Voluntarism and Coercion

What is it about?

Traditional scholarship on the Franciscan missions in California in the 18th and 19th centuries have tended to adopt strongly apologetic or critical positions, either highlighting or seeking to discount the Franciscans’ use of physical coercion and violence towards indigenous peoples. This paper argues not only that the Franciscans used both coercive and voluntaristic strategies in how they interacted with indigenous peoples, but also that these strategies were used in complementation to each other without any perceived contradictions on the part of the Franciscans. By distinguishing outsiders from insiders of the faith, Franciscans saw indigenous people through different lenses before and after conversion and adapted their behaviors accordingly. The use of these group "boundaries" that favor conversions into but disfavor conversions out of the group provides important ways to reflect on how contemporary Christian missionary activity interacts with not only their anticipated audiences but also international and religious contexts in which they operate.

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