Responding to the Thesis

"Large conversion only took place when powerful political, social, or economic incentives encourged it and even then it led universally to syncretism rather than outright adoption of foreign cultural tradition."
- Jerry Bently

This quote suggests that mass conversion can only take place if there are strong incentives by state or other people to do so. For the most part this is true. Throughout history, minor conversions to a religion have taken place as people hear directly from the creator of the religion or a missionary, but mass, country wide conversions only took place upon the embrace from a leader or important figure. Christianity, for example, only became hugely popular after Constantine himself converted, bringing with him much of Rome. Previous to his conversion, however, many Christians were persecuted and killed which gained a few followers but many saw this as the right course of action as the Christians were little more than a cult or sect. A similar story is told with Buddhism, Although Buddhism had growing power and members prior to the conversion of Ashoka, it was after this tipping point that much of India (followed by Asia, as the social and political incentives became greater as Ashoka sent out missionaries to convert neighbors) converted to Buddhism. After the death of Ashoka, Buddhism once again fell out of favor in India, proving the importance of having a figure head or important political figure embracing the religion (much like after the death of Muhammad, when many of the tribal leaders no longer felt a loyalty to Islam). Judiasm is somewhat of a paradox, since people were not allowed to convert to Judiasm, and therefore no amount of political or social pressures or incentives could lead one to become a Jew. There was social pressure to remain a Jew as many Jewish people wished to retain their Jewish ways by any means necessary, especially after the rise of Christianity.

The second part of this quote, the one stating that there was no mass adoption, but rather a syncretism is also true. Many religions were infact forced to change and adopt to suit the needs of new places they were introduced (as was the case of Buddhism in China). This ability of the religions themselves to change led to the people of these new regions to convert more willingly, with minimal resistance and less friction as they were able to indentify with some beliefs from their prior tradtion. In this way, the people were not, infact, adopting the "pure" form of the religion, but a changed form created to better identify with their beliefs, meaning that they did not whole heartedly adopt the completely seperate beliefs of a foreign people. One group that attempted to change this system was the Council of Nicea which attempted to unify all of the beliefs of Christianity so that all people in all conrners of the world would be taught the same thing.