Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group that is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.[1][2]
For other uses, see Missionary (disambiguation).
In the Latin translation of the Bible, Jesus Christ says the word when he sends the disciples into areas and commands them to preach the gospel in his name. The term is most commonly used in reference to Christian missions, but it can also be used in reference to any creed or ideology.[3]
The word mission originated in 1598 when Jesuits, the members of the Society of Jesus sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning 'act of sending' or mittere, meaning 'to send'.[4]
Criticism[edit]
Contact of Christian missionaries with isolated tribes has been asserted as a cause of the extinction of some tribes, such as extinction from infections and even simple diseases such as flu.[89][90] Documented cases of European contact with isolated tribes have shown rapid health deterioration, but this is not specifically linked to missionaries.[91]
Christian missionary work has been criticized as a form of colonialism.[92] Christian missionary thinkers have recognized complicity between colonialism and missions with roots in 'colonial paternalism'.[93]
Some kinds of Christian missionary activity have come under criticism, including concerns about a perceived lack of respect for other cultures.[94] The potential destruction of social structure among the converts has also been a concern. The Huaorani people of Amazonian Ecuador have had a well-documented mixed relation with Evangelical Christian missionaries and the contacts they brought to their communities, criticized by outsiders.
Impact of missions[edit]
A 2020 study by Elena Nikolova and Jakub Polansky replicates Woodberry's analysis[95] using twenty-six alternative democracy measures and extends the time period over which the democracy measures are averaged. These two simple modifications lead to the breakdown of Woodberry's results.[95] Overall, no significant relationship between Protestant missions and the development of democracy can be established.[96]
A 2017 study found that areas of colonial Mexico that had Mendicant missions have higher rates of literacy and educational attainment today than regions that did not have missions.[97] Areas that had Jesuit missions are today indistinct from the areas that had no missions.[97] The study also found that "the share of Catholics is higher in regions where Catholic missions of any kind were a historical present."[97]
A 2016 study found that regions in Sub-Saharan Africa that Protestant missionaries brought printing presses to are today "associated with higher newspaper readership, trust, education, and political participation."[98][99]
Missionaries have also made significant contributions to linguistics and the description and documentation of many languages. "Many languages today exist only in missionary records. More than anywhere else, our knowledge of the native languages in South America has been the product of missionary activity… Without missionary documentation the reclamation [of several languages] would have been completely impossible"[100] "A satisfactory history of linguistics cannot be written before the impressive contribution of missionaries is recognised."[101]
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