and public discourses surrounding the religious emy. The geographies of religious conversion self and other presents a starting point from therefore stand to help identify and negotiate a which the emotional geographies of religious balance between geographical introspection and conversion can begin. external engagement. While embodiment presents individual While the geographies of religion have been access to a spiritual source of authority, disem- described as a ‘burgeoning subfield’ (Wilford, bodiment presupposes a degree of intellectual 2009: 328) within human geography, there is a rationalization in making the decision to con- continual need to realize their wide(r)-ranging vert. Beckford (1978: 256) talks of Jehovah’s potential by pushing the boundaries of how they Witness conversion as a thoroughly cognitive can engage with other subfields from within, experience, a ‘self-attribution of agency’ that and without, the discipline. As Dewsbury and stands in opposition to many conversion Cloke (2009: 695) recognize, the ‘links between accounts in the Christian tradition that empha- religion and society are often seriously under- size emotion, intimacy and faith. Alternatively, played’; an oversight that valorizes the need for Bryant and Lamb (1999) argue that the collec- the geographies of religion to be viewed not in tive manipulation of emotion that is evident exclusory terms, but as a transgressive lens that during evangelist Billy Graham’s ‘Crusade for can be focused upon any field of social scien- Christ’ events does not necessitate a deep turn- tific inquiry, geographical or otherwise. The ing of converts to God. How the manipulation value of studying religious conversion is that of emotion and reason – or embodied and dis- it is often a symptom of underlying and more embodied conversion practices – manifests broad-based political, economic, social and cul- itself over time and space (in terms of commit- tural processes within which geographers, and ment or backsliding) provides another area of geography, are centrally implicated. In other focus that is currently lacking. words, to differentiate between what is and what is not, the geography of religion is more an exer- cise in abstraction than it is praxis. Adopting V Conclusion approaches and research agendas that are more The paper has drawn attention to the fact that a sensitive to such a dynamic will prove to be a more robust conversion discourse needs to do long-drawn, yet overdue, process. more than explain why some individuals change religion and not others. Religious conversion is Acknowledgements a contentious, and highly relevant, field of I would like to thank Lily Kong for her guidance and study, yet research has so far failed to embrace support throughout the gestation of this paper, and Woods 453 three anonymous reviewers for their helpful com- C (eds) Exploring the Postsecular: The Religious, the ments and recommendations. Political and the Urban. Leiden: Brill, 3–17. Beaumont J and Dias C (2008) Faith-based organizations Funding and urban social justice in The Netherlands. Tijdschrift This research received no specific grant from any voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 99(4): 382–392. funding agency in the public, commercial, or not- Beckford J (1978) Accounting for conversion. British for-profit sectors. Journal of Sociology 29(2): 235–245. Brace C, Bailey AR, and Harvey DC (2006) Religion, Notes place and space: A framework for investigating histor- ical geographies of religious identities and commu- 1. It should be noted that processes of rationalization also nities. Progress in Human Geography 30(1): 28–43. instigate conversion between world religions. Bryant MD and Lamb C (1999) Introduction: Conversion 2. Gillespie (1991: 13) terms this the ‘psychologizing of in a plural world. In: Lamb C and Bryant MD (eds) the religious conversion phenomenon’. Religious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and 3. Examples include the ‘anti-conversion’ stance taken by Controversies. London: Cassell, 1–19. the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and Jathika Buxant C (2009) Why turn to religion? From emotional Hela Urumaya (JHU) in Sri Lanka in response to alle- and cognitive needs to the desire for self expansion. gations of ‘unethical’ conversion to Christianity. Revue Theologique de Louvain 40 (1): 41–65. 