Imperialism And Religion

The Tangled Threads of Imperialism and Religion: A Complex Relationship

Introduction:

For centuries, the intertwined destinies of imperialism and religion have shaped the global landscape, leaving an indelible mark on cultures, societies, and political structures. This complex relationship, far from straightforward, encompasses cooperation, conflict, and profound hypocrisy. This in-depth exploration delves into the multifaceted ways in which religious beliefs and imperial ambitions have influenced each other, examining both the justifications used for expansion and the often-violent consequences for indigenous populations. We'll uncover the historical narratives, analyze the underlying motivations, and explore the lasting legacies of this enduring connection. Prepare to unravel the tangled threads of imperialism and religion and gain a deeper understanding of a crucial chapter in world history.


1. Religion as a Justification for Imperial Expansion:

The pursuit of imperial power frequently found its moral compass (or lack thereof) in religious ideology. European powers, particularly during the Age of Exploration and beyond, used religious doctrines to legitimize their expansionist policies. The "white man's burden," a concept popularized in the late 19th century, positioned European nations as divinely ordained custodians of "uncivilized" peoples, justifying their subjugation under the guise of bringing Christianity and "civilization." This rhetoric masked the underlying economic and political ambitions of imperial conquest. Missionaries often accompanied colonial expeditions, furthering this narrative and establishing religious institutions that often served to reinforce colonial control. The conversion of indigenous populations was presented as a benevolent act, masking the forceful displacement of existing beliefs and cultural practices.

2. The Missionary Enterprise and Colonialism: A Symbiotic Relationship:

The relationship between missionaries and colonial administrations was often symbiotic. Missionaries provided essential social services, such as education and healthcare, which, while ostensibly benevolent, also served to integrate indigenous populations into the colonial system. These services frequently came with strings attached, often requiring the adoption of the colonial language and the conversion to Christianity. This created a system of dependency, solidifying colonial control and hindering the development of independent indigenous institutions. Conversely, colonial governments often provided logistical support and protection to missionaries, facilitating their expansion into new territories. This collaboration effectively strengthened both religious and imperial influence.

3. Resistance and Rebellion: Religious Responses to Imperialism:

The imposition of foreign religions and the disruption of indigenous spiritual practices frequently sparked resistance and rebellion. Indigenous populations often found ways to reconcile their existing beliefs with the new religious influences, syncretizing elements of both. In other cases, religious leaders emerged as key figures in anti-colonial movements, mobilizing their followers against imperial power. Religious beliefs provided a powerful unifying force, fostering a sense of shared identity and purpose in the face of oppression. The rise of religious nationalism in various parts of the world serves as a compelling example of how religion could be wielded as a tool of resistance against imperialism.


4. The Economic Dimensions of Religious Imperialism:

The economic motivations behind imperialism often intertwined with religious justifications. The acquisition of resources, trade routes, and new markets were crucial drivers of imperial expansion. However, religious rhetoric provided a palatable veneer for these often-ruthless economic pursuits. The control of religious institutions allowed imperial powers to influence trade, access resources, and exploit labor within colonized territories. The conversion of indigenous populations to Christianity was frequently viewed as a necessary step to facilitate the extraction of wealth and the integration of colonized peoples into the global capitalist system.

5. The Legacy of Imperialism and Religion: Contemporary Impacts:

The legacy of imperialism and religion continues to shape the world today. Post-colonial societies often grapple with the lingering effects of religious and cultural imposition. The ongoing tensions between different religious groups in many former colonies reflect the lasting impact of colonial policies that exacerbated existing divisions or created new ones. The unequal distribution of power and resources, often rooted in the historical injustices of imperialism, continues to fuel social and political unrest. The understanding of this complex history is essential to addressing these contemporary challenges.

6. Case Studies: Specific Examples of the Interplay

Analyzing specific historical case studies strengthens our understanding. The Spanish conquest of the Americas, with its brutal suppression of indigenous religions and the imposition of Catholicism, offers a stark example of the destructive potential of religious imperialism. Conversely, the British Raj in India demonstrates the more nuanced relationship, where existing religious hierarchies were often manipulated to maintain control, but also where religious reform movements played a significant role in the eventual struggle for independence. Examining these contrasting examples allows for a more complete picture of the varied ways imperialism and religion interacted.


7. Modern Manifestations: Neo-colonialism and Religious Fundamentalism

Even in the post-colonial era, the entanglement persists. The rise of religious fundamentalism and its intersection with neo-colonial dynamics are modern manifestations of this historical link. The spread of certain religious ideologies, often coupled with Western political and economic interests, can be seen as a continuation of past power dynamics. Understanding the historical context is crucial to critically analyzing these contemporary trends and preventing the perpetuation of exploitative relationships.



