The Art of Conversion

Africa’s artistic expressions deeply accentuate the intellectual and creative vitality that characterize the continent’s landscape. These manifestations often convey people’s contemplation of and fascination with the transcendent. They also provide a sound heuristic device for delving into people’s conceptual and analytical worlds. The historical and institutional development of Christianity in Africa continues to attract fascinating studies and monographs from different disciplines. The encounters between missionary agents and Africans have also engendered many robust and outstanding analyses. Africa has served as a veritable theater of religious innovation and creativity since the beginning of missionary incursions into the continent. The main thrust of Cécile Fromont’s The Art of Conversion is that some salient elements in Kongo’s material culture contributed to the advancement of Christianity in that society. Instead of a narrative of unmitigated disaster, this books calls for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between materiality and religion within an African context. In this dynamic encounter, imperial mandates were tempered by local realities and conditions. Pragmatic and contextual sensibilities ultimately trumped the propensity of missionary agents to be dismissive of potential African contributions to mission. Missionary hubris inevitably gave way to creative negotiations and engagements. The place of African agency in the transmission and transformation of the faith is important indeed. In a context where people's existential realities are constantly changing, religious categories and formulations have adapted to new circumstances and conditions. The power of creative innovation fueled a wave of robust spirituality in African Christianity.

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy) · Archaeology · Art · Christianity · Contemplation · Context (archaeology) · Epistemology · Existentialism · Faith · Literature · Materiality (auditing) · Narrative · Negotiation · Political science · Reinterpretation · Social science · Sociology · Spirituality · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy