A missionary is traditionally defined as a propagator of religion who works to convert those outside that community; someone who proselytizes. While some faiths like Judaism, Mandaeism, Hinduism, Parsees, or those focused on ancestor cult or local spirits, as in Animism and Shintoism make little or no effort to spread beyond their ethno-cultural home societies, many religious groups engage in missionary activities.
The word "missionary" is derived from Latin missio 'sending', the equivalent of the Greek-derived word apostle "messenger". In predominantly Judeo-Christian cultures and their languages, such as English, the term is most commonly used for missions to propagate Biblical faiths, but it applies just as well to any proselytizing creed or ideology. Buddhism, in fact, launched 'the first large-scale missionary effort in the history of the world's religions' (Foltz, R.C., Religions of the silk road, 1999, p.37).
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Main articles: Mission (Christian) and List of Christian Missionaries |
Since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, a widely accepted Protestant definition of a Christian mission has been "to form a viable indigenous church-planting movement." Recognizing justice as being at the heart of the Gospels, most modern missionaries now promote economic development, literacy, education and [[health care]. Missionaries have established orphanages and also promote education in political consciousness and analysis.
Biblical authority for missions appears first in Genesis, 12:1-3, where Abram is blessed so that through him and his descendants, all the "peoples" of the world would be blessed. The Great Commission was first given by Jesus Christ in all four Gospels: Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-18, Luke 24:46-49, and John 20:21-23. The Great Commission is also given in Acts 1:8. The most compelling verse to many is found in the New Testament, where Jesus instructs the apostles to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). This reference is understood by Christian missionaries as the Great Commission to engage in missionary work.
The New Testament missionary outreach of the Christian church from the time of St Paul was extensive throughout the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages the Christian monasteries and missionaries such as Saint Patrick, Saint Boniface and Adalbert of Prague propagated learning and religion beyond the boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In the 7th century Gregory the Great sent missionaries including Augustine of Canterbury into England. During the Age of Discovery, the Roman Catholic Church established a number of Missions in the Americas and other colonies through the Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans in order to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the Native Americans and other indigenous people. At the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans were moving into Asia and the far East. The Portuguese sent missions into Africa. These are some of the most well-known missions in history. While some of these missions were associated with imperialism and oppression, others (notably Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China) were relatively peaceful and focused on integration rather than cultural imperialism.
Much contemporary Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since the Second Vatican Council, and has become explicitly conscious of Social Justice issues and the dangers of cultural imperialism or economic exploitation disguised as religious conversion. Contemporary Christian missionaries argue that working for justice is a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel, and observe the principles of Inculturation in their missionary work.
As the church normally organizes itself along territorial lines, and because they had the human and material resources, religious orders, some even specializing in it, undertook most missionary work, especially in the early phases. Over time a normalised church structure was gradually established in the mission area, often starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures and apostolic vicariates. These developing churches eventually intended 'graduating' to regular diocesan status with a local episcopacy appointed, especially after declonization, as the church sructures often reflect the political-administrative reality.
The Greek Orthodox Church and then the Orthodox Church of Constantinople was vigorous in its missionary outreach under the Roman Empire and continuing Byzantine Empire, and its missionary outreach had lasting effect, either founding, influencing or establishing formal relations with some 16 Orthodox national churches including the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (both said to have been founded by the missionary Apostle Andrew), the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (said to have been founded by the missionary Apostle Paul). The two ninth century saints Cyril and Methodius had extensive missionary success in Eastern Europe. The Byzantines expanded their missionary work in the Ukraine after a mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans before the eleventh century. Orthodox missionaries also worked successfully among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries founding the Estonian Orthodox Church.
Under the Russian empire of the 19th century, missionaries such as Nicholas Ilminsky moved into the subject lands and propagated Orthodoxy, including through Belarus, Latvia, Moldavia, Finland, Estonia, the Ukraine, and China. The Russian St. Nicholas of Japan took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century. The Russian Orthodox Church also sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century, including Saint Herman of Alaska, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia continued missionary work outside Russia after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The Danish government included Lutheran missionaries among the colonists in many of its colonies, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar India in the late 17th Century. But the first organized Protestant mission work was carried out beginning in 1732 by the Moravian Brethren of Herrnhut in Saxony Germany(die evangelische Brüdergemeine). While on a visit in 1732 to Copenhagen for the coronation of his cousin King Christian VI the Moravians' patron, Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf got to know a slave from the Danish colony in the West Indies. When he returned to Herrnhut with the slave, he inspired the inhabitants of the village--it was fewer than 30 houses then---to send out "messengers" to the slaves in the West Indies. The first missionaries landed in St. Thomas in December, 1732. Work soon was started in another Danish colony, Greenland. Within 30 years there were Moravian missionaries active on every continent, and this at a time when there were fewer than 300 people in Herrnhut. They are famous for their selfless work, living as slaves among the slaves and together with the native Americans, the Delaware and Cherokee Indian tribes. Today the work in the former mission provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church is carried on by native workers. The fastest growing area of the work in Tanzania in Eastern Africa. The Moravian work in South Africa inspired William Carey and the founders of the British Baptist missions. Today 7 of every 10 Moravians are in a former mission field and belong to a race other than Caucasian.
