Hi Roland, I have written a series of articles on how mass conversions work. Will send you the references. Best, John
Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 4, 2023, at 9:39 PM, Roland Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > > This is a long-standing question in my mind which I have never, out of a > hesitation of appearing foolish, or not confident that I would be asking it > to the right person, ever asked before. But if I don’t get the answer here, I > know I may not get it anywhere else. > > The question is this; > Have I been brainwashed into thinking, simply put, that missionaries and > saints of old went to foreign lands, talked to the heathens and converted > them happily to Christianity merely “by the grace of God”. > > In the Indian context, stories about St Francis, St Thomas, St José Vaz and > various others come to mind. They land, they befriend parts of the local > population, they learn enough of the local language and before you know it, > they have converted large swaths of the population to Christianity. Did they > have sufficient funds sufficient to induce, given by their host kings, or > were they dealing with disgruntled parts of the local people which made them > easily vulnerable. > > I understand how conversion worked on a kingdom or empire level. The king or > emperor embraces the new religion, converts all his subjects and his > conquered peoples by example, favour, bias or just plain old force and > violence. > > A one on one, or one on many system of conversion that worked very well with > the saints, completely flummoxes me. > > Is there also a good book that can explain this? > > Roland. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Goa-Research-Net" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/434D4E79-E89F-4332-B26A-BB3007051F46%40gmail.com. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Goa-Research-Net" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-research-net/35F7D19D-B45B-4858-A556-97D7185B880C%40sbcglobal.net.