Book Outline: "The Imperial Cross: Religion and Power in the Age of Empire"

Introduction: Defining imperialism and religion, outlining the scope of the book.
Chapter 1: Religious Justifications for Imperial Expansion – Examining the theological and ideological underpinnings.
Chapter 2: The Missionary Enterprise and Colonial Governance – Analyzing their symbiotic relationship and consequences.
Chapter 3: Resistance and Rebellion: Indigenous Responses to Religious Imperialism – Case studies of religious-based resistance movements.
Chapter 4: The Economic Dimensions of Religious Imperialism – Exploring the intersection of economic interests and religious motivations.
Chapter 5: Case Studies: In-depth analyses of specific historical examples (e.g., Spanish conquest, British India, Scramble for Africa).
Chapter 6: The Legacy of Imperialism and Religion: Contemporary Impacts – Examining the enduring effects on global politics and society.
Chapter 7: Modern Manifestations: Neo-colonialism and Religious Fundamentalism – Addressing contemporary issues and their historical roots.
Conclusion: Synthesizing key findings and considering future implications.



(Article explaining each point of the outline would require a further 7-8,000 words, well beyond the scope of this response. Each chapter heading above would serve as a title for a separate article expanding on the topics discussed.)


FAQs:

1. Did all forms of imperialism utilize religion as a justification? Not explicitly, but many used religious rhetoric to gain public support and legitimacy, even if economic factors were primary drivers.

2. Were missionaries always complicit in colonial exploitation? While some acted independently, many became integral to the colonial system, either intentionally or unintentionally.

3. How did indigenous religions adapt to the pressures of imperialism? Through syncretism (blending beliefs), resistance, and sometimes complete suppression.

4. What are some examples of successful indigenous resistance movements fueled by religious beliefs? The Taiping Rebellion in China and various anti-colonial movements in Africa offer compelling examples.

5. What lasting economic impacts resulted from the intersection of imperialism and religion? Unequal resource distribution, economic dependency, and ongoing poverty in many post-colonial societies.

6. How did the spread of Christianity impact indigenous cultural practices? It often resulted in the suppression or alteration of indigenous spiritual and cultural traditions.

7. How does the history of imperialism and religion relate to contemporary conflicts? Many contemporary conflicts have roots in the historical injustices and power imbalances created by imperialism, often exacerbated by religious divisions.

8. What role does religious fundamentalism play in the modern world? It often becomes entangled with political and economic agendas, sometimes justifying forms of oppression or violence.

9. How can we better understand and address the legacy of imperialism and religion today? Through critical historical analysis, promoting intercultural dialogue, and working towards equitable solutions to address ongoing injustices.



Related Articles:

1. The White Man's Burden: A Critical Examination: Analyzes the racist ideology that underpinned much of European imperialism.

2. Missionaries and Colonialism: A History of Cooperation and Conflict: Explores the complex relationship between religious missions and colonial administrations.

3. Indigenous Resistance to Religious Imperialism in the Americas: Focuses on the various forms of resistance to religious and cultural imposition.

4. The Taiping Rebellion: A Religious Uprising Against the Qing Dynasty: Details a major religious-based rebellion in 19th-century China.

5. The Scramble for Africa: Religion and the Partition of a Continent: Explores the role of religion in the colonization of Africa.

6. Religious Syncretism: Blending Beliefs in Colonial Contexts: Examines how indigenous religious practices adapted and combined with foreign religions.

7. The Impact of Colonialism on Indigenous Languages and Cultures: Focuses on the linguistic and cultural losses caused by imperialism.

8. Religious Nationalism and Post-Colonial Politics: Explores the role of religion in shaping political identities after independence.

9. Neo-colonialism and the Spread of Religious Fundamentalism: Analyzes contemporary power dynamics and their links to religious ideologies.


