UNDERSTANDING RELIGIOUS CONVERSION 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Lewis R Rambo | 9780300065152 | | | | | Understanding Religious Conversion 1st edition PDF Book What distinguishes religious conversion from more humdrum experiences of change is depth. The Church of Scientology attempts to gain converts by offering "free stress tests". Cowan , Stuart A. As Robert Hefner points out , conversion to an exclusivist religion does not always demand apostasy: a more pacific combination of elements is possible, though generally involving the censuring of the traditional religion. Understanding Religious Conversion. About the Author Lewis R. The distance between indigenous peoples and anthropologists in relation to the ideals of conversion should be seen, then, more as a warning for us to give due consideration to the claims made by natives. Their existence is morally conflict-ridden not because of a clash between cultural values per se, but because they lack the means to meet the demands of the situation in which they now live. Mass conversions of areas and communities to Buddhism occur up to the present day, for example, in the Dalit Buddhist movement in India there have been organized mass conversions. Allan Kardec 's codification of Spiritism occurred between the years and Baptisms inside and outside the temples are usually done in a baptistry , although they can be performed in any body of water in which the person may be completely immersed. Left to Hinduism Islam Christianity. So where exactly do assimilation, transformation, adoption and substitution begin and end? Rambo has given us a good and interesting book on the subject of religious conversion. Consequently the adoption model, in which two distinct cultures coexist as totalities, may require a notion of synthesis for it to become intelligible, even though this reduction is not necessarily imagined to occur between two hermetically sealed and immutable cultures. Loading comments… Trouble loading? As the author summarizes:. Newton Malony, Journal of Religion. See the idea of commutation below. Perhaps we can therefore differentiate one adoption model from another, which can be labelled the substitution model, each with its own characteristics. The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion offers a comprehensive exploration of the dynamics of religious conversion, which for centuries has profoundly shaped societies, cultures, and individuals throughout the world. One way or another, though, none of the models considers that the process of conversion may have reciprocal effects: both for the religion of the converts, and for the religion of who converted them. Share on Pinterest Pin it. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. The diverse and apparently contradictory claims concerning situations of conversion discussed over the course of this article can acquire a new meaning if we analyze them in terms of exchanging perspectives. Usually when agents from the missionary culture speak of successful religious conversion, they mean the result of a complete process of adoption, or, more precisely, in certain cases, a process of substitution. The case of the conversion of South American native peoples illustrates this point: while the Europeans sought to conceptualize the indigenous peoples within a typically western cosmology, the Indians, for their part, wanted to incorporate this alterity fully Viveiros de Castro Understanding Religious Conversion 1st edition Writer If there are any mistakes, or if any part of the person being baptized is not fully immersed, the baptism must be redone. Then, when he was in his mids, he attended a revivalist meeting. The idea that bodily metamorphosis is the Amerindian counterpart to the European theme of spiritual conversion Viveiros de Castro seems to be recognized by the missionaries. The consensus in Spiritism is that God, the Great Creator, is above everything, including all human things such as rituals, dogmas, denominations or any other thing. Finally it looks to establish a framework for exploring the complex question of conversion by making explicit and reworking some of the premises encountered in the presented examples. Throughout the timeline of Buddhism , conversions of entire countries and regions to Buddhism were frequent, as Buddhism spread throughout Asia. Archived from the original on How would it be possible, then, to understand the idea of an omniscient god, like the god of Christianity, in a perspectivist cosmology? For example, does displaying student artwork that includes a religious symbol in a common area of the school violate the Establishment Clause? He visited his neighbours, "to converse with [them] on religion, which I could not have been hired to have done before". Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Review of Religious Research. Furthermore, certain Hassidic groups who physically attacked a meeting of the Hebrew Christian 'cult' have themselves been labeled a 'cult' and equated with the followers of Reverend Moon , by none other than the President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Cannell ed. Each chapter is thoroughly researched, well-documented, and carefully written with an impressive amount of scholarly detachment. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This does leave him open to the charge of elitism and, indeed, the study of religion since James has tended to be more democratic. How to cite this article. For forced conversion, see Forced conversion. Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert by persuasion another individual from a different religion or belief system. While for the anthropologist the second conversion involved the understanding of the adopted religion in its own terms, for the natives the new conversion occurred after a profound ecstatic experience, the result of a religious rebirth Robbins , Moreover, religions, in this view, are preferentially exclusive; [ Threads collapsed expanded unthreaded. Perhaps it can happen to anyone. Hinduism as a Missionary Religion. The discourses themselves may be absolutely contradictory if seen in conjunction, but this does not impede the anthropologist from considering them simultaneously: incommensurability does not mean irrelationality. Laugrand Furthermore, contemporary Christian Inuit insist that by practicing their traditional religion they were actually, albeit unknowingly, worshipping Satan Laugrand Hinduism Today. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, n. This means it will always be contested, though to reduce extraneous argument and focus on the evidence that is mostly likely to be illuminating, James examines what he takes to be the most valuable material: the best articulated and most profound records of conversion. Gordon More than a study about conversion, it is also a complete theory of culture change. Understanding Religious Conversion 1st edition Reviews Jain monks and nuns are required to observe these five vows strictly. Often these are relatively small, close-knit minority religions that are ethnically based such as the Yazidis , Druze , and Mandaeans. Swatos Jr. When examining discourses and practices relating to religious conversion, it is not unusual to encounter controversies over its legitimacy, its modes of operation or even the very meaning of conversion. Whether the conversion is from one religious tradition to another, from one denomination to another, from no involvement to participation in a religious community, or is an intensification of commitment within one's faith, the process can be complex but compelling and transformative. Converting to Islam requires the shahada , the Muslim profession of faith "there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah". The Church of Scientology attempts to gain converts by offering "free stress tests". It only makes sense when correlated with the conception of divine immateriality. Wright , James T. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Apostasy , or renunciation of religion Conversion to Islam in U. Their display could marginalize non- Christian and non-Jewish students and be counter-productive to the positive school climate we work to establish. Please ensure you're using that browser before attempting to purchase. On the other end of the scale are religions that do not accept any converts, or do so very rarely. Allied to the first position, which prevents the emphasis from falling on native creativity, is a certain historical identification between anthropologists and missionaries Stocking , one usually rejected by both Van der Geest Ahom Hmongism Mo Satsana Phi. And as we have seen, it is very possible that missionary agents and indigenous peoples have completely different ideas about this process. As Steve Charleston shows , the fact that North American Choctaw Indians, for example, assert the existence of a native Old Testament in parallel to a Jewish Old Testament may be problematic to others, but this does not stop them from considering both to be part of their own religion and this, in turn, to be legitimately Christian. Jung thought that the unconscious could play a redemptive role in life. The general reader will benefit from his overview of representative studies of this phenomenon. Religious conversion provides converts with an opportunity to embrace a community of faith and a philosophy that nurture and guide, that offer a focus for loyalty and a framework for action. In most countries conversion is a simple matter of