Where to start learning about religion and imperialism?

by capsandnumbers

Hi! I'm looking for historical contexts to research, and books to read so I can learn more about this topic.

I'm picturing a situation where a community has a large powerful country encroaching on them, and a religious building is built that's come from the powerful country, in the smaller community. Seems like there'd be a conflict between allowing religious pluralism, and resisting the cultural advance of the colonial power. I'm really interested in both essays about the ethics of this sort of situation, and historical case studies.

Thanks a lot! Sorry if this is a weird/unclear question!

Alkibiades415

I don't want to sound patronizing, but this is a big topic. This is a doctorate thesis kind of topic, and even then is way too broad. There are dozens, hundreds of books required to get at this topic in earnest. I've collected a few here but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Faivre, Daniel, (ed), 2018. Religion et violence: regards croisés sur une dualité problématique. Paris : L'Harmattan.

Muñiz Grijalvo, Elena, Juan Manuel Cortés Copete, and Fernando Lozano, ed. 2017. Empire and religion: religious change in Greek cities under Roman rule. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

B. Bentlage, 2017. Religious dynamics under the impact of imperialism and colonialism: a sourcebook. Leiden/Boston: Brill.

Conroy-Krutz, Emily. 2015. Christian imperialism: converting the world in the early American republic. Ithaka: Cornell UP.

Laine, James W. 2014. Meta-religion: religion and power in world history. UC Press.

Murphy, Andrew R. 2011. The Blackwell companion to religion and violence. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Brodd, Jeffrey, and Jonathan L. Reed. 2011. Rome and religion: a cross-disciplinary dialogue on the imperial cult. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.

Revell, Louise. 2009. Roman imperialism and local identities. Cambridge.

Schwartz, Seth. 2001. *Imperialism and Jewish Society: 200 B.C.E. to 640 C.E. Princeton.

Chidester, David. 2018. Religion: material dynamics. UC Press.

Carey, Hilary M. 2008. Empires of religion. Palgrave Macmillan.