Religions: Missionary and Non-missionary

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.