  imperialism and religion: Religious Dynamics under the Impact of Imperialism and Colonialism Björn Bentlage, Marion Eggert, Hans Martin Krämer, Stefan Reichmuth, 2016-10-11 This sourcebook offers rare insights into a formative period in the modern history of religions. Throughout the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, when commercial, political and cultural contacts intensified worldwide, politics and religions became ever more entangled. This volume offers a wide range of translated source texts from all over Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, thereby diminishing the difficulty of having to handle the plurality of involved languages and backgrounds. The ways in which the original authors, some prominent and others little known, thought about their own religion, its place in the world and its relation to other religions, allows for much needed insight into the shared and analogous challenges of an age dominated by imperialism and colonialism.
  imperialism and religion: Christian Imperialism Emily Conroy-Krutz, 2015-11-18 In 1812, eight American missionaries, under the direction of the recently formed American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, sailed from the United States to South Asia. The plans that motivated their voyage were ano less grand than taking part in the Protestant conversion of the entire world. Over the next several decades, these men and women were joined by hundreds more American missionaries at stations all over the globe. Emily Conroy-Krutz shows the surprising extent of the early missionary impulse and demonstrates that American evangelical Protestants of the early nineteenth century were motivated by Christian imperialism—an understanding of international relations that asserted the duty of supposedly Christian nations, such as the United States and Britain, to use their colonial and commercial power to spread Christianity. In describing how American missionaries interacted with a range of foreign locations (including India, Liberia, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, North America, and Singapore) and imperial contexts, Christian Imperialism provides a new perspective on how Americans thought of their country’s role in the world. While in the early republican period many were engaged in territorial expansion in the west, missionary supporters looked east and across the seas toward Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Conroy-Krutz’s history of the mission movement reveals that strong Anglo-American and global connections persisted through the early republic. Considering Britain and its empire to be models for their work, the missionaries of the American Board attempted to convert the globe into the image of Anglo-American civilization.
  imperialism and religion: God's Empire Hilary M. Carey, 2011-01-06 In God's Empire, Hilary M. Carey charts Britain's nineteenth-century transformation from Protestant nation to free Christian empire through the history of the colonial missionary movement. This wide-ranging reassessment of the religious character of the second British empire provides a clear account of the promotional strategies of the major churches and church parties which worked to plant settler Christianity in British domains. Based on extensive use of original archival and rare published sources, the author explores major debates such as the relationship between religion and colonization, church-state relations, Irish Catholics in the empire, the impact of the Scottish Disruption on colonial Presbyterianism, competition between Evangelicals and other Anglicans in the colonies, and between British and American strands of Methodism in British North America.
  imperialism and religion: Islam and Colonialism Muhamad Ali, 2015-12-08 This book offers a comparative and cross-cultural history of Islamic reform and European colonialism as both dependent and independent factors in shaping the multiple ways of becoming modern in Indonesia and Malaya during the first half of the twentieth century.
  imperialism and religion: An Empire Divided James Patrick Daughton, 2006 An award-winning book, An Empire Divided tells the story of how troubled relations between Catholic missionaries and a host of republican critics shaped colonial policies, Catholic perspectives, and domestic French politics in the tumultuous decades before the First World War.
  imperialism and religion: Pious Imperialism Cornelius Conover, 2019-05-01 This book analyzes Spanish rule and Catholic practice from the consolidation of Spanish control in the Americas in the sixteenth century to the loss of these colonies in the nineteenth century by following the life and afterlife of an accidental martyr, San Felipe de Jésus. Using Mexico City–native San Felipe as the central figure, Conover tracks the global aspirations of imperial Spain in places such as Japan and Rome without losing sight of the local forces affecting Catholicism. He demonstrates the ways Spanish religious attitudes motivated territorial expansion and transformed Catholic worship. Using Mexico City as an example, Conover also shows that the cult of saints continually refreshed the spiritual authority of the Spanish monarch and the message of loyalty of colonial peoples to a devout king. Such a political message in worship, Conover concludes, proved contentious in independent Mexico, thus setting the stage for the momentous conflicts of the nineteenth century in Latin American religious history.
  imperialism and religion: Islamic Imperialism Efraim Karsh, 2007-01-01 From the first Arab-Islamic Empire of the mid-seventh century to the Ottomans, the last great Muslim empire, the story of the Middle East has been the story of the rise and fall of universal empires and, no less important, of imperialist dreams. So argues Efraim Karsh in this highly provocative book. Rejecting the conventional Western interpretation of Middle Eastern history as an offshoot of global power politics, Karsh contends that the region's experience is the culmination of long-existing indigenous trends, passions, and patterns of behavior, and that foremost among these is Islam's millenarian imperial tradition. The author explores the history of Islam's imperialism and the persistence of the Ottoman imperialist dream that outlasted World War I to haunt Islamic and Middle Eastern politics to the present day. September 11 can be seen as simply the latest expression of this dream, and such attacks have little to do with U.S. international behavior or policy in the Middle East, says Karsh. The House of Islam's war for world mastery is traditional, indeed venerable, and it is a quest that is far from over.
  imperialism and religion: Casting Faiths T. DuBois, 2009-03-31 How did European imperialism shape the ideas and practices of religion in East and Southeast Asia? Casting Faiths brings together eleven scholars to show how Western law, governance, education and mission shaped the basic understanding of what religion is, and what role it should play in society.
