Pragmatic and Liquid Faith: Negotiating Religion as a Resource in Interfaith Marriage and Conversion in Indonesia

Interfaith marriages present unique relational challenges, yet research rarely examines the underlying motivations for religious conversion within these unions. This study addresses this gap by exploring how Indonesian couples navigate conversion as a strategy to reconcile legal, familial, and cultural constraints. Guided by an interpretivist paradigm and analyzed through Reflexive Thematic Analysis, qualitative data were drawn from six interfaith couples (12 individuals) who experienced conversion at the time of marriage. Findings reveal that conversion is often a pragmatic choice rather than a spiritual transformation, driven by external factors such as family pressure, socioeconomic considerations, and administrative requirements. By extending Resource Exchange Theory, this study conceptualizes faith as a negotiable resource—one that individuals strategically exchange to secure marital legitimacy and social acceptance. This theoretical reframing challenges traditional views of religion as a fixed identity and positions it as a dynamic, transactional element within marital negotiations. These insights offer critical implications for scholars and practitioners, highlighting the need to reconceptualize religion in marriage research and informing culturally sensitive interventions for interfaith couples negotiating religious conversion worldwide.