Religious Conversion in the Early 1900s - Research Paper Example

?Your full number: Religious Conversion Religions are necessarily associated with human sentiments. William James, the famous theologian for example described religion as a “store house” of sentiments to the religious people. Feeling of dependence, derivative of fear, sexual life and feeling of infinity are the commonly associated psychological entities with various religions found in the world. Moreover religious abstracts are capable of burgeoning common feelings such as fear, love awe and joy in human minds. Example: love directed at a religious object is religious love, fear creating from divine retribution is religious fear, and awe occurring at the thought of supernatural relationships is religious awe (William 31). Widely accepted religions necessarily diminish violence, hatred and vengeance from breeding inside human minds. Examples of such widely accepted religions are Buddhism, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Thus religious conversions are also associated with escaping from one sort of sentiments to embrace another sort of sentiments. Example: The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Karen Louise Erdrich vastly consists of the sentimental attributes of theology. Here embracing of sentiments produced by Catholicism is perceived as a pathway to civilization. In a vain struggle to find love and belongingness Pauline Puyat converts into Catholicism and rejects ties with Ojibwa the Native community. She is not accepted to the tribe because Pauline Puyat’s farther is of Polish origin while mother is of Native. Pauline Puyat believes religious conversion will dawn self-esteem and self-actualization into her sinful life. Religious conversion did not stop breeding evil sentiments in Pauline Puyat’s mind. Yet it qualified her for canonization. Religious conversions were enforced upon public or involved political motives largely during the fifteenth to eighteenth century as opposed to 1900s. Such conversions were mainly governed by the interests of rulers who held political power. Example: The Thirty Years War which fought during 1618 and 1648 between the armed alliances of Roman Catholics example: Roman and Spanish Empires and the Protestants example: Bohemia, Palatinate and England. This war is believed to be the most devastating religious conflict ever to occur in European history. The cruelty of Roman Catholic rulers against the Protestant observers fueled the thirty years war. A significant historic figure who converted from Calvinism to Roman Catholic during 1700s is Jean Jacques Rousseau, the renowned philosopher. Motivation of his religious conversion was to gain the material benefits from the Church and shelter in Italy (Rousseau, 1762). There are numerous examples in the history where religious conversion gained non-religious benefits to the individuals. William James described abstract entities are stronger in burgeoning religious sentiments than figurative concepts. Example: God, his holiness, justice, mercy and absoluteness are capable of producing vast sentiments in human minds and devotion despite few followers may claimed to have experienced them in real (William 61). In The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse the sexual sentiments of the main character, Agnes DeWitt also known as Sister Cecilia is linked with mystic music. Sister Cecilia is a nun who finds sexual ecstasy while playing Frederic Chopin’s music. Following quote from the book describes the linkage between her sexual life and mystic music. “My child, my dear child,” comforted the Mother, “come away and rest yourself.” “There is no rest,” she declared, and then she unpinned her veil and studiously dismantled her habit. With each movement the Superior remonstrated with Cecilia in the most tender and compassionate tones. However, just as in the depth of her playing the virgin had become the woman, so the woman in the habit became a woman to the bone. She stripped down to her shift, but no further” (LR 2001: 30). In The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse the main character falls in love with Frederic Chopin’s music above the God who she had betrayed by falling in love with Berndt. Following quote from the book describes Sister Cecilia’s passion for music over God. “Wouldn’t want me to go out unprotected,” she told her Mother Superior. “God?” the older woman asked, bewildered. “Chopin,” The last thought she had were about ending all of the thousands of hours of tedious intensity of musical practice, ending the episodes of greed and wonder in the arms of Berndt, and the several acts she’d learned to do that men paid whores great sums to perform and that she enjoyed” (ibid: 30). Authoress of this great novel Karen Louise Erdrich is a contemporary Native American writer. European explorers began colonizing in America during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Namely Spanish colonies developed in the Southwest alone with Roman Catholic religion. English and French colonies developed in the East and Canada with Protestant Christianity religion. The intrusion of Europeans affected native tribes’ sovereignty. Early colonization attempts by the Europeans were often failed due to armed protests from the Native tribes (). However these Native tribes found Roman Catholic religion appealing because it incorporated familiar “mysticism” derived from abstracts such as God, the father and many holly Saints. Native American tribes have a strong oral tradition comprised with legends of many saints. Such legends were read aloud at mealtimes and church services. Polytheistic religion of Ojibwa people formed the foundation to accept Catholic as their new religion (ibid: 11). Thus religious conversion of Ojibwa people has roots to the perceived “commonness” between already established and the newly introduced religions. In scholarly researches religious conversion rates are analyzed by using rational behavior models. If the cost of converting is less compared to the benefits of observing a new religion such conversions take place. Accordingly religions which incorporate “remoteness” in terms of physical and conceptual proximity are less likely to be accepted by new comers (Smith and Denton, 2005). Actual religious conversions occurred during the 1900s were largely caused by social alliances such as marriage, family and friends. Next issues of theology also significantly fuel religious conversions occurring in the USA (Sherkat 2004). Greeley and Hout (1988) described characteristics of specific development stages of human life such as puberty and cognitive development influence shifting religions by the individuals alternatively. Participation in formal services and religious beliefs is used as a proxy for measuring the importance of religions in people’s lives. Participating in religious activities seems less among the high income earning individuals in the modern societies (McCleary and Barro, 2006). In addition to income, age, gender, education, race, geographical location and religious pluralism also influence individuals’ religiosity (Smith and Denton, 2005). According to the literature religious-conversion rates are positively correlated to religious pluralism in a country and the level of education of the individual. It is negatively correlated to government restrictions on religious conversion. Income, presence of a state religion and the degree of individual religiosity have found not statistically significantly correlated to religious conversion. Finally following statistics are provided to picture the magnitude of the actual religious conversions happening in the world. According to the International Social Survey Program, 1998, The number of religious conversions has been found less than one percentage proportion of the total population in following countries; 0.6% in Slovak Republic, 0.7% in Cyprus, 0.4% in Bulgaria and 0.8% in Poland. In the same year more than 10% proportion religious conversions were recorded from Canada, United States, New Zealand and Chile. Modern-day conversions are considered as a matter of switching religious preferences by the individuals (Barro and Hwang, 2007). References Barro, R.J. and Hwang, J. (December 2007). Religious Conversion in 40 Countries. National Bureau Of Economic Research, Working Paper 13689 http://www.nber.org/papers/w13689 Erdrich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2001 McCleary, R.M. and Barro R.J. (2006). “Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion,” 45, June, 149-175. Rousseau, J.J. (1762). Rousseau. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5427 Sherkat, D.E. (2004). “Religious Intermarriage in the United States: Trends, Patterns, and Predictors,” Social Science Research, 33, December, 606-625. Smith, C. and M. L. Denton (2005). Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, Oxford, Oxford University Press. William, James. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Online. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JamVari.html Read More