ABSTRACT
The study of religious conversion is relatively underdeveloped in sociology, and the analysis of such conversion processes often concentrates on the individual rather than looking at the political implications of such religious changes. Why is conversion sociologically significant? Firstly, in changing individual subjectivity, conversion almost inevitably changes social and political identities and in so doing presents a challenge to the state, because these changes of identity can have far-reaching consequences for civil society. States in response may seek to control evangelical religions if they begin to change the composition of ethnic identities in a society significantly. Secondly, conversion necessarily implies religious change and brings with it the possibility of conflict and competition with existing traditions. Because evangelism characteristically questions the authority of existing teaching and practice, it is necessarily socially and politically disruptive, and again the state may have clear reasons to curb the behaviour of evangelical groups as a result. This chapter explores the growing tensions between the religious and the secular in Asia through the impact of religious renewal and missionary activity. Comparing different religious traditions and different forms of secularism, it considers the possible transformations of the public sphere associated with changing religious identities. The chapter argues that (private) religious identities typically assume (public) political significance, and hence states, in an era of increasing securitization, seek to survey and control religious expressions of collective membership. The terminology that is employed in this chapter – conversion, evangelism and so forth – is often problematic in the Asian context and, where necessary, inverted commas will be used to indicate that these notions are often somewhat specific to Western Christianity. By ‘conversion’, I am attempting to describe a subjective process that implies a sudden shift in self-definition that cannot be wholly understood in conventional accounts of education or by what sociologists call ‘socialization’. There are essentially only three ways by which each new generation can
acquire religious membership and identity. These are obviously conversion, education (or to give the process its sociological title, by ‘socialization’), or a
combination of the two. In the process of socialization, the collective intention is to preserve tradition in all of its completeness and richness. Children have to be trained in the traditions of the social group, but they also need to be motivated and rewarded. Talcott Parsons (1951) argued, in his sociology of the social system, that there is a built-in conservatism in the socialization process, because we are psychologically rewarded for our social desire to conform. In religious groups, catechism plays an important institutional role in conveying orthodoxy to the new generation. By contrast, conversion implies a radically different process; it claims to overthrow the dross of tradition and to transform the personality (or subjectivity) of the believer and to throw off the comfortable, but misguided, practices and beliefs of the past. Its cultural role is to make all things new. On this basis, it is common to distinguish what we might call traditional
religions and evangelical religions. The latter invest many of their resources in gaining new members through campaigns to transform the lives of individuals by bringing them to an active and vivid experience of divinity. Of the Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Islam can be said, in this specific sense, to be ‘evangelical religions’. Jewish identity has a significant matriarchal element in that one essential criterion of Jewishness is to have a Jewish mother. In modern reformist Islam, there is a clear sense of the importance of da’wa and the need to bring about religious renewal through transforming the lives of traditional Muslims. In Christianity, the conflicts between Protestants and Catholics have often been influenced by different emphases on training versus conversion. Among the Protestant evangelical groups, sociologists often refer to the important role of ‘conversionist sects’ in the propagation of Christianity (Wilson 1970). Why is conversion sociologically significant? There are at least two major
reasons. The first is that, in changing individual subjectivity, conversion almost inevitably changes social and political identities and therefore can often represent a challenge to the state. As a result, the state may seek to control or to exclude evangelical religions if they begin to change the composition of ethnic identities in a society or if they are in general seen to be a disruptive force that may alter the ideological composition of civil society. The second is that conversion necessarily implies religious change, and the possibility of conflict and competition with existing traditional patterns of religion. The idea of evangelism implies a clear contrast between true and authentic religion and false beliefs and irrelevant practices. Because evangelism questions the authority of existing teaching and practice, it is necessarily socially and politically disruptive, and again the state may have clear reasons to curb the behaviour of evangelical groups as a result. Evangelical groups are, for example, hostile to syncretism and pluralism, seeking instead to impose a clear notion of piety and correct practice over their disciples. In the light of these introductory comments, we could begin to define the
ideal type of conversion. Within Christianity, the classical illustration from the New Testament is St Paul on the road to Damascus. Paul’s initial hostility
to the Christians is transformed into a passionate devotion to the cause of the primitive Church and a desire to demarcate clearly the differences between old beliefs and the new reality of a life committed to Christ as Lord. St Paul’s conversion as an ideal type has four characteristics; (1) his conversion was involuntary; (2) it was total and dramatic rather than incremental; (3) it was not based on a prior period of training and education in Christian ways; and (4) his conversion created an entirely new subjectivity or consciousness. This ideal type attempts to emphasize the idea of a radical departure or total rupture. In symbolic terms, Paul’s conversion takes place on a road or journey, taking his subjectivity to a new place. Paul received a ‘gift of grace’ or charisma that gave him an authority over the Christian community. This ideal or normative notion of conversion has implications for how one
thinks about religion at all. Emile Benveniste (1973) brought to our attention the difference between two notions of religion. The word ‘religion’ (religio) has two distinctive roots. First, relegere from legere means to bring together, to harvest or to gather (in). Secondly, religare from ligare means to tie or to bind together. The first meaning points to the religious foundations of any social group that is gathered together, while the second describes the disciplines or morality that are necessary for controlling human beings and creating a regulated mentality. The first meaning indicates the role of the cult in forming human membership, while the second meaning points to the regulatory practices of religion in the discipline of passions. This distinction formed the basis of Kant’s philosophical analysis of religion and morality. In Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, Kant (1998) distinguished between religion as cult (des blossen Cultus), which seeks favours from God through prayer and offerings to secure healing and wealth for its followers, and religion as moral action (die Religion des guten Lebenswandels), which commands human beings to radically change their behaviour in order to lead a better life. Kant further elaborated this distinction by an examination of ‘reflecting faith’ that compels humans to strive for salvation through faith rather than the mere possession of religious knowledge. The implication of Kant’s distinction was that (Protestant) Christianity was the only true ‘reflecting faith’, and in a sense, therefore, the normative model of all authentic religious intentions. Kant’s distinction was fundamentally about those religious injunctions that call human beings to moral action and hence demand that humans assert their autonomy and responsibility. To have autonomy, human beings need to act independently of customary norms and values, and, ultimately, independently of God. In a paradoxical fashion, Puritanism implies the ‘death of God’ because it calls people to freedom, and hence the Christian faith is ultimately self-defeating. While Kant’s philosophy of religion is useful in thinking about how indivi-
duals might transform their conventional religiosity and embrace a pious lifestyle, it does not tell us much about the social context of religion. Sociological research suggests that authentic religious change is always compromised by social conventions. The fact that charisma has become a routine
part of religious movements, forces religious authorities to develop a compromise with secular power. When a messianic religion becomes domesticated, there is a parallel evolution of religious citizenship within the religious community and political citizenship within the state. Because the religious community was an institution of consent, it often happened that the participation of the laity within the Church provided a primitive model of secular citizenship. We could argue that the sociology of religion has therefore observed what
we might call a tragic dimension to conversion and exposure to charismatic powers. Over time, charisma becomes a matter of routine and the second generation is born into a charismatic community rather than converted into it. Sociologists identified the so-called ‘church-sect typology’ to conceptualize these processes. Conversionist sects tend to become denominations as the second generation is born into rather than converted by an existing social group. The subjectivity of the second generation has no direct awareness of a vivid and decisive conversion, and hence, over time, there may be new sectarian offshoots, which emphasize conversion over convention, and the process starts all over again.
