The aim of this research is to find social factors in Chinese academic immigrants’ conversion to Christianity using the perspectives of symbolic interactionism and social exchange theory. The research data are drawn from observation and interviews. Fourteen Chinese student converts were interviewed. The analysis focuses on the interaction between recruits and Christians. Results supported the idea that religious conversion happens progressively. Affective bonds are essential for the religious conversion of Chinese academic immigrants. Chinese Christian converts experienced five stages. First, they develop affective commitment to Christians close to them and regard them as their reference group. Second, an emergent generalized other is internalized in recruits’ minds through recruits’ acceptance of symbolic language in Christianity and interaction with Chinese Christians. Third, recruits understand the Bible with the perspective of Christians. Fourth, as the socially defined reality reinforces their beliefs and the affective bonds develop, recruits confess their sins and decide to believe in God. Finally, recruits strengthen their understanding of Christianity by intensifying interactions with Chinese Christians.

Almost daily emotional worship pours from a warehouse-sized evangelical church in the small rural community of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. Within twenty years an evangelical presence has gone from virtually non-existent to standing alongside the Catholic Church in the area’s religious landscape. Scenarios like this are going on throughout Latin America as evangelical faith has become firmly rooted in the region. In this thesis I provide another ethnographic research context to the growing body of literature focused on Pentecostalism/evangelicalism in Latin America. Like others addressing this dynamic, I explore the factors and motivations that lead people to become evangelical. I approach these questions with particular emphasis on the characteristics of evangelical faith as it is constructed and practiced during church services. Through participant observation during church services and interviews with practicing evangelicals in and around Santa Cruz, I highlight the relationship between the characteristics of an evangelical faith and the factors and motivations that lead people to seek it. To be religiously active in the manner of my informants requires deep commitment and is not a faith adopted and practiced lightly. Those who become evangelical and sustain the demanding practice are likely to seek it for spiritual solutions to difficult life situations.

Dans un village du Yucatán la majorité de la population s’est récemment convertie au protestantisme. Cette situation a contraint à une redéfinition de certains éléments de la culture locale et de ses pratiques rituels. Une rédefinition qui se réalise, d'une coté dans le refus du système d'orientement culturel, des pratiques rituelles et de l'organisation catholiques et, de l'autre coté, d'une maintenance selective et dans une remodulation de certains de ses termes. L'het'z mek, une pratique rituelle «traditionnelle», est aussi célébrée par les protestants sur la base de l'accent mis sur ses fonctionnalités par rapport au developpement physique et corporel associé à une intervention « orthopédiques ». Le parcour de l'initiation du chaman est par contre fortement contrasté à travers l'utilisation de la rhétorique des recits de conversion au protestantisme. / In a Yucatan village, the main population has recently converted to Protestantism. This situation brought to a redefinition of some elements of local culture and its practical rituals . This process of redefinition, which is realized partly by rejecting the cultural system, practices and rituals of the Catholic organization, and, partly, by a selective manteinance and a reshaping of some of its terms.The het'z mek ', a ritual "traditional" practice, is also celebrated by Protestants on the basis of the emphasis on its functionality over the physical body associated with an "orthopedic" intervention. The shaman's initiation path is rather strongly contrasted by the use of the rhetoric of conversions tale to Protestantism.

This is a study of religious identity in Kathmandu, Nepal. The aim is to establish the circumstances and conditions that define religious identity and the contexts in which it is expressed. Religious identity operates on various levels. At the macro-level, the Muslims are defined by the state as a marginal group. At the same time, the Hindu state has also shown itself to be tolerant of Muslims: the Hindu state not only intervened in communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims but also showed its support for Muslims at a time of crisis, which then affirmed the loyalty of the Muslims to the state. However, the acquiescent attitude of the Muslims towards the Hindus does not hide the subtle attempts to differentiate themselves from the Hindus, and their response and resistance to Islamic reform clearly show that their secular interests are closely linked to their religious ones. Finally, this thesis also shows that religious identity is changeable. It presents case studies of religious conversion from one religion to another, from one sect to another or from one level of commitment to another.

