Читать книгу The Atlas of Religion - Joanne O'Brien - Страница 16

In the 3rd century BCE, the Emperor Ashoka, whose empire covered most of present-day India and Pakistan, sent out missionaries to spread the Buddhist teachings from Sri Lanka to Egypt. Prior to this, religions appear to have been ethnically or culturally based, with no principle of seeking to convert others to a different way of life. The rise of the missionary ushered in a new world of international religions. By the 1st century BCE, Judaism had become a missionary religion, and from it sprang the two most successful missionary religions in history: Christianity in the 1st century CE and Islam in the 7th century. The European trading nations brought about the next major change. From 1450 onwards, Portugal, Spain, England and the Netherlands followed new sea routes both westwards, to

Americas, and eastward to Asia, because Islam was blocking the old trade routes through the Middle East. This is why southern Africa, the Americas, Australasia and the Pacific islands are now largely Christian. Russia, similarly avoiding Islamic countries, expanded across Siberia and arrived north of China in the late 17th century.