Re: Malkioni conversion

From: Gianfranco Geroldi <janjero_at_...>
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 16:25:35 +0100


I hope not to be mistaken as that who takes advantage of the moderator's absence, but:

> My discussion with Mr. Robertson and Mr. Metcalfe raises the issue -- how
> much do Malkioni care about conversions? Is there an active attempt (e.g.
> through threat) to get unbelievers to join (as in much of medieval
> Christianity)? Some attempt (e.g. through privilege) to get unbelievers to
> join (as in much of medieval Islam)? No attempt or active discouraging (as
> in Judaism)?

The difference between Christian and Islamic style of conversion are minimal, in my opinion (historically speaking, not theologically :-)). It depends on the phase of the faith's diffusion: in the earlier stage of Christianity, probably it adopted the same privilege-approach (i.e. Costantinus, not Gregorius Magnus). Do not compare late-medieval christianity with pre-Charlemagne Islam: it could be erroneous. Judaism is bade on the "choosen-people" theme, so no need or urge to convert the Gentiles: They are not Us :-)

 I suspect the answer varies from sect to sect, but could we
> have a brief overview if there are broad classes (i.e. the Rokari, as a
> whole, think x). Thanks, as always.

There is a problem here: conversion forces one people (or one person) to lose it's cultural/social and *magical* background, and that's not little loss in Glorantha. I suppose that martyrdom is much more widespread in a world were, if forced to choose between death and conversion, you risk much more with the latter choice than with the former one! Unless there are ways-rituals-bigmagics to convert one's afterlife and one's magic's from one cult/magical-approach to the other one. Has anyone ever developed an answer to this fact (apart from the interesting but limited example: Heortlings to the Lunar Way)?

Ciao
Gian

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