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Main articles: London Missionary Society, Church Missionary Society, and China Inland Mission |
The London Missionary Society was an extensive Anglican and Nonconformist missionary society formed in England in 1795 with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa. It now forms part of the Council for World Mission. The Anglican Church Missionary Society was also founded in England in 1799, and continues its work today. These organisations spread through the extensive 18th and 19th century colonial British Empire, establishing the network of churches that largely became the modern Anglican Communion.
With a dramatic increase in efforts since the 1900s, but a strong push since the Lausanne I: The International Congress on World Evangelization in Switzerland in 1974, [1] evangelical groups have focused efforts on sending missionaries to every ethnic group in the world. While this effort has not been completed, increased attention has brought larger numbers of people distributing Bibles, Jesus videos, and establishing evangelical churches in more remote, less Christianized areas.
Internationally, the focus for many years in the later 20th century was on reaching every "people group" with the Christianity by the year 2000. Bill Bright's leadership with Campus Crusade www.ccci.org, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board www.imb.org, The Joshua Project http://www.joshuaproject.net/, and others brought about the need to know who these "unreached people groups are" and how those wanting to tell about a Christian God and share a Christian Bible could reach them. The focus for these organizations transitioned from a "country focus" to a "people group focus." (From: What is a People Group? Dr. Orville Boyd Jenkins A "people group" is an ethnolinguistic group with a common self-identity that is shared by the various members. There are two parts to that word: ethno and linguistic. Language is a primary and dominant identifying factor of a people group. But there are other factors that determine or are associated with ethnicity.)
What can be viewed as a success by those inside and outside the church from this focus is a higher level of cooperation and friendliness among churches and denominations. It is very common for those working on international fields to not only cooperate in efforts to share their gospel message but view the work of their groups in a similar light. Also, with the increased study and awareness of different people groups, western mission efforts have become far more sensitive to the cultural nuances of those they are going to and those they are working with in the effort.
Over the years, as indigenous churches have matured, the church of the "Global South" (Africa, Asia and Latin America) has become the driving force in missions. Korean and African missionaries can now be found all over the world. Unburdened by Western cultural blindspots, these missionaries represent a major shift in Church history.
Brazil, Nigeria and other countries have had large numbers of their Christian adherents go to other countries and start churches. These non-western missionaries often have unparalleled success because they need few western resources and comforts to sustain their livelihood while doing the work they have chosen among a new culture and people.
The Burning Cross is a website that documents a different story about missionaries historically, especially Christian missionaries.
christianaggression.org, an Indian site explains:
Another source of animosity regarding missionaries in the third world is the charge that the aid that comes in response to various world disasters comes with a hitch: convert and we'll help you out. While there is a general agreement among some aid organizations not to mix aid with proseltyzing others see disasters as a means to spread the word. Innovative Minds, a software company "specialising in the application of internet and multimedia technology for promoting a better understanding of Islam in the west" has written a report Missionaries Preying on Tsunami Survivors about just such an occurrence, the tidal wave (tsunami) that devastated parts of Asia on December 26, 2004.
The Christian Science Monitor echoes these concerns in Disaster Aid Furthers Fears of Proselytizing, "'I think evangelists do this out of the best intentions, but there is a responsibility to try to understand other faith groups and their culture,' says Vince Isner, director of FaithfulAmerica.org, a program of the National Council of Churches USA"
The Bush administration has in fact recently made it easier for U.S. faith based groups and missionary societies to tie aid and church together.
