Conversion in the Middle Ages
Time and Location
F 4:05-7:05 PM
Seminar room, Department of History
Description
Conversion, apostasy, and syncretism are words often used in current research on the Middle Ages to describe the transition to or affiliation with one religion or another. Such concepts, however, have only recently been the object of research in themselves, particularly because of the tendency to take them as implying a linear, complete transformation “of mind and soul.” Such a transformation is historically and socially constructed, and that led to the idea that conversion is best observed within a broader framework of social transition. More recent studies have cast doubt about the ability of historians to gauge the degree of personal adherence to any set of values and rules, especially in the religious realm. Religious conversion thus is regarded not as a single transformative act, but involves instead both the multiplicity and mutability of religious identity along a continuum of change. Complete change in all aspects of any individual’s social identity is not necessary (and is rarely, if ever, required, within such a broader framework), yet conversion does entail change in those aspects of an individual’s social identity that are expected to affect community interactions and associations. Taking identities as both plural and fluid thus makes conversion a useful theoretical framework in identity studies. The course has three objectives. The first is to introduce you to some of the major issues of medieval history: Christianization and the spread of Islam; medieval law; language and ethnic identity; kingdoms and communities; the archaeology of religious identities. These issues should provide a broad understanding of important trends in medieval history which will enable you to formulate more specialized research projects during graduate work in European history. Such a broad understanding can also serve as the foundation for preparation in undergraduate teaching. The second objective is to present the continuing, often heated historiographic debates surrounding these issues. Students will read some “classic” texts, as well as more current literature, reflecting recent historical perspectives. The final objective will be to afford you an opportunity to develop and improve skills in bibliographic development and most important oral and written skills in the critical evaluation of historical texts.
As this is a graduate level course, I assume that everyone enrolled has a basic familiarity with the resources available in the library and is willing to use foreign language sources when appropriate. I also assume that everyone knows the mechanics of researching and writing a scholarly paper. By this, I mean the proper use and acknowledgment of sources as well as the fundamentals of compositions, (English) grammar, and spelling.
The format of this course will be reading- and discussion-oriented. In lieu of written examinations, I will require a brief (3-5 page) essay on the readings each week, due in class on the day that they are to be discussed. You are also to complete a substantial research paper on a relevant topic. After we finish with the core set of required readings, I will expect you to locate and read sources on your own, then come to class prepared to discuss them. I have found this to be the most effective way to learn about a topic which is best examined through case studies. Requirements for the course include attendance at class meetings, participation in class discussion, and the timely completion of all assignments.
All essays are worth 40 percent of your overall grade (3.33 percent for each one of them). The research paper is worth 40 percent of your overall grade. The presentation of your paper in the final colloquium is worth another 10 percent, and your class participation covers the remaining 10 percent.
In writing papers, be certain to give proper credit whenever you use words, phrases, ideas, arguments, and conclusions drawn from someone else’s work. Failure to give credit by quoting and/or footnoting is plagiarism and is unacceptable. Please review the section on academic honesty below.
Required Texts
- Darius Baronas and Stephen C. Rowell. The Conversion of Lithuania. From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians. Vilnius: The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 2015.
- Kimberly Diane Bowes. Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008 [on reserve in Library West].
- José C. Carvajal López, Islamization and Archaeology. Religion, Culture, and New Materialism. London: Bloomsbury, 2023 [on reserve in Library West].
- John-Henry Clay. In the Shadow of Death. Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721-754. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 11. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011 [on reserve in Library West].
- Joshua M. Cragle, Converting the Saxons. A Study of Violence and Religion in Early Medieval Germany. Abingdon: Routledge, 2024 [available as e-book in Library West].
- Alex M. Feldman, The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
- Gregory Leighton, Ideology and Holy Landscape in the Baltic Crusades. Leeds: ARC Humanities Press, 2022 [available as e-book in Library West].
- Karl Frederick Morrison. Understanding Conversion. Charlottesville: University Press of Virgina, 1992 [available as e-book in Library West].