  imperialism and religion: Religion and Governance in England’s Emerging Colonial Empire, 1601–1698 Haig Z. Smith, 2021-11-03 This open access book explores the role of religion in England's overseas companies and the formation of English governmental identity abroad in the seventeenth century. Drawing on research into the Virginia, East India, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, New England and Levant Companies, it offers a comparative global assessment of the inextricable links between the formation of English overseas government and various models of religious governance across England's emerging colonial empire. While these approaches to governance varied from company to company, each sought to regulate the behaviour of their personnel, as well as the numerous communities and faiths which fell within their jurisdiction. This book provides a crucial reassessment of the seventeenth-century foundations of British imperial governance.
  imperialism and religion: The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History Kathryn Gin Lum, Paul Harvey, 2018-03-01 The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History brings together a number of established scholars, as well as younger scholars on the rise, to provide a scholarly overview for those interested in the role of religion and race in American history. Thirty-four scholars from the fields of History, Religious Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and more investigate the complex interdependencies of religion and race from pre-Columbian origins to the present. The volume addresses the religious experience, social realities, theologies, and sociologies of racialized groups in American religious history, as well as the ways that religious myths, institutions, and practices contributed to their racialization. Part One begins with a broad introductory survey outlining some of the major terms and explaining the intersections of race and religions in various traditions and cultures across time. Part Two provides chronologically arranged accounts of specific historical periods that follow a narrative of religion and race through four-plus centuries. Taken together, The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History provides a reliable scholarly text and resource to summarize and guide work in this subject, and to help make sense of contemporary issues and dilemmas.
  imperialism and religion: Missionary Writing and Empire, 1800-1860 Anna Johnston, 2003-08-07 Anna Johnston analyses missionary writing under the aegis of the British Empire. Johnston argues that missionaries occupied ambiguous positions in colonial cultures, caught between imperial and religious interests. She maps out this position through an examination of texts published by missionaries of the largest, most influential nineteenth-century evangelical institution, the London Missionary Society. Texts from Indian, Polynesian, and Australian missions are examined to highlight their representation of nineteenth-century evangelical activity in relation to gender, colonialism, and race.
  imperialism and religion: Religion, Colonization and Decolonization in Congo, 1885-1960. Religion, colonisation et décolonisation au Congo, 1885-1960 Vincent Viaene, Bram Cleys, Jan De Maeyer, 2020-10-30 Religion in today’s Democratic Republic of Congo has many faces: from the overflowing seminaries and Marian shrines of the Catholic Church to the Islamic brotherhoods, from the healers of Kimban-guism to the televangelism of the booming Pentecostalist churches in the great cities, from the Orthodox communities of Kasai to the ‘invisible’ Mai Mai warriors in the brousse of Kivu. During the colonial period religion was no less central to people’s lives than it is today. More surprisingly, behind the seemingly smooth facade of missions linked closely to imperial power, faith and worship were already marked by diversity and dynamism, tying the Congo into broader African and global movements. The contributions in this book provide insight into the multifaceted history of the interaction between religion and colonization. The authors outline the institutional political framework, and focus on the challenge that old and new forms of slavery entailed for the missions. The atrocities committed at the time of the Congo Free State became an existential question for young Christian communities. In the Belgian Congo after 1908, more structural forms of colonial violence remained a key issue marking religious experiences. And yet, religion also acted as a bridge. The authors emphasize the role intermediaries such as catechists or medical assistants played in the African “appropriation” of Christianity. They examine the complex interaction with indigenous religious beliefs and practices, and zoom in on the part religions played in the independence movement, as well as on their reaction to independence itself. Coming at a moment when Belgium confronts its colonial past, this volume provides a timely reassessment of religion as a key factor.
  imperialism and religion: African American Religions, 1500–2000 Sylvester A. Johnson, 2015-08-06 A rich account of the long history of Black religion from the dawn of Western colonialism to the rise of the national security paradigm.
  imperialism and religion: Religion Versus Empire? Andrew Porter, 2004-10-29 This is the only book that addresses the relations between religion, Protestant missions, and empire building, linking together all three fields of study by taking as its starting point the early eighteenth century Anglican initiatives in colonial North America and the Caribbean. It considers how the early societies of the 1790s built on this inheritance, and extended their own interests to the Pacific, India, the Far East, and Africa. Fluctuations in the vigor and commitment of the missions, changing missionary theologies, and the emergence of alternative missionary strategies, are all examined for their impact on imperial expansion. Other themes include the international character of the missionary movement, Christianity's encounter with Islam, and major figures such as David Livingstone, the state and politics, and humanitarianism, all of which are viewed in a fresh light.
  imperialism and religion: WHITE MAN'S BURDEN Rudyard Kipling, 2020-11-05 This book re-presents the poetry of Rudyard Kipling in the form of bold slogans, the better for us to reappraise the meaning and import of his words and his art. Each line or phrase is thrust at the reader in a manner that may be inspirational or controversial... it is for the modern consumer of this recontextualization to decide. They are words to provoke: to action. To inspire. To recite. To revile. To reconcile or reconsider the legacy and benefits of colonialism. Compiled and presented by sloganist Dick Robinson, three poems are included, complete and uncut: 'White Man's Burden', 'Fuzzy-Wuzzy' and 'If'.
