Religious Conversion and Imperial Rule

Self, Otherness, and Power in a Global Perspective (16th-19th Centuries)
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-3-593-52223-4
Verlag: Campus Verlag GmbH

Buch, Englisch, Band 35, 274 Seiten, Format (B × H): 150 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 406 g

Reihe: Religion und Moderne

For centuries and across continents religious communities have shaped the ways in which individuals position themselves within their societies. While historians and anthropologists have increasingly focused on the phenomenon of religious conversion, studies on the relationship between conversion and imperial rule have remained sporadic and geographically isolated. To remedy this, the present volume adopts a global and comparative approach. Focusing on efforts to spread Christianity and responses from different faith communities, the authors engage in a debate that goes beyond specific confessions or imperial configurations. The case studies presented here powerfully illustrate the multidirectional nature of religious conversion practices. They demonstrate how local structures both enabled and limited the changes brought about by conversion. The volume also addresses notions of subjectivity within convert communities which shaped their reactions to imperial strategies. “Religious Conversion and Imperial Rule” thus illuminates the interplay between power, conversion, agency, and social transformation.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vulpius, Ricarda

Wilde, Guillermo

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Ideologien Theokratische und religiöse Ideologien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

Introduction

Locating the Self, Negotiating the Other: Conversion and Imperial Rule in the Early Modern Period

Ricarda Vulpius and Guillermo Wilde

Section I: Knowledge, Texts, and Translation
Conversion, Evangelization and Indigenous Agency in Colonial Mexico (16th Century). The Florentine Codex as a Space of Negotiation Andrea Maria D’Amato

Opening the Doors to Conversion: The Reformed Mission and Antiquarianism in the Open Door to Hidden Paganism

Benjamin Leathley

Section II: Hybridity and Indigenous Appropriation
Evangelization Struggle on the Margins of the French Empire: Conversion in the Illinois Country in the 18th Century

Thomas Croisez

Adaptation and Ambiguity: Indigenous Engagement with Catholic Devotions in the Jesuit Missions of Spanish Amazonia (1638–1768)

Francismar Alex Lopes de Carvalho

Imperial Catholicism and Indigenous Cosmologies. An Approach to Religious Conversion on the Frontiers of Colonial Latin America

Guillermo Wilde

Section III: Imperial Control and Coercion
Baptism and Bureaucracy: Religious Conversion of the Yakut under 17th- Century Russian Rule

Angelina Kalashnikova

Conversion by Deception: The Case of the Uniates inside the Russian Empire

Barbara Skinner

Conversion as a win-win-situation? Russian Imperial Policies and Kalmyk Strategies of Adaptation in the 18th Century

Ricarda Vulpius

Section IV: Confessional Politics and Individual Agency
Negotiating Faith: Jewish Conversions, Imperial Policies, and Confessional Choices in Russia

Victoria Gerasimova

Armenians, Empire, and the Politics of Conversion in 19th Century Russia

Paul W. Werth

Contributors

Über Autor(innen)

Vulpius, Ricarda
Ricarda Vulpius is Professor of East European History and a Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics at the University of Münster. She specialized in the history of the Russian Empire and the history of Ukraine and its entanglements in the 16th to 20th centuries.

Ricarda Vulpius ist Professorin für Osteuropäische Geschichte und Mitglied des Exzellenzclusters Religion und Politik der Universität Münster. Zu ihren Forschungsschwerpunkten gehören die russländische Imperiumsgeschichte und die Geschichte der Ukraine und ihrer Verflechtungen im 16.-20. Jahrhundert.

Wilde, Guillermo
Guillermo Wilde is Professor of Anthropology and History of Latin America and Principal Investigator at the National Scientific Research Council of Argentina (CONICET). He specializes in the Ethnohistory and the study of religious conversion in missionary contexts of the Iberian World.

Guillermo Wilde ist Professor für Anthropologie und Geschichte Lateinamerikas und leitender Forscher am Nationalen Rat für wissenschaftliche Forschung Argentiniens (CONICET). Er ist spezialisiert auf Ethnohistorie und die Erforschung religiöser Konversion im missionarischen Kontext der iberischen Welt.