- Marta Szada, Conversion and the Contest of Creeds in Early Medieval Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
- Orri Vésteinsson, The Christianization of Iceland. Priests, Power, and Social Change, 1000-1300. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
In addition, there are articles and book chapters in pdf format accessible from the “Files” tab in the Canvas course page (elearning.ufl.edu), as needed.
University honesty policy
University of Florida F students are bound by The Honor Pledge (https://teach.ufl.edu/resource-library/academic-integrity-at-uf). On all work submitted for credit by students at the University of Florida, the following pledge is either required or implied: “On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in doing this assignment.” The Honor Code (https://policy.ufl.edu/regulation/4-040/) specifies several behaviors that are in violation of that code and the possible sanctions. Furthermore, you are obligated to report any condition that facilitates academic misconduct to appropriate personnel.
Weekly Topics
August 21: Introduction
August 28: Scholarly approaches to conversion
Read:
Karl Frederick Morrison, Understanding Conversion (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992)
Carole Cusack, “Toward a general theory of conversion,” in Religious Change, Conversion, and Culture, edited by Lynette Olson (Sydney: Sydney Association for Studies and Culture, 1996), pp. 1-21.
Andrew S. Jacobs, “Interpreting conversion in antiquity (and beyond),” Religion Compass 15 (2021), no. 7: 1-9.
September 4: Conversion in Late Antiquity
Read:
Kimberly Diane Bowes, Private Worship, Public Values, and Religious Change in Late Antiquity (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008).
John van Engen, “Christening the Romans,” Traditio 52 (1997): 1-45.
Eric Rebillard, “Conversion and burial in the late Roman empire,” In Conversion in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Seeing and Believing, edited by Kenneth Mills and Anthony Grafton (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2003), pp. 61-83.
September 11: Christianity for the Other
Read:
Marta Szada, Conversion and the Contest of Creeds in Early Medieval Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024)
Bernhard Maier, “Early Christianity in south-west Germany: the conversion of the Alamanni,” in Transforming Landscapes of Belief in the Early Medieval Insular World and Beyond: Converting the Isles II, edited by Nancy Edwards, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Roy Flechner. Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 23 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 411-428.
Laury Sarti, “The military, the clergy and Christian faith in sixth‐century Gaul.” Early Medieval Europe 25 (2017), no. 2: 162-185.
September 18: Forced conversion—does that work?
Read:
Joshua M. Cragle, Converting the Saxons. A Study of Violence and Religion in Early Medieval Germany (Abingdon: Routledge, 2024)
Maribel Fierro, “Again on forced conversion in the Almohad period,” in Forced Conversion in Christianity, Judaism and Islam: Coercion and Faith in Premodern Iberia and Beyond, edited by Mercedes García-Arenal and Yonatan Glazer-Eytan. Numen, 164 (Leiden: Brill, 2020), pp. 111-132.
Sarah Gador-Whyte, “Christian-Jewish conflict in the light of Heraclius’ forced conversions and the beginning of Islam,” in Religious Conflict from Early Christianity to the Rise of Islam, edited by Wendy Mayer and Bronwen Neil. Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte, 121 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013), pp. 201-214.
September 25: Mission and conversion
Read:
John-Henry Clay, In the Shadow of Death. Saint Boniface and the Conversion of Hessia, 721-754 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010)
Ian Wood, “What is a mission?” in The Introduction of Christianity into the Early Medieval Insular World: Converting the Isles, I, edited by Roy Flechner and Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 19 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), pp. 135-156.
Karol Kollinger, “St. Bruno of Querfurt and his account of a mission to the Pechenegs,” in Conversions. Looking for Ideological Change in the Early Middle Ages, edited by Leszek P. Słupecki and Rudolf Simek. Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia, 23 (Vienna: Fassbaender, 2013), pp. 187-202.