  imperialism and religion: Orientalizing the Jew Julie Kalman, 2017-01-16 “Seeks to further our understanding of the relationship between perceptions of Jews and the reality of their existence in nineteenth-century France.” —H-France Review Orientalizing the Jew shows how French travelers depicted Jews in the Orient and then brought these ideas home to orientalize Jews living in their homeland during the 19th century. Julie Kalman draws on narratives, personal and diplomatic correspondence, novels, and plays to show how the “Jews of the East” featured prominently in the minds of the French and how they challenged ideas of the familiar and the exotic. Portraits of the Jewish community in Jerusalem, romanticized Jewish artists, and the wealthy Sephardi families of Algiers come to life. These accounts incite a necessary conversation about Jewish history, the history of anti-Jewish discourses, French history, and theories of Orientalism in order to broaden understandings about Jews of the day. “A well-argued, beautifully written, and intellectually stimulating investigation of representations of Middle Eastern and North African Jews by French Catholic pilgrims, writers, artists, and bureaucrats over the 19th century.” —Maud Mandel, author of Muslims and Jews in France “Jews of France, nominally full citizens since the French Revolution . . . experienced uncertainty regarding whether their status would be reversed with each change of government . . . Kalman’s work contributes significantly to an understanding of that insecurity, as she fleshes out the stereotypes that others, officials, artists, authors and intellectuals, projected onto the Jews living among them inside France.” —French History
  imperialism and religion: Imperialism and Religion Morton Cogan, 1973
  imperialism and religion: Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History David W. Kim, 2018-10-12 The localisation of a region, group, or culture was a common social phenomenon in pre-modern Asia, but global colonialism began to affect the lifestyle of local people. What was the political condition of the relationship between insiders and outsiders? The impact of colonial authorities over religious communities has not received significant attention, even though the Asian continent is the home of many religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Shintoism, and Shamanism. Colonial Transformation and Asian Religions in Modern History presents multi-angled perspectives of socio-religious transition. It uses the cultural religiosity of the Asian people as a lens through which readers can re-examine the concepts of imperialism, religious syncretism and modernisation. The contributors interpret the growth of new religions as another facet of counter-colonialism. This new approach offers significant insight into comprehending the practical agony and sorrow of regional people throughout Asian history.
  imperialism and religion: Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 30 Ralph W. Hood, Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, 2019-12-16 The 30th volume of Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion consists of two special sections, as well as two separate empirical studies on attachment and daily spiritual practices. The first special section deals with the social scientific study of religion in Indonesia. Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country whose history and contemporary involvement in the study of religion is explored from both sociological and psychological perspectives. The second special section is on the Pope Francis effect: the challenges of modernization in the Catholic church and the global impact of Pope Francis. While its focus is mainly on the Catholic religion, the internal dynamics and geopolitics explored apply more broadly.
  imperialism and religion: God and His Demons Michael Parenti, 2010-06-30 A noted author and activist brings his critical acumen and rhetorical skills to bear in this polemic against the dark side of religion. Unlike some popular works by stridently outspoken atheists, this is not a blanket condemnation of all believers. Rather the author's focus is the heartless exploitation of faithful followers by those in power, as well as sectarian intolerance, the violence against heretics and nonbelievers, and the reactionary political and economic collusion that has often prevailed between the upper echelons of church and state. Parenti notes the deleterious effects of past theocracies and the threat to our freedoms posed by present-day fundamentalists and theocratic reactionaries. He discusses how socially conscious and egalitarian minded liberal religionists have often been isolated and marginalized by their more conservative (and better financed) coreligionists. Finally, he documents the growing strength of secular freethinkers who are doing battle against the intolerant theocratic usurpers in public life. Historically anchored yet sharply focused on the contemporary scene, this eloquent indictment of religion’s dangers will be welcomed by committed secular laypersons and progressive religionists alike.
  imperialism and religion: The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia Felix Wilfred, 2014 Named by the International Bulletin of Missionary Studies as an Outstanding Book of 2014 for Mission Studies Despite the ongoing global expansion of Christianity, there remains a lack of comprehensive scholarship on its development in Asia. This volume fills the gap by exploring the world of Asian Christianity and its manifold expressions, including worship, theology, spirituality, inter-religious relations, interventions in society, and mission. The contributors, from over twenty countries, deconstruct many of the widespread misconceptions and interpretations of Christianity in Asia. They analyze how the growth of Christian beliefs throughout the continent is linked with the socio-political and cultural processes of colonization, decolonization, modernization, democratization, identity construction of social groups, and various social movements. With a particular focus on inter-religious encounters and emerging theological and spiritual paradigms, the volume provides alternative frames for understanding the phenomenon of conversion and studies how the scriptures of other religious traditions are used in the practice of Christianity within Asia.
  imperialism and religion: Faith in Empire Elizabeth A. Foster, 2013-03-20 Faith in Empire is an innovative exploration of French colonial rule in West Africa, conducted through the prism of religion and religious policy. Elizabeth Foster examines the relationships among French Catholic missionaries, colonial administrators, and Muslim, animist, and Christian Africans in colonial Senegal between 1880 and 1940. In doing so she illuminates the nature of the relationship between the French Third Republic and its colonies, reveals competing French visions of how to approach Africans, and demonstrates how disparate groups of French and African actors, many of whom were unconnected with the colonial state, shaped French colonial rule. Among other topics, the book provides historical perspective on current French controversies over the place of Islam in the Fifth Republic by exploring how Third Republic officials wrestled with whether to apply the legal separation of church and state to West African Muslims.
