Religion in Early Modern Societies

I never paid close attention to how religion has impacted our world. Growing up my parents taught my siblings and I the rituals of Buddhism, but they never really explained what we were doing, so I wouldn’t count myself as Buddhist. Then a friend of my introduced me to Christianity, although I don’t know much about the practices of Christians, I do know a lot more than what my parents taught me. With that said, it was interesting to see how differently Christianity spread from Spanish American and in China. In Spanish America, the citizens didn’t have a choice as to whether or not they were going to convert. The Missionaries took over and forced the Spanish Americans to convert. If I were the Spanish Americans, I would have thrown a fit. It must have been horrifying to see outsiders come into their land and just start knocking over their idols and religious images.

            While the missionaries in Spanish America was busy taking over the citizens of Spanish America, the missionaries in China were trying to become one with the Chinese. Missionaries in China knew they had to play it smart because the Chinese would not just give in to such new teachings. I think it would have been interesting to read more accounts of how the missionaries in China assimilated into Chinese cultures just to spread Christianity.  While reading about how the missionaries tried to assimilate into Chinese culture, I started to wonder how long it took them to learn how to read and write in Chinese. It must not have been easy to leave home and try to be part of a new culture.