In the early modern period – roughly from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries –Christianity, Islam, and, to a lesser extent, Buddhism, exhibited extraordinary dynamism, penetrating regions they had never reached before, winning millions of new adherents, and coming to merit the name of “world religions.” The church could not compete with Islam in the interior of Africa or with Buddhism in inner Asia. As a rival to those religions, however, Christianity had one big advantage: its adherents carried it by sea. They could outflank Islam in Africa and dodge the forests, reaching directly deep into the tropics via the coasts. They could scatter missions and footholds around the Indian Ocean and maritime Asia, whereas Buddhists and Muslims could not respond by sending expeditions to Europe, or communicate directly with the vast new mission fields in which Christian evangelists were working in the New World.
Early Modern Missions and Maritime Expansion
2016-05-03
11 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
early modern , Franciscans , missions , evangelization , Jesuits , Americas , maritime expansion , Roman Catholicism , Asia , Africa
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