What do you think?
Rate this book
Converting Rulers: Global Patterns, 1450–1850
Why did so many rulers throughout history risk converting to a new religion brought by outsiders? In his award-winning Unearthly Powers (2019), Alan Strathern set out a theoretical framework for understanding the relation between religion and political authority based on a distinction between two kinds of religion - immanentism and transcendentalism - and the different ways they made monarchy sacred. This ambitious and innovative companion volume tests and substantiates this approach using case studies from Kongo (1480–1530), Japan (1560–1614), Ayutthaya (Thailand, 1660–1690) and Hawaii (1800–1830). Through in-depth analysis of key turning points in the careers of warlords, chiefs and kings, a tapestry of unique characters and stories is brought to light. However, these examples ultimately demonstrate that global patterns of conversion can be established to illuminate the religious geography of the world today.
498 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2024
13 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 7, 2025
A work of fine scholarship. This is complex, comparative history.
Footnote 36 to chapter 5 notes that nirvana is ‘not a place but a matter of being’. Thanks for ensuring that being, Alan.
Constructive comment: one of puzzlement rather than actual criticism, is why the pair of books (that is Converting Rulers and Unearthly Powers) are set up in this way. Though CR contains a much abridged precis of the theoretical framework set out in UP, it also contains further detail that UP does not (naturally, and as one might expect, given the progression of thought in the five years they stand apart).
One for the sub-editors at Bloomsbury, but there is a pair of empty square brackets in footnote 138 on page 110.
Nevertheless, the chapter on Siam in particular is a scholar in the pomp of their career; the sources (largely French rather than Thai unfortunately, for that is what history bequeathed us) at the command of their master; the analytical categories so profoundly problematised and then (re-)contextualised. This was the Siamese revolution of 1688 (though little was ‘Glorious’ about it in the eyes of the French). From pages 165-166:
“But towering above this great marketplace of Ayutthaya and the constant movement of money, and all is foreign born peoples , including scheming European East India companies and adventurers on the make, settled Persian merchant families, Chinese traders, Makassarese princes and Malay troops - towering above them all were the prangs of the great wats, the temples and monasteries of the city. In their shade, multitudes of buddhas sat or reclined, the graceful forms of the latter undulating for dozens of feet in length, utterly still in their survey of the pointless chasing of desires. Europeans marvelled at how much of the city's wealth ended up sunken into the sacred architecture of the landscape around which they moved and traded.” (pp. 165-166)
What is the book’s argument?
Essentially, and to simplify, that Christian conversion outside of short-term political exigencies was most successful (profound and long lasting) where it encountered immanentism rather than transcendalist religions. The ‘successes’ of Kongo and Hawaii stand in comparison to the ‘failures’ of Thailand and Japan.
“Conversion is understood here as the public announcement of a new religious commitment most emblematically through baptism although this was in fact one part of a much longer process starting with mere toleration or patronage of missionaries.” (p. 4)
Alan identifies three modes of ruler conversion, being: (1) religious diplomacy; (2) accessing imminent power; and (3) enhancing authority. (p. 6)
(1) rulers tolerate and favour Christianity because of the enticements of diplomatic advantage military assistance and commercial profit;
(2) the breakthrough to a more substantial incorporation of the new cult is often connected to its perceived ability to provide supernatural assistance; and
(3) the Christianisation of the realm may then be seized upon as a means of enhancing the authority of the ruling dynasty.
Alan favours Charles Tilly’s (1990) definition of the state: a coercion-wielding organisation that is distinct from household and kinship groups and that exercises priority over all other organisations within a substantial territory (p. 416). Though he does reference Max Weber’s classic definition in the appendix (p. 411).
Footnote 36 to chapter 5 notes that nirvana is ‘not a place but a matter of being’. Thanks for ensuring that being, Alan.
Constructive comment: one of puzzlement rather than actual criticism, is why the pair of books (that is Converting Rulers and Unearthly Powers) are set up in this way. Though CR contains a much abridged precis of the theoretical framework set out in UP, it also contains further detail that UP does not (naturally, and as one might expect, given the progression of thought in the five years they stand apart).
One for the sub-editors at Bloomsbury, but there is a pair of empty square brackets in footnote 138 on page 110.
Nevertheless, the chapter on Siam in particular is a scholar in the pomp of their career; the sources (largely French rather than Thai unfortunately, for that is what history bequeathed us) at the command of their master; the analytical categories so profoundly problematised and then (re-)contextualised. This was the Siamese revolution of 1688 (though little was ‘Glorious’ about it in the eyes of the French). From pages 165-166:
“But towering above this great marketplace of Ayutthaya and the constant movement of money, and all is foreign born peoples , including scheming European East India companies and adventurers on the make, settled Persian merchant families, Chinese traders, Makassarese princes and Malay troops - towering above them all were the prangs of the great wats, the temples and monasteries of the city. In their shade, multitudes of buddhas sat or reclined, the graceful forms of the latter undulating for dozens of feet in length, utterly still in their survey of the pointless chasing of desires. Europeans marvelled at how much of the city's wealth ended up sunken into the sacred architecture of the landscape around which they moved and traded.” (pp. 165-166)
What is the book’s argument?
Essentially, and to simplify, that Christian conversion outside of short-term political exigencies was most successful (profound and long lasting) where it encountered immanentism rather than transcendalist religions. The ‘successes’ of Kongo and Hawaii stand in comparison to the ‘failures’ of Thailand and Japan.
“Conversion is understood here as the public announcement of a new religious commitment most emblematically through baptism although this was in fact one part of a much longer process starting with mere toleration or patronage of missionaries.” (p. 4)
Alan identifies three modes of ruler conversion, being: (1) religious diplomacy; (2) accessing imminent power; and (3) enhancing authority. (p. 6)
(1) rulers tolerate and favour Christianity because of the enticements of diplomatic advantage military assistance and commercial profit;
(2) the breakthrough to a more substantial incorporation of the new cult is often connected to its perceived ability to provide supernatural assistance; and
(3) the Christianisation of the realm may then be seized upon as a means of enhancing the authority of the ruling dynasty.
Alan favours Charles Tilly’s (1990) definition of the state: a coercion-wielding organisation that is distinct from household and kinship groups and that exercises priority over all other organisations within a substantial territory (p. 416). Though he does reference Max Weber’s classic definition in the appendix (p. 411).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review