{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1469641240?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1469641240","authors":["Cécile Fromont"],"book_id":"9781469641249","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-art-of-conversion-1469641240","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781469641249.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","description":"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 Drawing on an expansive and largely unpublished set of objects, images, and documents, Cécile Fromont examines the advent of Kongo Christian visual culture and traces its development across four centuries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.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781469641249","publication_date":"20170930","publisher":"Omohundro Institute and UNC Press","slug":"the-art-of-conversion","subtitle":"Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo","title":"The Art of Conversion"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"ART015010","confidence_band":"high","label":"African Art History","score":0.8106,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West African History","score":0.7681,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central African History","score":0.7211,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"ART015010","confidence_band":"high","label":"African Art History","score":0.8106,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001050","confidence_band":"medium","label":"West African History","score":0.7681,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Central African History","score":0.7211,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"ART015010","confidence_band":"high","label":"African Art History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS001050","confidence_band":"high","label":"West African History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"REL013000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Religion in the Arts","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"African Art History","score":0.8106,"slug":"african-art-history"},{"label":"West African History","score":0.7681,"slug":"west-african-history"},{"label":"Central African History","score":0.7211,"slug":"central-african-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy African Art History","Good for readers interested in african","Good for fans of Africa"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Stith Thompson","Sidney Littlefield Kasfir"],"book_id":"9780253219220","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780253219220.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":15.1629,"title":"African Art and the Colonial Encounter","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780253219220"},{"authors":["Chanté McCormick","Susan Williams","PublicAffairs"],"book_id":"9781541768307","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781541768307.jpg?v=20260417T204117Z-pairingsrefresh%3A2026-04-17T20%3A41%3A17Z","score":13.6092,"title":"White Malice","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781541768307"},{"authors":["James Ciment","James D. 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