One Christian organization, Voice of the Martyrs, in contrast to these reports of Christian aggression, claims that it is Christians, not Indians, that are the recipients of violent aggression in India from from "radical Hindus" (presumably Hindu Nationalists). They maintain that "false reports" of forced conversion are a key weapon in the Hindu Nationalist fight against both Christian missionaries and native-born Christian Indians (this despite the fact that Hindu Nationalists such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh frequently cooperate with Christian groups in times of natural disaster[5] and have a good relationship with many Catholic organizations overall). The government in India has passed anti-conversion laws in several states that are meant to prevent conversions from "force or allurement", but are primarily used, they say, to persecute and criminalize voluntary conversion due to the government's broad definition of "force and allurement." Any gift received from a Christian is considered allurement. V.O.M. reports that aid-workers claim that they are being hindered from reaching people with much needed services as a result of this persecution. [6] (citation requires anonymous creation of a username and password account to be able to view.). The governments of the affected states maintain that most conversions undertaken by zealous evangelicals occur due to force, inducement or fraud [1][2]. In the Indian state of Tripura, the government has announced financial and weapons-smuggling connections between Baptist missionaries and Christian terrorist groups like the Nagaland Rebels and the National Liberation Front of Tripura[7]. Hindus have claimed that these organizations persecute [8] and slaughter Hindus by the thousands.[9]
Interestingly the Vatican itself is, of late, taking a somewhat different view toward proselytizing. "In mid-May, the Vatican was also co-sponsoring a meeting about how some religious groups abuse liberties by proselytizing, or by evangelizing in aggressive or deceptive ways. Iraq ... has become an open field for foreigners looking for fresh converts. Some Catholic Church leaders and aid organizations have expressed concern about new Christian groups coming in and luring Iraqis to their churches with offers of cash, clothing, food or jobs.... Reports of aggressive proselytism and reportedly forced conversions in mostly Hindu India have fueled religious tensions and violence there and have prompted some regional governments to pass laws banning proselytism or religious conversion.... Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya, a Hindu monk from southern India, told CNS that India's poor and uneducated are especially vulnerable to coercive or deceptive methods of evangelization.... Aid work must not hide any ulterior motives and avoid exploiting vulnerable people like children and the disabled, she said." Legislating conversions: Weighing the message vs. the person. In an interview with Outlook Magazine, Sadhvi Vrnda Chaitanya said "If the Vatican could understand that every religious and spiritual tradition is as sacred as Christianity, and that they have a right to exist without being denigrated or extinguished, it will greatly serve the interests of dialogue, mutual respect, and peaceful coexistence." [10]
The meeting of religious leaders from the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, Judaism and Yoruba faiths resulted in an agreement on ten points about proseltyzation, notably that if done, it be with respect for other cultures [11].
See also the books:
Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide
The Missionaries: God Against the Indians
The Dark Side of Christian History
The movie The Mosquito Coast with Harrison Ford depicts this missionary mindset and the damage it reeks upon native peoples. Another movie, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen tells of similar destruction to the Inuit culture.
Jehovah's Witnesses are known for their missionary activities. Typically, all adult Witnesses are expected to spend time every week "witnessing" in their area. Depending on the civil law in the respective country, this may take the form of proselytizing door to door, distribution of magazines and other literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! or responding to the questions of passersby.
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Main article: Mormon missionary |
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work. Young men between the ages of 19 and 26 (ideally beginning at the age of 19) are encouraged to go on a two-year, self-funded, full-time proselytizing mission. During this time, they are expected to maintain the highest moral standards of living. The two-year mission is usually served in a foreign country or different area of the country from where the missionary lives. Young women and retired couples may serve missions as well. Young women who desire to serve as missionaries serve at an older age, usually 21-22. Missionaries typically spend one to two months in the Missionary Training Center (MTC) in Provo, Utah, or in other MTCs throughout the world, studying scripture, learning new languages, and otherwise preparing themselves for the culture in which they will be living. The LDS church has about 52,000 missionaries worldwide. [12]
Dawah means to "invite" (in Arabic) to Islam, the second largest religion next to Christianity. From the 7th century it spread rapidly from the Arabian Peninsula with explorers, traders and caravans after the death of the prophet Muhammad.
Political leaders (originally the Caliphs, meant to head both religion and the universal Islamic community) actively and often aggressively spread their rule, thus spreading a wider Muslim social order. To those ends many waged holy wars (the military application of jihad 'by the sword', jihad bis said) against non-Muslim states, or even declared a war holy against 'heretical' Muslims. For example, the Islamic conquest of the Indian subcontinent proceeded through the 7th to 12th centuries.
