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The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press) Kindle Edition

by Cécile Fromont (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings
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Between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, the west central African kingdom of Kongo practiced Christianity and actively participated in the Atlantic world as an independent, cosmopolitan realm. Drawing on an expansive and largely unpublished set of objects, images, and documents, Cecile Fromont examines the advent of Kongo Christian visual culture and traces its development across four centuries marked by war, the Atlantic slave trade, and, finally, the rise of nineteenth-century European colonialism. By offering an extensive analysis of the religious, political, and artistic innovations through which the Kongo embraced Christianity, Fromont approaches the country's conversion as a dynamic process that unfolded across centuries.

The African kingdom's elite independently and gradually intertwined old and new, local and foreign religious thought, political concepts, and visual forms to mold a novel and constantly evolving Kongo Christian worldview. Fromont sheds light on the cross-cultural exchanges between Africa, Europe, and Latin America that shaped the early modern world, and she outlines the religious, artistic, and social background of the countless men and women displaced by the slave trade from central Africa to all corners of the Atlantic world.
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  1. Print length
    294 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Omohundro Institute and UNC Press
  5. Publication date
    December 19, 2014
  6. File size
    19297 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Not Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

An indispensable look at one site of African Christianity before the advance of colonialism.--Christianity Today



A valuable reference work for anyone interested in religious, Christian, and precolonial African art and material culture.--Catholic Historical Review



Beautifully produced and accessibly priced edition will reward the attentions of lay connoisseurs as well as of scholars in all the academic disciplines engaging Africa's past.--African Studies Review



An impressive, ground-breaking work.--ARLIS/NA Reviews



Swords, crosses, caps, red sashes, pendants, and staffs whirled across the sacred landscape of early Kongo in celebration and service of a new Christianity. This book masterfully depicts the blended visual and material world that elite Kongolese created as they shaped their encounter with Catholic Europe and forged a place for themselves in a global Christendom. Kongo Christianity appears here for the first time as a highly innovative, aesthetic practice that rewove connections between life and death, king and people, kingdom and world.--Catherine A. Molineux, Vanderbilt University



A detailed account of how the visual arts were instrumental in [the Kingdom of Kongo.]--Burlington Magazine



A monumental contribution to scholarship on Kongo Christianity as well as cultural change in the Atlantic world more broadly. She challenges historians to think more deeply about the way in which history can defy easy categorization as continuity or change. . . . Her beautiful prose and evocative use of language powerfully re-create the multisensory rituals of Kongo Christianity. Perhaps most important, Fromont reminds us that Africans were always active participants in their history, the legacy of which resonates across the Atlantic world today.--William and Mary Quarterly



Provides relevant information to the conversion of the Kongo Kingdom to Christianity by providing numerous visual sources to support her argument. . . . Provides previously untapped sources to bring forward a new theory on the conversion of the Kongo and the changes associated with the kingdom's new religion.--Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians



Meticulously researched, beautifully written, and lavishly illustrated, The Art of Conversionis one of the best books ever published about Central African religious history.--Journal of Interdisciplinary History



Fromont's study is a model of careful scholarship wedded to a well-crafted argument....This book is very likely to remain the starting point for any study of Kongo Christian art, and an important contribution to the understanding of its Christian history.--Social Sciences and Missions

Review

Swords, crosses, caps, red sashes, pendants, and staffs whirled across the sacred landscape of early Kongo in celebration and service of a new Christianity. This book masterfully depicts the blended visual and material world that elite Kongolese created as they shaped their encounter with Catholic Europe and forged a place for themselves in a global Christendom. Kongo Christianity appears here for the first time as a highly innovative, aesthetic practice that rewove connections between life and death, king and people, kingdom and world.--Catherine A. Molineux, Vanderbilt University

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00ZVF5YDW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Omohundro Institute and UNC Press (December 19, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 19, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 19297 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 294 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1469641240
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 23 ratings

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Cecile Fromont

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
23 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Prince of Peace
5.0 out of 5 stars A step into Ancient Kongo
Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2015
Verified Purchase
Got this book for an African Religions class. It is a very well written book that shows the rise of military civilization within the Kongo. It discusses the impact of the influence of Christianity on the Kongolese culture. There is a heavy influence of militarism within the historical narrative of the cross sectional between European and African culture intersecting in the region. It is laden with intense visual imagery. The central figure that is focused upon in the text is The Christian Prince Afonso who basically performs famicide, all the while claiming to have amazing spiritual experiences with what is claimed to be the Divine.
7 people found this helpful
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Edward E. Curtis IV
5.0 out of 5 stars Raboteau Award Winner!
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2018
This book depicts an indigenous African Christian religious culture by revealing new information on its many aesthetic forms. It shows how Kongo was part of the Black Atlantic as well. The book won the Albert J. Raboteau Prize for a Best Book in Africana Religions administered by the Journal of Africana Religions.
2 people found this helpful
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Novah
4.0 out of 5 stars Actually, when I ordered the book I did not ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2018
Verified Purchase
Actually, when I ordered the book I did not take the "Art" of conversion literally but was it quite interesting to learn of how the art influenced the change in Kongo.
One person found this helpful
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Dar Tavisa
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2015
A terrific work that contextualizes questions of art and conversion from both inside and out.
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Top reviews from other countries

Manuela
5.0 out of 5 stars The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
It arrived on time and in very good condition. It's a great book, a pleasure to read and to look at. Very useful for my academic and literary purposes.
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JP
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 4, 2015
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The first authoritative account of the impact of Christianity on an African civilisation
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OBIANG
3.0 out of 5 stars Book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 13, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book is about the Congo ancient history. It was an okay book. Could have been much much much better.
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