ABSTRACT
Inspired by recent works on the so-called Global Counter Reformation and on the plurality of early modern Catholicism, this chapter explores the creation of confessional borders between Catholics and other Christian communities in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Syro-Palestinian region. Departing from the analysis of conversion and mixed marriages, it sheds light on the process of confessionalisation that missionaries’ arrival precipitated in the area: its slow progress, how it was influenced by the local context, and the difficulties faced by the missionaries. More specifically, by framing the construction of confessional borders within the Ottoman organisation of interfaith relationships, the chapter sheds light on the peculiarities of the borders that the missionaries sought to establish and on how they fitted with (and were influenced by) the way relationships between religious communities were organised in the Ottoman Empire. While addressing these issues, in a wider perspective the chapter contributes to the current debate regarding the confessionalisation process, its links with social discipline, and the bottom-up influence.