  imperialism and religion: The Science of Religion in Britain, 1860-1915 Marjorie Wheeler-Barclay, 2010-10-21 Marjorie Wheeler-Barclay argues that, although the existence and significance of the science of religion has been barely visible to modern scholars of the Victorian period, it was a subject of lively and extensive debate among nineteenth-century readers and audiences. She shows how an earlier generation of scholars in Victorian Britain attempted to arrive at a dispassionate understanding of the psychological and social meanings of religious beliefs and practices—a topic not without contemporary resonance in a time when so many people feel both empowered and threatened by religious passion—and provides the kind of history she feels has been neglected. Wheeler-Barclay examines the lives and work of six scholars: Friedrich Max Müller, Edward B. Tylor, Andrew Lang, William Robertson Smith, James G. Frazer, and Jane Ellen Harrison. She illuminates their attempts to create a scholarly, non-apologetic study of religion and religions that drew upon several different disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, the classics, and Oriental studies, and relied upon contributions from those outside as well as within the universities. This intellectual enterprise—variously known as comparative religion, the history of religions, or the science of religion—was primarily focused on non-Christian religions. Yet in Wheeler-Barclay’s study of the history of this field within the broad contexts of Victorian cultural, intellectual, social, and political history, she traces the links between the emergence of the science of religion to debates about Christianity and to the history of British imperialism, the latter of which made possible the collection of so much of the ethnographic data on which the scholars relied and which legitimized exploration and conquest. Far from promoting an anti-religious or materialistic agenda, the science of religion opened up cultural space for an exploration of religion that was not constricted by the terms of contemporary conflicts over Darwin and the Bible and that made it possible to think in new and more flexible ways about the very definition of religion.
  imperialism and religion: Southern Cross Christine Leigh Heyrman, 2013-04-03 In an astonishing history, a work of strikingly original research and interpretation, Heyrman shows how the evangelical Protestants of the late-18th century affronted the Southern Baptist majority of the day, not only by their opposition to slaveholding, war, and class privilege, but also by their espousal of the rights of the poor and their encouragement of women's public involvement in the church.
  imperialism and religion: Religion, Science, and Empire Peter Gottschalk, 2013 Peter Gottschalk offers a compelling study of how, through the British implementation of scientific taxonomy in the subcontinent, Britons and Indians identified an inherent divide between mutually antagonistic religious communities. England's ascent to power coincided with the rise of empirical science as an authoritative way of knowing not only the natural world, but the human one as well. The British scientific passion for classification, combined with the Christian impulse to differentiate people according to religion, led to a designation of Indians as either Hindu or Muslim according to rigidly defined criteria that paralleled classification in botanical and zoological taxonomies. Through an historical and ethnographic study of the north Indian village of Chainpur, Gottschalk shows that the Britons' presumed categories did not necessarily reflect the Indians' concepts of their own identities, though many Indians came to embrace this scientism and gradually accepted the categories the British instituted through projects like the Census of India, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the India Museum. Today's propogators of Hindu-Muslim violence often cite scientistic formulations of difference that descend directly from the categories introduced by imperial Britain. Religion, Science, and Empire will be a valuable resource to anyone interested in the colonial and postcolonial history of religion in India.
  imperialism and religion: Imperial Encounters Peter van der Veer, 2020-06-30 Picking up on Edward Said's claim that the historical experience of empire is common to both the colonizer and the colonized, Peter van der Veer takes the case of religion to examine the mutual impact of Britain's colonization of India on Indian and British culture. He shows that national culture in both India and Britain developed in relation to their shared colonial experience and that notions of religion and secularity were crucial in imagining the modern nation in both countries. In the process, van der Veer chronicles how these notions developed in the second half of the nineteenth century in relation to gender, race, language, spirituality, and science. Avoiding the pitfalls of both world systems theory and national historiography, this book problematizes oppositions between modern and traditional, secular and religious, progressive and reactionary. It shows that what often are assumed to be opposites are, in fact, profoundly entangled. In doing so, it upsets the convenient fiction that India is the land of eternal religion, existing outside of history, while Britain is the epitome of modern secularity and an agent of history. Van der Veer also accounts for the continuing role of religion in British culture and the strong part religion has played in the development of Indian civil society. This masterly work of scholarship brings into view the effects of the very close encounter between India and Britain--an intimate encounter that defined the character of both nations.
  imperialism and religion: Religion David Chidester, 2018-04-20 Religion: Material Dynamics is a lively resource for thinking about religious materiality and the material study of religion. Deconstructing and reconstructing religion as material categories, social formations, and mobile circulations, the book explores the making, ordering, and circulating of religious things. The book is divided into three sections: Part One revitalizes basic categories—animism and sacred, space and time—by situating them in their material production and testing their analytical viability. Part Two examines religious formations as configurations of power that operate in material cultures and cultural economies and are most clearly shown in the power relations of colonialism and imperialism. Part Three explores the material dynamics of circulation through case studies of religious mobility, change, and diffusion as intimate as the body and as vast as the oceans. Each chapter offers insightful orientations and surprising possibilities for studying material religion. Exploring the material dynamics of religion from poetics to politics, David Chidester provides an entry into the study of material religion that will be welcomed by students and specialists in religious studies, anthropology, and history.
