Doing the Paperwork

Abstract

Changing faith in early modern Europe created a significant amount of paperwork. Converts narrated their stories on numerous pages and thus (re)wrote their religious lives. Giving detailed insights into their conversion histories, their personal (re)turning to God, they created and exposed themselves in their autobiographical writings. Converts carefully composed conversion narratives to be recognized as “true believers” by their communities. Writing their spiritual autobiographies helped them to re-establish relations with both the world and themselves, which had been lost during their changes of faith. Converts not only fashioned a new self, they also became a new subject. Doing the paperwork was the final step in assuming both a new religious position and a new religious identity.