Devenir musulman en France c’est rejoindre un groupe de croyants dont le terme usuel de « communauté » peine à décrire la fragmentation et le caractère diversifié. Comme pour tout converti, celui qui rejoint l’islam se trouve soumis à un conflit de loyauté et de légitimation. Mais cela prend dans l’objet qui nous occupe une ampleur particulière en raison de l’imagerie négative fréquemment associée à l’islam et de l’âpreté des débats qu’il suscite : à la trahison des origines s’ajoute celle des valeurs et des idéaux. Les récents événements de l’actualité, en particulier ceux liés à la montée en puissance depuis quelques années du djihadisme militarisé représenté par Daesh, dont les effets se font sentir jusqu’en France, saturent l’espace des médias et placent le converti en posture particulièrement délicate (Roy, 2016). Notre recherche propose une approche de la conversion religieuse en termes de processus, en analysant les trajectoires de vie des convertis, en définissant un « avant » et un « après », afin de rendre visible l’articulation complexe entre les convertis et leur environnement, entre l’intime et l’institutionnel. Nous décrivons un cheminement qui mène à la conversion, en tentant d’appréhender l’initiation à l’islam par le converti, mais aussi l’apprentissage des pratiques religieuses et sociales qui aboutissent à la publicisation du choix. D’autre part, nous analysons la construction d’une appartenance à la communauté d’accueil via un mode de socialisation qui prend des formes différentes, en lien avec le groupe religieux choisi ; enfin, nous étudions la rhétorique des convertis destinée à affirmer la légitimité de leur conversion. / Becoming a Muslim in France means joining a group of believers usually designated by the term “community” which struggles to describe its often fragmentary and diverse nature. The convert himself has to confront to these contradictions: he is exposed to the representations of a community supposedly homogeneous and to the preconceptions built through ‘‘common sense”, but also with the objective and plural reality unveiled. Like any kind of converts, those who join Islam are subject to a conflict of loyalty and legitimacy. The recent events, especially those related to the rise in recent years of the militarized jihadism represented by Daesh, which effects have reached as far as France, have constantly been under public and mediatic attention and place the convert in a position of uneasiness (Roy, 2016). The conversion to Islam is thus an object of study and debate often passionate and crossed by contradictions. Our research argues an approach of religious conversion in terms of processes, analyzing the life trajectories of converts, defining a "before" and an "after" in order to make visible the complex articulation between the converts and their environment, between the private and the public sphere. We describe a quest that leads to conversion, trying to grasp the initiation to Islam by the convert, but also the initiation to the religious and social practices that turn their choice into facts. On another hand, we analyze how a convert ends up belonging to the community through different modes of socialization, in connection with the chosen religious group. Finally, we study the rhetoric of the converts which aims at strengthening the legitimacy of the act of conversion.

Almost daily emotional worship pours from a warehouse-sized evangelical church in the small rural community of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. Within twenty years an evangelical presence has gone from virtually non-existent to standing alongside the Catholic Church in the area’s religious landscape. Scenarios like this are going on throughout Latin America as evangelical faith has become firmly rooted in the region. In this thesis I provide another ethnographic research context to the growing body of literature focused on Pentecostalism/evangelicalism in Latin America. Like others addressing this dynamic, I explore the factors and motivations that lead people to become evangelical. I approach these questions with particular emphasis on the characteristics of evangelical faith as it is constructed and practiced during church services. Through participant observation during church services and interviews with practicing evangelicals in and around Santa Cruz, I highlight the relationship between the characteristics of an evangelical faith and the factors and motivations that lead people to seek it. To be religiously active in the manner of my informants requires deep commitment and is not a faith adopted and practiced lightly. Those who become evangelical and sustain the demanding practice are likely to seek it for spiritual solutions to difficult life situations.