October 2: Christianization
Read:
Orri Vésteinsson, The Christianization of Iceland. Priests, Power, and Social Change, 1000-1300 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Mária Vargha, Martin Janovský, and Martin Fajta, “Empowering the voiceless. The role of the rural population in state building and Christianisation in East-Central Europe. Preliminary results about Bohemia,” in Power in Numbers. State Formation and Christianization on the Eastern Edge of Europe, edited by Mária Vargha and Ivo Štefan. Borders, Boundaries, Landscapes, 4 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2024), pp. 271-83.
Tiina Kala, “Rural society and religious innovation: acceptance and rejection of Catholicism among the native inhabitants of medieval Livonia,” in The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier, edited by Alan V. Murray (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 169-190.
October 9: Conversion of the landscape
Gregory Leighton, Ideology and Holy Landscape in the Baltic Crusades (Leeds: ARC Humanities Press, 2022).
Marc Jarzebowski, Aleksander Pluskowski, Tomasz Nowakiewicz, and Maciej Karczewski, “Reorganizing the Prussian landscape,” in Environment, Colonization and the Baltic Crusader States. Terra Sacra I, edited by Aleksander Pluskowski. Environmental Histories of the North Atlantic World, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2019), pp. 425-55.
Carsten Selch Jensen, “How to convert a landscape: Henry of Livonia and the Chronicon Livoniae,” in The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier, edited by Alan V. Murray, Anne Huijbers and Elizabeth Wawrzyniak (Farnham/Burlington: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 151-68.
October 16: Belated conversion
Darius Baronas and Stephen C. Rowell. The Conversion of Lithuania. From Pagan Barbarians to Late Medieval Christians (Vilnius: The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, 2015).
Linda Kaljundi, “Neophytes as actors in the Livonian crusades,” in Making Livonia: Actors and Networks in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region, edited by Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm (Abingdon: Routledge, 2020), pp. 93-112.
Heiki Valk, “Christianization and changes in faith in the burial traditions of Estonia in the 11th-17th centuries AD,” in Rom und Byzanz im Norden. Mission und Glaubenswechsel im Ostseeraum während des 8.-14. Jahrhunderts. Internationale Fachkonferenz der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Verbindung mit der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Kiel, 18.-25. September 1994, edited by Michael Müller-Wille. Vol. 2. Abhandlungen der geistes- und sozialwissenschaftliche Klasse, 3 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1998), pp. 37-55.
October 23: Islamization—is that conversion?
Read:
José C. Carvajal López, Islamization and Archaeology. Religion, Culture, and New Materialism (London: Bloomsbury, 2023)
Harry Munt, “What did conversion to Islam mean in seventh-century Arabia?” in Islamisation. Comparative Perspectives from History, edited by Andrew C.S. Peacock (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017), pp. 83-101.
István Zimonyi, “The conversion of the Volga Bulgars to Islam,” in Mass Conversions to Christianity and Islam, 800-1100, edited by Cvetelin Stepanov and Osman Karatay (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), pp. 215-36.
October 30: Conversion to Judaism—did it really happen?
Read:
Alex M. Feldman, The Monotheisation of Pontic-Caspian Eurasia: From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Century (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
Shaul Stampfer, “Did the Khazars convert to Judaism?” Jewish Social Studies. History, Culture, Society 19 (2013), no. 3: 1-72.
Christian-Julien Robin, “The Judaism of the ancient kingdom of Ḥimyar in Arabia,” in Diversity and Rabbinization. Jewish Texts and Societies between 400 and 1000 CE, edited by Gavin McDowell, Ron Naiweld and Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra. Cambridge Semitic Languages and Cultures; 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021), pp. 165-270.
November 6: Conversion and kings
Locate, read, and review one book (in English) or two articles/book chapters (in a foreign language) on the role of rulers (kings) in the Christianization of medieval Bulgaria, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Poland, or Rus’.
November 13: Conversion, gender, and age
Locate, read, and review one book (in English) or two articles/book chapters (in a foreign language) on gender and age as social aspects of the conversion process in the Middle Ages.