4. This is especially important given that the geographies Chen C (2002) The religious varieties of ethnic presence: A of religion are currently, by and large, an urban affair. comparison between a Taiwanese immigrant Buddhist temple and an evangelical Christian church. Sociology References of Religion 63(2): 215–238. Agnew J (2006) Religion and geopolitics. Geopolitics Chesnut A (1997) in Brazil: The Pentecostal 11(2): 183–191. Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty. New Brunswick, Allievo S and Dassetto F (1999) Introduction. Social Com- NJ: Rutgers University Press. pass 46: 243–249. Chesnut A (2003) Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Anderson A and Tang E (eds) (2005) Asian and Pentecos- Religious Economy. New York: Oxford University Press. tal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia. Chivallon C (2001) Religion as space for the expression of Oxford: Regnum Books International. Caribbean identity in the United Kingdom. Environ- Anderson J and O’Dowd L (2007) Imperialism and nation- ment and Planning D: Society and Space 19: 461–483. alism: The Home Rule struggle and border creation in Cloke P (2010) Theo-ethics and radical faith-based praxis in Ireland, 1885–1925. Political Geography 26: 934–950. the postsecular city. In: Molendijk AL, Beaumont J, and Anderson K and Smith S (2002) Editorial: Emotional geo- Jedan C (eds) Exploring the Postsecular: The Religious, graphies. Transactions of the Institute of British Geo- the Political and the Urban. Leiden: Brill, 223–241. graphers 26(1): 7–10. Cloke P, Johnsen S, and May J (2005) Exploring ethos? Asad T (1996) Comments on conversion. In: van der Veer Discourses of charity in the provision of emergency P (ed.) Conversion to Modernities: The Globalization services for homeless people. Environment and Plan- of Christianity. London: Routledge, 263–274. ning A 37(3): 385–402. Azaryahu M and Golan A (2001) (Re)Naming the landscape: Cloke P, Johnsen S, and May J (2010) Swept-up Lives: The formation of the Hebrew map of Israel 1949–1960. Re-Envisioning the Homeless City. Oxford: Wiley- JournalofHistoricalGeography27: 178–195. Blackwell. Beaumont J (2008a) Introduction: Faith-based organiza- Comaroff J and Comaroff J (1991) Of Revelation and Rev- tions and urban social issues. Urban Studies 45(10): olution, Volume One: Christianity, Colonialism and 2011–2017. Consciousness in . Chicago: Chicago Uni- Beaumont J (2008b) Faith action on urban social issues. versity Press. Urban Studies 45(10): 2019–2034. Comaroff J and Comaroff J (2003) Second comings: Neo- Beaumont J (2010) Transcending the particular in postse- Protestant ethics and millennial capitalism in Africa, and cular cities. In: Molendijk AL, Beaumont J, and Jedan elsewhere. In: Gifford P, Archard D, Hart TA, and 454 Progress in Human Geography 36(4)

Rapport N (eds) 2000 Years and Beyond: Faith, Identity Hervieu-Leger D (2002) Space and religion: New and the ‘Common Era’. London: Routledge, 106–126. approaches to religious spatiality in modernity. Inter- Compass Direct News (2010) Buddhist Bhutan proposes national Journal of Urban and Regional Research ‘anti conversion’ law. Available at: http://wwrn.org/ 26(1): 99–105. articles/33917. Heuser A (2009) Transnational construction and local Connell J (2005) Hillsong: A megachurch in the Sydney imagination of ‘crusade Christianity’. suburbs. Australian Geographer 36: 315–332. – Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions Conradson D and Latham A (2005) Transnational urbanism: 13(1): 68–91. Attending to everyday practices and mobilities. Journal Holloway J (2003) Make-believe: Spiritual practice, of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31(2): 227–333. embodiment, and sacred space. Environment and Plan- Cox H (1965) The Secular City: and Urbani- ning A 35: 1961–1974. zation in Theological Perspective. New York: Macmillan. Holloway J (2006) Enchanted spaces: The se´ance, affect, Davidson J, Bondi L, and Smith M (eds) (2005) Emotional and geographies of religion. Annals of the Association Geographies. Aldershot: Ashgate. of American Geographers 96: 182–187. D’Epinay C (1969) Haven of the Masses: A Study of the Hopkins P (2011) Towards critical geographies of the Pentecostal Movement in Chile. London: Lutterworth. university campus: Understanding the contested Dewsbury JD and Cloke P (2009) Spiritual landscapes: experiences of Muslim students. Transactions of the Existence, performance and immanence. Social and Institute of British Geographers 36(1): 157–169. Cultural Geography 10(6): 695–710. Jakarta Globe (2010) 3 Americans told to leave Aceh for Freston P (2001) Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa, converting locals. Available at: http://www.thejakartag and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University lobe.com/home/3-americans-told-to-leaveaceh-for- Press. converting-locals/387103. Freston P (2009) Christianity: . In: Haynes J Jenkins LD (2008) Legal limits on religious conversion (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics. in India. Law and Contemporary Problems 71: London: Routledge, 26–47. 109–128. Gerlach LP and Hine VH (1968) Five factors crucial to the Jenkins P (2007) The Next Christendom: The Coming of growth and spread of a modern religious movement. Global Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 7: 23–40. Kammerer CA (1990) Customs and Christian conversion Gerlach LP and Hine VH (1970) People, Power, Change: among Akha Highlanders of Burma and Thailand. Movements of Social Transformation. Indianapolis, IN: American Ethnologist 17(2): 277–291. Bobbs-Merrill. Kane D and Park MJ (2009) The puzzle of Korean Chris- Gillespie V (1991) The Dynamics of Religious Conver- tianity: Geopolitical networks and religious conversion sion: Identity and Transformation. Birmingham, AL: in early twentieth-century East Asia. American Journal Press. of Sociology 115(2): 365–404. Gorlizki Y (2000) Class and nation in the Jewish settle- Kemp A and Raijman R (2003) Christian Zionists in the ment of Palestine: The case of Merhavia, 1910–30. holy land: Evangelical churches, labor migrants, and Journal of Historical Geography 26: 572–588. the Jewish state. Identities: Global Studies in Power Habermas J (2006) Religion in the public sphere. Eur- and Culture (10)3: 295–318. opean Journal of 14: 1–25. Keyes C (1993) Why the Thai are not Christians: Buddhist Hanegraaff WJ (2002) New Age religion. In: Woodhead L, and Christian conversion in Thailand. In: Hefner R (ed.) Fletcher P, Kawanami H, and Smith D (eds) Religions Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropolo- in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations. gical Perspectives on a Great Transformation. Berke- London: Routledge, 249–263. ley, CA: University of Press, 259–284. Hefner R (1993) World building and the rationality of con- Knott K (2005) The Location of Religion: A Spatial Anal- version. In: Hefner R (ed.) Conversion to Christianity: ysis. London: SAGE. Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Kong L (2001) Mapping ‘new’ geographies of religion: Great Transformation. Berkeley, CA: University of Politics and poetics in modernity. Progress in Human California Press, 3–45. Geography 25: 211–233. Woods 455

Kong L (2010) Global shifts, theoretical shifts: Changing Owens A (2007) Using legislation to protect against geographies of religion. Progress in Human Geogra- unethical conversions in Sri Lanka. Journal of Law and phy 35(2): 755–776. Religion XXII: 323–351. Lamb C and Bryant M (eds) (1999) Religious Conversion: Parker C (1996) Popular Religion and Modernization in Contemporary Practices and Controversies. London: Latin America. New York: Orbis. Cassell. Penzner J, Kelly K, and Sacks M (2009) Religious conver- Lofland J and Skonovd N (1981) Conversion motifs. sion in a psychotic individual. Journal of Religion and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 20(4): Health 49(3): 351–360. 373–385. Rambo LR (1989) Conversion: Toward a holistic model of Lofland J and Stark R (1965) Becoming a world-saver: A religious change. Pastoral Psychology 38(1): 47–63. theory of conversion to a deviant perspective. Ameri- Rambo LR (1993) Understanding Religious Conversion. can Sociological Review 30: 862–874. