MISSIONS, non-Christian. – In the history of religions, a mission is the task entrusted by a person invested with religious authority—either personally as the founder of a religion or delegated by the founder or their legitimate representatives—to specially appointed envoys (missionaries) so that they may spread the message he has proclaimed.
Tribal and national religions do not foster missions because in them religion is the exclusive expression of the group and outsiders are rigorously excluded; indeed, they are always invited to depart at the time of ritual. In contrast, supernational or universal religions, which address individuals beyond the barriers of nation, race, and social status, require missionaries to propagate their message. The major missionary religions are: Christianity (see above), Buddhism, Mazdaism, and Manichaeism.
I. BUDDHISM
Following the example of the founder, who went about preaching his doctrine amid the contradictions of northern India, monks streamed forth from Buddhist monasteries into eastern Asia (China, Korea, Japan) and central Asia (Tibet and Mongolia), bringing a religious current (Mahayana) more suited to the understanding of the masses, while in southern India and in Burma, Siam, and Ceylon the preaching that prevailed was more closely aligned with original Buddhism (Hinayana).In China, Buddhism entered in 67 AD with a mission led by the monks Kāśyapa, Māṭana, and Dharmarakṣa, who brought statues of the Buddha and sacred scriptures that were later translated into Chinese in 148.
In 374, Buddhist missionaries from China crossed into Korea, whence in 538 the king of that country sent a special mission to Japan, where it was well received by Prince Shōtoku (d. 622) because of the higher civil and moral character of its message in contrast to the animistic feudalism of Japan. From the 9th century onward, Buddhism took on a life of its own in Japan, partly merging with Shinto, the indigenous religion of the land (riobu-shinto = bilateral Shinto), until in 1868 it was officially, though unsuccessfully, suppressed in favor of the indigenous religion (see SHINTO).
In Tibet, the first appearance of Buddhism was due to the marriage of Prince Srong-btsan Gampo (d. 698) to a Chinese Buddhist princess. Its greatest diffusion occurred in the 8th century through the monk Padma Sambhava, and in the 15th century it assumed a more strictly hierarchical form through the monk Tsong-kha-pa (d. 1417; see LAMAISM).
II. MAZDAISM
This too had its missionaries, who under the Sassanid dynasty (224–651) reached as far as China. The fall of the dynasty before the Muslim invasion of Persia caused the dispersal of this religion, whose survivors now live in a prosperous but restricted community of 100,000 faithful in Bombay.III. MANICHAEISM
It spread through missions organized by Mani himself and reached Egypt, Africa, Rome (3rd century), Gaul and Spain (4th century), and in the East as far as India, Turfan, and Mongolia (discoveries at Turfan and Kan-su). Active survivals remained in medieval Europe in the sects of the Cathars, the Albigensians, the Bogomils (Balkans), and the Paulicians (Anatolia).There is also unorganized missionary proselytism carried out on an individual basis. This was the case with the Jews in the Hellenistic diaspora and with the adherents of the various mystery religions (Isis, Mithras, the Syrian Goddess) who lived in the commercial, rural, and military centers of the Empire.
Islam has no priests and has spread through military conquest and the material advantages offered to converted populations; it extended into Syria, Egypt, and then into Mesopotamia, Turfan, India, China, and Malaysia. Its diffusion in centers of lower culture was also due to individual action, since Islam lacks any missionary organization.