In some Muslim states, other creeds were treated as a protected minority, such as the millets in the Ottoman empire and even the Hindu majority in 'Hind'(ustan) of the Mughal Empire - as long as they accepted Muslim rule, refrained from public worship and paid a tax called jizya. While these state actions certainly went further than strictly missionary activity, they served as a great aid in converting conquered lands. Once state authority was wrested from the Dar al-Harb (land of war) to the Dar al-Islam (land of Islam), Islamic rulers such as in the Balkans under the Ottoman Empire were relatively accommodating for non-Muslims, especially the people of the book" (Christians and Jews) - despite the controversial devshirme recruitment of Janissary troops under the Ottomans.
Islam moved into Europe, Africa and Southern Asia through explorers and later Arab generals, sometimes resulting in both small conflicts and larger battles like the Battle of Kosovo in 1448, the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the 1456 Siege of Belgrade and the Siege of Vienna in 1529.
However, once the political expansion, "planting the green banner of faith" had met its limits, the focus had to shift from the "integral" model of Islamizing whole communities, to voluntary conversion drives, or "dawah", which had always been important.
Since the 20th century, funding by Muslim governments was used to open Islamic schools and mosques. Generous donations, especially from Gulf States, has enabled Islam to make significant advances, especially in Africa.
A Muslim missionary is often called a Caller to Islam which is the English adaptation of the Arabic word Da`ee or Da'i for one who proselytises for Islam.
See a List of callers to Islam for prominent Da`ees.
Despite some uncharacteristic inter-Testamental Jewish missionary activity, contemporary Judaism states clearly that it is not missionary, and conversion occurs chiefly through marriage of non-Jews to Jews.
Modern Jewish teachers repudiate proselytization of Gentiles in order to convert them. The reason for this is that Gentiles already have a complete relationship with God via the Noahidic covenant (See Noahide Laws); there is therefore no need for them to become Jewish, which requires more work of them. In addition, Judaism espouses a concept of "quality" not "quantity". It is more important in the eyes of Jews to have converts who are completely committed to observing Jewish law, than to have converts who will violate the Abrahamic covenant into which they have been initiated.
On the other hand, most Jewish religious groups encourage "Outreach" to Jews alienated from their own heritage owing to assimilation and intermarriage. The overall movement encourages Jews to become more observant of Jewish religious law (known as halakha). Those people who do become religious are known as Baal teshuvas. The large Hasidic group known as Chabad Lubavitch has internationally promoted such "outreach." Others, such as the National Jewish Outreach Program do the same in North America.
In recent times, members of the American Reform movement began a program to convert to Judaism the non-Jewish spouses of its intermarried members and non-Jews who have an interest in Judaism. Their rationale is that so many Jews were lost during the Holocaust that newcomers must be sought out and welcomed. This approach has been repudiated by Orthodox and Conservative Jews as unrealistic and posing a danger. They say that these efforts make Judaism seem an easy religion to join and observe when in reality being Jewish involves many difficulties and sacrifices.
The first missions in history were sent by the Dharmic religions, in particular, Buddhism, have a history of successful missions from India, where they originated, and some branches still are very active, as well as various related syncretisms.
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Main article: Buddhism in the West |
The first Buddhist missionaries were called "Dharma Bhanaks". The Emperor Ashoka was a significant early Buddhist missioner. In the 3rd century BCE, Dharmaraksita - among others - was sent out by emperor Ashoka to proselytize the Buddhist tradition through the Indian Maurya Empire, but also into the Mediterranean as far as Greece. Buddhism was spread among the Turkic people during the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. into modern-day Pakistan, Kashmir, Afghanistan, eastern and coastal Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. It was also taken into China brought by An Shigao in the 2nd century BCE.
The use of missions, formation of councils and monastic institutions influenced the emergence of Christian missions and organizations which had similar structures formed in places which were formerly Buddhist missions.
Duiring the 19th and 20th centuries, Western intellectuals such as Schopenhauer, Henry David Thoreau, Max Müller and esoteric societies such as the Theosophical Society of H.P. Blavatsky and the Buddhist Society, London spread interest in Buddhism. Writers such as Hermann Hesse and Jack Kerouac, in the West, and the hippie generation of the late 1960s and early 1970s led to a re-discovery of Buddhism. During the 20th and 21st centuries Buddhism has again been propagated by missionaries into the West such as the Dalai Lama and monks including Lama Surya Das (Tibetan Buddhism). Tibetan Buddhism has been significantly active and successful in the West since the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959.
The original meaning of the word "missionary" is not specifically religious, but refers instead to anyone who attempts to convert others to a particular doctrine or program.