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Long T and Hadden J (1983) Religious conversion and the Rambo LR (1999) Theories of conversion: Understanding concept of socialization: Integrating the brainwashing and interpreting religious change. Social Compass and drift models. Journal for the Scientific Study of 46(3): 259–271. Religion 22(1): 1–14. Rambo LR and Farhadian C (1999) Converting: Stages of McAlister E (2005) Globalization and the religious pro- religious change. In: Lamb C and Bryant M (eds) Reli- duction of space. Journal for the Scientific Study of gious Conversion: Contemporary Practices and Con- Religion 44(3): 249–255. troversies. London: Cassell, 23–34. Marshall R (1991) Power in the name of . Review of Richardson J (1985) The active vs. passive convert: Para- African Political Economy 52: 21–37. digm conflict in conversion/recruitment research. Jour- Martin D (1990) Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protes- nal for the Scientific Study of Religion 24(2): 163–179. tantism in Latin America. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Robbins J (2004) The globalization of Pentecostal and Martin D (2002) Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish. charismatic Christianity. Annual Review of Anthropol- Oxford: Blackwell. ogy 33: 117–143. Martin D (2005) Issues affecting the study of Pentecostalism Schein E, Schneider I, and Barker CH (1961) Coercive in Asia. In: Anderson A and Tang E Asian and Pentecos- Persuasion. New York: Norton. tal: The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia. Baguio Sheringham O (2010) Creating ‘alternative geographies’: City, Philippines: Regnum Books International, 27–36. Religion, transnationalism and everyday life. Geogra- Massey D (2005) For Space. London: SAGE. phy Compass 4(11): 1678–1694. Matthews O (2007) Religious politics. Newsweek 19 July. Singer M (1979) Coming out of the . Psychology Mills K and Grafton A (2003) Introduction. In: Mills K and Today 12(8): 72–82. Grafton A (eds) Conversion: Old Worlds and New. Smilde D (2007) Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in New York: University of Rochester Press, ix–xvii. Latin American Evangelism. Berkeley, CA: University Molendijk AL, Beaumont J, and Jedan C (eds) (2010) of California Press. Exploring the Postsecular: The Religious, the Political Snow D and Machalek R (1984) The sociology of conver- and the Urban. Leiden: Brill. sion. Annual Review of Sociology 10: 167–190. Nagata J (1995) Limits to the indigenization of Buddhism Snow D and Phillips C (1980) The Lofland-Stark Conver- in Malaysia with a focus on the religious community in sion Model: A critical reassessment. Social Problems Penang. In: Talib R and Chee-Beng T (eds) Dimensions 27(4): 430–447. of Tradition and Development in Malaysia. Kuala Straus R (1979) Religious conversion as a personal and Lumpur: Pelanduk Publications, 307–346. accomplishment. Sociological Analysis Nagata J (2001) Beyond : Toward an anthropol- 40(2): 158–165. ogy of ‘’. American Anthropologist Sultan M (1999) Choosing Islam: A study of Swedish con- 103(2): 481–498. verts. Social Compass 46(3): 325–335. Nagata J (2005) Christianity among transnational Chinese: Talmon Y (1962) Pursuit of the millennium: The relation Religious versus (sub)ethnic affiliation. International between religions and social change. Archives Eur- Migration 43(3): 100–128. opeennes de Sociologie 3: 125–148. 456 Progress in Human Geography 36(4)

Taylor C (2007) A Secular Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Viswanathan G (1998) Outside the Fold: Conversion, Press. Modernity, and Belief. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni- The Straits Times (2010) Guidelines on use of mall space versity Press. for religion. Available at: http://www.straitstimes.com/ Weber M (1956) The , translated by BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_55609.html. Ephraim Fischoff. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Tong CK (2007) Rationalizing Religion: Religious Con- Wilford J (2009) Sacred archipelagos: Geographies of version, Revivalism and Competition in Singapore Secularization. Progress in Human Geography 34(3): Society. Leiden: Brill. 328–348. van der Veer P (ed.) (1996) Conversion to Modernities: Wohlrab-Sahr M (1999) Conversion to Islam: Between The Globalization of Christianity. London: Routledge. and symbolic battle. Social Compass Viswanathan G (1996) Religious conversion and the politics 46(3): 351–362. of dissent. In: van der Veer P (ed.) Conversion to Mod- Yang F (1998) Chinese Conversion To Evangelical Chris- ernities: The Globalization of Christianity. London: tianity: The importance of social and cultural contexts. Routledge, 89–114. Sociology of Religion 59(3): 237–257.