  imperialism and religion: Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity Jeremy M. Schott, 2013-04-23 In Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity, Jeremy M. Schott examines the ways in which conflicts between Christian and pagan intellectuals over religious, ethnic, and cultural identity contributed to the transformation of Roman imperial rhetoric and ideology in the early fourth century C.E. During this turbulent period, which began with Diocletian's persecution of the Christians and ended with Constantine's assumption of sole rule and the consolidation of a new Christian empire, Christian apologists and anti-Christian polemicists launched a number of literary salvos in a battle for the minds and souls of the empire. Schott focuses on the works of the Platonist philosopher and anti- Christian polemicist Porphyry of Tyre and his Christian respondents: the Latin rhetorician Lactantius, Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and the emperor Constantine. Previous scholarship has tended to narrate the Christianization of the empire in terms of a new religion's penetration and conquest of classical culture and society. The present work, in contrast, seeks to suspend the static, essentializing conceptualizations of religious identity that lie behind many studies of social and political change in late antiquity in order to investigate the processes through which Christian and pagan identities were constructed. Drawing on the insights of postcolonial discourse analysis, Schott argues that the production of Christian identity and, in turn, the construction of a Christian imperial discourse were intimately and inseparably linked to the broader politics of Roman imperialism.
  imperialism and religion: The Invention of Religions Daniel Dubuisson, 2019 For nearly thirty years, a scientific revolution has taken place in the religious studies departments of several North American and British universities--and the results are considerable, obliging us to envisage new ways of conceiving of this academic field. While the History of Religions tended to rest in the shade and guardianship of past authorities, this critical current has re-examined the discipline's a priori positions, its favourite arguments, its long prehistory within Euro/Christian culture, but also its numerous ethnocentric prejudices. The first part of the volume considers anew the origins and Christian history of the notion of religion. This starting point then allows us to identify dead ends and contradictions within the traditional History of Religions approach. The second part is dedicated to the synthetic presentation of the concepts, methods, and controversies, which distinguish this current. Following this are two related contributions devoted to two major case studies: Colonialism and Cultural Imperialism and The Invention of Hinduism and Shintoism. Finally, in the third and last part of the book, this trend itself is critically examined. The author identifies some of the paradoxes, gaps, and aporias that this approach has already gathered during its short existence.
  imperialism and religion: An Islamic Response to Imperialism Nikki R. Keddie, 1983-04-20 Keddie has rendered a valuable service ... Afghani merits the attention of Western students of the contemporary international scene and the Muslim renaissance since he made the first significant attempt to answer the modern Western challenge to the Muslim world. ---Eastern World Sayyid Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani (1838-1897), the well known religious reformer and political activist, led a busy and complex life full of obscure and clandestine ventures. . . . [Keddie] draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources. In part I an attempt is made to provide an accurate biography and a consistent analysis of Afghani. Part II co ntains translations of some of his most important writings. . . Although Afghani was concerned with the wide ranging need for Islamic reform, he devoted most of his life to the more urgent political problems confronting Muslims--problems arising out of their weakness in dealing with the Western Christian powers. Hence the tide of this book. The picture that emerges here confirms Afghani's long standing reputation as a defender of Muslim interests--not against borrowing European advances in science and technology, but against foreign political, economic, or military encroachment.--Middle East journal Jamal ad-Din was a mysterious figure and most of the mysteries were of his own making . . . it has been left to Professor Keddie to apply the methods of the critical historian to the matter ... This book shows how successful she has been . . . there has emerged for the first time a credible picture of Jamal ad-Din's life . . . The second part contains translations of works by Jamal ad-Din himself, and these are valuable because most of them were written in Persian and have either not been easily available at all or else have been available only in Arabic translation. This is particularly true of the Refutation of the Materialists. --International journal of Middle East Studies For the first time a significant collection of the writings of al-Afghani are now available in English, and so, for the first time, this controversial figure has had more life breathed into him.--American Historical Review
  imperialism and religion: Empires of Religion H. Carey, 2008-11-13 A sparkling new collection on religion and imperialism, covering Ireland and Britain, Australia, Canada, the Cape Colony and New Zealand, Botswana and Madagascar. Bursting with accounts of lively characters and incidents from around the British world, this collection is essential reading for all students of religious and imperial history.
  imperialism and religion: Colonialism and Missionary Linguistics Klaus Zimmermann, Birte Kellermeier-Rehbein, 2015-03-10 A lot of what we know about “exotic languages” is owed to the linguistic activities of missionaries. They had the languages put into writing, described their grammar and lexicon, and worked towards a standardization, which often came with Eurocentric manipulation. Colonial missionary work as intellectual (religious) conquest formed part of the Europeans' political colonial rule, although it sometimes went against the specific objectives of the official administration. In most cases, it did not help to stop (or even reinforced) the displacement and discrimination of those languages, despite oftentimes providing their very first (sometimes remarkable, sometimes incorrect) descriptions. This volume presents exemplary studies on Catholic and Protestant missionary linguistics, in the framework of the respective colonial situation and policies under Spanish, German, or British rule. The contributions cover colonial contexts in Latin America, Africa, and Asia across the centuries. They demonstrate how missionaries dealing with linguistic analyses and descriptions cooperated with colonial institutions and how their linguistic knowledge contributed to European domination.
  imperialism and religion: Decolonizing Christianity Darcie Fontaine, 2016-06-20 This book traces Christianity's change from European imperialism's moral foundation to a voice of political and social change during decolonization.
