Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

[xiii.b] Christianity eventually became a largely European religion after the conversion of the Roman empire and its ‘barbarian’ successors (but cf. Asia, Christianity in; Eastern orthodox church). Islam soon barred access to the East (cf. Crusades). Subsequent missionary history is related to (without being wholly determined by) European trade and colonialism. Thus 16th-century Spanish, Portuguese and French expansion, as well as Counter-reformation zeal, encouraged missions to the Americas and Asia. Protestantism, struggling for survival (and perhaps inhibited theologically by the doctrine of predestination (Calvinism)), lagged behind. The dramatic 19th-century development of Protestant missions relates to British colonial expansion, but even more to energies released by the Evangelical Revival (see Revivalism). The missions of Roman catholicism also revived. Missions made Christianity a world religion, while revealing its limitations. Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism (see Confucius) and in particular Islam proved culturally and religiously resistant to it; African religions much less so. Missionaries (especially Protestants) were reluctant to accommodate to other religions, looked down on non-Western cultures and were slow to create churches independent of European control. Independence was accelerated by the shock of decolonization after 1945 and by communism in China. The major ... log in or subscribe to read full text