Voluntarism and Coercion

Research on Franciscan missionaries in California has traditionally either emphasized or excused their use of physical violence on indigenous people. This paper adopts a “boundaries” approach to highlight and explain how Franciscans were able to both advocate for and eschew physical coercion on the same target audience without any perceived contradiction. The paper argues that unidirectional group boundaries, often mundane and unproblematic, may, in some instances, validate a paradoxical combination of external voluntarism and internal coercion when employed institutionally. The study concludes with a discussion of the relevance of these theoretical concepts to religion and coercion in contemporary society.