Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion: Two Thousand Years of Christian Missions in the Middle East by Eleanor H. Tejirian

by Eleanor H. Tejirian

Conflict, Conquest, and Conversion describes two thousand years of the Christian missionary enterprise in the Middle East within the context of the regionOCOs political evolution. Its broad, rich narrative follows Christian missions as they interact with imperial powers and as the momentum of religious change shifts from Christianity to Islam and back, adding new dimensions to the history of the region and the nature of the relationship between the Middle East and the West. Historians and political scientists increasingly recognize the importance of integrating religion into political analysis, and this volume, using long-neglected sources, provides the necessary context for this effort. It surveys Christian missions from the earliest days of Christianity to the present, with particular emphasis on the role of Christian missions, both Protestant and Catholic, in the political and economic imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The authors delineate the ongoing tensions between conversion and a focus on witness and ?good worksOCO within the missionary movement, which has contributed to the development and spread of nongovernmental organizations. This volumeOCOs systematic study offers an unparalleled encounter with the social, political, and economic consequences of these trends.

Genres: Religion

Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is less about conversions than about the organizations and individuals that went to the Middle East to convert, educate and give medical care to people there. Partly this is because of the failure of the efforts to convert. When missionaries discovered that it was nearly impossible to convert Jews and Muslims, they turned their efforts to convert Christians to whatever sect they belonged to. Catholics tried to convert Orthodox and Protestants, etc. Later on, the efforts turned to humanitarianism.

[Mills College Library]

266.00956 T2666 2012