Religious conversion
adoption of religious beliefs
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. This might be from one to another denomination within the same religion, for example, from Protestant Christianity to Roman Catholicism or from Shi'a Islam to Sunni Islam. In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals".
People convert to a different religion for various reasons, including active conversion by free choice due to a change in beliefs, secondary conversion, deathbed conversion, conversion for convenience, marital conversion, and forced conversion. Religious conversion can also be driven by practical considerations. Historically, people have converted to evade taxes, to escape military service or to gain political representation.
Proselytism is the act of attempting to convert by persuasion another individual from a different religion or belief system. Apostate is a term used by members of a religion or denomination to refer to someone who has left that religion or denomination.
Religion and proselytization
The religions of the world are divided into two groups: those that actively seek new followers (missionary religions) and those that do not (non-missionary religions).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Religious conversion” is adoption of religious beliefs. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Religious, conversion and adoption, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q814997. The Library of Congress control number is sh85031702. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Religious conversion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.