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser le phénomène subjectif qu'est la conversion religieuse chez le sujet mystique, à l'aide de la théorie psychanalytique et plus particulièrement grâce à des concepts tels que la pulsion invocante et la voix.A partir de l'ouvrage « les confessions » de Saint Augustin, nous allons analyser de quelle manière s'inscrit chez ce sujet l'appel de Dieu dans sa conversion religieuse. En effet, dans cette oeuvre, il témoigne de la recherche de sa foi en Dieu mais aussi de sa conversion en s'interrogeant sur les énigmes majeures de son existence.Pour ce faire, nous nous interrogerons sur le statut de la voix de Dieu et sur la place fantasmatique qu'occupe la figure déique pour le religieux. Effectivement, la voix du Divin semble venir se loger à la place du refoulement originaire, elle est cause inconsciente du désir et se localise en qualité d'objet a.Cette voix divine viendrait recouvrir la question du refoulement originaire. Elle ne s'entend pas avec l'oreille mais elle s'éprouve. Elle est source de jouissance et s'inscrit dans une jouissance archaïque. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze the subjective phenomenon that is the mystic subject religious conversion's, using the psychoanalitic theory and more particulary thanks to concepts such as the invocatory drive and the voice.From the book « Confessions » of Saint Augustin, we are going to analyze how God's call affected him in his religious conversion. Indeed, in this work he testifes to the search for his faith in God, but also, to his conversion by wondering about the major riddles of his existence.For that purpose, we wonder about God's voice statuts and about the fantastical place that the divine figure occupies for Saint Augustin.Actually, the voice of Lord seems to print it self over of the primal repression. It is the unconscious cause of desire and it seems to impose itself as the « a » object.This divine voice would be covering the primal repression issue. It is not heared though the ear, it is experienced. It is a source of enjoyement, classified as an archaïc enjoyement.

This diploma thesis "Social status of Czech women-Muslim" is divided into practical and theoretical part. The theoretical part contains two sub-chapters and 11 sections, which all the essentials of the issue are contained in. The theoretical part includes the history of Islam with regard to the historical character of the Prophet Muhammad. Also it deals with the holy book for muslimy- Quran, sunnah and other important documents of Islam. It characterizes the five main pillars of Islam. Subsequently it deals with the special position of women in Islam. The theoretical part includes a description of conversion to Islam. The work represents the Islamic community in the Czech Republic and Czech anti-Islamic group. Thesis deals with Islamic fundamentalism as well. At the end of the theoretical part, the important sociological concepts such as social stratification, social role and social status are defined. The practical part presents the results of interviews. These interviews were semi-structured and Were Carried out 15 interviews with 15 responders. The aim of the the empirical part was to answer the research question, That is: "What is the social status of Czech women who converted to Islam and live in the Czech Republic?" At the end the thesis includes a discussion.

Although the majority of Filipinos are Christian, recent developments reflect an upsurge in conversion to Islam, particularly in the northern Philippines. This dissertation examines one of the fastest growing religious phenomena in Southeast Asia, Balik-Islam, which means “reverts to Islam,” or the process of “returning to Islam.” The Balik-Islam movement has become popular since the 1970s, and its religious narratives on Muslim reversion challenge and complicate what we already know generally about conversion to new religions, including the impact of the external “non-religious” factors associated with it. This dissertation shows how a discourse of “reversion” among Balik-Islam members reveals complex realities about the appeal of Islam to Filipinos. While other scholars have used paradigms concerning “othering” and underlying “symbolic” forces to understanding the reasons why conflict and crisis might appear in conversion narratives, this characterization also tends to reify religion and position Christianity and Islam as polar opposites operating within a hostile environment. My approach is to understand how Balik-Islam members negotiate their transition to Islam by virtue of social and cultural settings that are both fluid and multifaceted. By critically assessing their “reversion” narratives, this dissertation reveals how their transition to Islam reflects a “symbolic negotiation,” or an act of reimagining the process of religious conversion itself, substituting it for a discourse of reversion that reflects a diverse set of spiritual and social needs. / Religion

This work examines ethnic group identities among the Muslim population in the Iberian Peninsula, or al-Andalus, between 881 and 1110 C.E. It specifically addresses three moments in Andalusi history in which ethnic conflict erupted into the political sphere: 1) The revolt of Ibn Hafsun in the late Ninth/early Tenth Century C.E. 2) The collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate in the late Tenth/early Eleventh Century C.E. 3) The arrival of the North African Almoravid dynasty in the late Eleventh/early Twelfth Century C.E. Through an investigation of each period it argues that ethnic categorization in al-Andalus has been under-theorized. The work addresses the complications of religious conversion and the resultant ramifications on religious identity, which, over time, significantly influenced deployable ethnic identities among the Muslim population. It utilizes the theoretical tools of the French social theorist Pierre Bourdieu in order to re-conceptualize the understanding of Andalusi Muslim ethnic group identities. It considers how the role of women and systems of clientage have been underappreciated in the understanding of these identities and through attention to these dynamics argues that Andalusi Muslims created an Andalusi Arab Muslim identity that increasingly unified and strengthened this social group as the political structure around it disintegrated. / Religion