  imperialism and religion: Queering Black Atlantic Religions Roberto Strongman, 2019-03-14 In Queering Black Atlantic Religions Roberto Strongman examines Haitian Vodou, Cuban Lucumí/Santería, and Brazilian Candomblé to demonstrate how religious rituals of trance possession allow humans to understand themselves as embodiments of the divine. In these rituals, the commingling of humans and the divine produces gender identities that are independent of biological sex. As opposed to the Cartesian view of the spirit as locked within the body, the body in Afro-diasporic religions is an open receptacle. Showing how trance possession is a primary aspect of almost all Afro-diasporic cultural production, Strongman articulates transcorporeality as a black, trans-Atlantic understanding of the human psyche, soul, and gender as multiple, removable, and external to the body.
  imperialism and religion: A Missionary Nation Scott Eastman, 2021-10 A Missionary Nation focuses on Spain's crusade to resurrect its empire, beginning with the War of Africa.
  imperialism and religion: Saving Buddhism Alicia Turner, 2014-10-31 Saving Buddhism explores the dissonance between the goals of the colonial state and the Buddhist worldview that animated Burmese Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century. For many Burmese, the salient and ordering discourse was not nation or modernity but sāsana, the life of the Buddha’s teachings. Burmese Buddhists interpreted the political and social changes between 1890 and 1920 as signs that the Buddha’s sāsana was deteriorating. This fear of decline drove waves of activity and organizing to prevent the loss of the Buddha’s teachings. Burmese set out to save Buddhism, but achieved much more: they took advantage of the indeterminacy of the moment to challenge the colonial frameworks that were beginning to shape their world. Author Alicia Turner has examined thousands of rarely used sources-- newspapers and Buddhist journals, donation lists, and colonial reports—to trace three discourses set in motion by the colonial encounter: the evolving understanding of sāsana as an orienting framework for change, the adaptive modes of identity made possible in the moral community, and the ongoing definition of religion as a site of conflict and negotiation of autonomy. Beginning from an understanding that defining and redefining the boundaries of religion operated as a key technique of colonial power—shaping subjects through European categories and authorizing projects of colonial governmentality—she explores how Burmese Buddhists became actively engaged in defining and inflecting religion to shape their colonial situation and forward their own local projects. Saving Buddhism intervenes not just in scholarly conversations about religion and colonialism, but in theoretical work in religious studies on the categories of “religion” and “secular.” It contributes to ongoing studies of colonialism, nation, and identity in Southeast Asian studies by working to denaturalize nationalist histories. It also engages conversations on millennialism and the construction of identity in Buddhist studies by tracing the fluid nature of sāsana as a discourse. The layers of Buddhist history that emerge challenge us to see multiple modes of identity in colonial modernity and offer insights into the instabilities of categories we too often take for granted.
  imperialism and religion: Nation and Religion Peter van der Veer, Hartmut Lehmann, 2020-10-06 Does modernity make religion politically irrelevant? Conventional scholarly and popular wisdom says that it does. The prevailing view assumes that the onset of western modernity--characterized by the rise of nationalism, the dominance of capitalism, and the emergence of powerful state institutions--favors secularism and relegates religion to the purely private realm. This collection of essays on nationalism and religion in Europe and Asia challenges that view. Contributors show that religion and politics are mixed together in complex and vitally important ways not just in the East, but in the West as well. The book focuses on four societies: India, Japan, Britain, and the Netherlands. It shows that religion and nationalism in these societies combined to produce such notions as the nation being chosen for a historical task (imperialism, for example), the possibility of national revival, and political leadership as a form of salvation. The volume also examines the qualities of religious discourse and practice that can be used for nationalist purposes, paying special attention to how religion can help to give meaning to sacrifice in national struggle. The book's comparative approach underscores that developments in colonizing and colonized countries, too often considered separately, are subtly interrelated. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Benedict R. Anderson, Talal Asad, Susan Bayly, Partha Chatterjee, Frans Groot, Harry Harootunian, Hugh McLeod, Barbara Metcalf, and Peter van Rooden.
  imperialism and religion: Gender, Race and Religion in the Colonization of the Americas Nora E. Jaffary, 2016-12-05 When Europe introduced mechanisms to control New World territories, resources and populations, women-whether African, indigenous, mixed race, or European-responded and participated in multiple ways. By adopting a comprehensive view of female agency, the essays in this collection reveal the varied implications of women's experiences in colonialism in North and South America. Although the Spanish American context receives particular attention here, the volume contrasts the context of both colonial Mexico and Peru to every other major geographic region that became a focus of European imperialism in the early modern period: the Caribbean, Brazil, English America, and New France. The chapters provide a coherent perspective on the comparative history of European colonialism in the Americas through their united treatment of four central themes: the gendered implications of life on colonial frontiers; non-European women's relationships to Christian institutions; the implications of race-mixing; and social networks established by women of various ethnicities in the colonial context. This volume adds a new dimension to current scholarship in Atlantic history through its emphasis on culture, gender and race, and through its explicit effort to link religion to the broader imperial framework of economic extraction and political domination.
  imperialism and religion: Religion and US Empire Tisa Wenger, Sylvester A. Johnson, 2022-08-23 This book shows how imperialism molded American religion-both the category of religion and the traditions designated as religions-and reveals the multifaceted roles of American religions in structuring, enabling, surviving, and resisting the U.S. Empire--
  imperialism and religion: Imperial Fault Lines Jeffrey Cox, 2002 This book tells the history of Christian missionary encounters with non-Christians, as British and American missionaries spread out from Delhi into the heartland of Punjaba part of the world where there were no Christians at all until the advent of British imperial rule in the early 19th century.