Religious Conversion and Imperial Rule

A comparative study of how religious communities shaped ideas of identity and belonging under empire. 

Over centuries and across continents, religious communities played a central role in individuals’ self-positioning within society. While studies on the phenomenon of religious conversion have grown considerably in the historical-anthropological literature, the relationship between conversion and imperial rule has been limited to a few geographical areas. In response to this gap, this volume proposes a more global and comparative approach. Although most of the included studies focus on the spread of Christianity and the responses of communities of different faiths, the broader aim of Religious Conversion and Imperial Rule is to supplement a debate that goes beyond confessions or imperial configurations. By addressing diverse historical cases, the book explores three key aspects of conversion and empire: the multidirectional character of religious conversion practices; the varying degrees of change in conversion, shaped by the possibilities and limits of local structures; and notions of subjectivity within convert communities, which shaped their articulated responses to imperial strategies. Overall, the volume illuminates the interplay between power, agency, and social transformation.

Ricarda Vulpius is professor of East European history and principal investigator of the Cluster of Excellence Religion and Politics at the University of Münster. She specializes in the history of the Russian Empire and the history of Ukraine from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. 

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 ethnohistory and the study of religious conversion in missionary contexts of the Iberian World.