Skip to main content

Religions: Missionary and Non-missionary

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Problematizing Religious Freedom

Part of the book series: Studies in Global Justice ((JUST,volume 9))

Abstract

World religions, as a category in the study of religion, could be further disaggregated into missionary religions and non-missionary religions. According to this classification Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are usually identified as missionary religions, and the rest as non-missionary religions. This chapter analyzes the implication of this classification for religious freedom, to discover that the concept of religious freedom could have opposite implications for various religions, depending on the category to which they belong. Even secular movements may be capable of being divided into missionary and non-missionary, a fact which emphasizes the significance of this distinction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ayoub, Mahmoud M. 1996. “The Islamic Tradition.” In World Religions: Western Traditions, edited by Willard G. Oxtoby, 354. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Bary, Wm. Theodore et al., ed. 1958. Sources of Indian Tradition. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, John J. 2005. “Conversion.” In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 3, 2nd Edition), edited by Lindsay Jones, 1969. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownlie, Ian. 1992. Basic Documents on Human Rights (3rd Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, T. Patrick. 1996. The Major Religions: An Introduction with Texts. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ching, Julia. 2002 “East Asian Religions.” In World Religions: Western Traditions (2nd Edition), edited by Willard G. Oxtoby, 376–82. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohn, Michael H. 2006. Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eichhorn, Werner. 1967. “Taoism.” In The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, edited by R.C. Zaehner, 401. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glendon, Mary Ann. 2001. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York, NY: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, A.C. 1967. “Confucianism.” In The Concise Encyclopedia of Living Faiths, edited by R.C. Zaehner, 383–84. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzog, Roman. 1999. Preventing the Clash of Civilizations. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, Lindsay (Ed.). 2005. Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 3, 2nd Edition). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, David, John Kelsay, and Abdulaziz A. Sachedina. 1988. Human Rights and the Conflict of Cultures: Western and Islamic Perspectives on Religious Liberty. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahadevan, T.M.P. 1971 [1956]. Outlines of Hinduism. Bombay: Chetana Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, D.H.J. 1970. “Sociology of Religion.” In A Dictionary of Comparative Religion, edited by S.G.F. Brandon, 582–87. New York, NY: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morsink, Johannes. 1999. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting and Intent. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, F. Max. 1875. Chips from a German Workshop. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neill, Stephen C. 2005. “Missions: Christian Missions.” In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 9, 2nd Edition), edited by Lindsay Jones, 6083. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxtoby, Willard G. 1983. The Meaning of Other Faiths. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxtoby, Willard G. 2002a. “The Nature of Religion.” In World Religions: Eastern Traditions (2nd Edition), edited by Willard G. Oxtoby, 450. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxtoby, Willard G. 2002b. “Traditions in Contact.” In World Religions: Eastern Traditions (2nd Edition), edited by Willard G. Oxtoby, 498. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Radhakrishnan, S. 1993 [1927]. The Hindu View of Life. New Delhi: Indus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Segal, Alan. 2002. “The Jewish Tradition.” In World Religions: Western Traditions (2nd Edition), edited by Willard G. Oxtoby, 41–42. Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, Arvind. 1998. The Concept of Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought. Hampshire, MA: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelton, Dinah and Alexandre Kiss. 1996. “A Draft Model on Freedom of Religion, with Commentary.” In Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives, edited by Johan D. van der Vyer and John Witte, 580. The Hague, Boston, MA and London: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stackhouse, Max L. 2005. “Missions: Missionary Activity.” In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 9, 2nd Edition), edited by Lindsay Jones, 6070. Farmington Hills, MJ: Thomson Gale.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stendahl, Krister. 1993. “From God’s Perspective We Are All Minorities.” Journal of Religious Pluralism 2:3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viswanathan, Gauri. 2003. “Colonialism and the Construction of Hinduism.” In The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, edited by Gavin Flood, 41. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walters, Jonathan S. 2005. “Missions: Buddhist Missions.” In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. 9, 2nd Edition), edited by Lindsay Jones, 6077. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arvind Sharma .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Sharma, A. (2012). Religions: Missionary and Non-missionary. In: Problematizing Religious Freedom. Studies in Global Justice, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8993-9_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics