three large missionary religions, plus two more?

Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism are the three large missionary religions, in order of which is most recent.

Give me two other actual religions or possible religions which could have become just as large.
 
Confucianism isn't exactly a 'religion', and Taoism's very nature (letting Nature follow its own path, essentially) isn't conducive to missionary work.

I think Zoroastrianism and Hinduism are probably the main contenders. Manichaeism is also a distinct possibility, insofar that it was different from Christianity.
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
Someone on here brought Manichaeism to my attention, the founder Mani undertook his own missionary work of sorts, forming a foundation for a proselytizing religion if it got going.
 
Hinduism, or rather, branches thereof, were historically known to have engaged in active missionary work. I would imagine that when Hinduism and Buddhism were actively competing with one another, during the resurgence of Hinduism in India (absorbing some aspects of Buddhism and becoming more closely aligned with Hinduism as we know it today), this would have been especially so.
 
Someone on here brought Manichaeism to my attention, the founder Mani undertook his own missionary work of sorts, forming a foundation for a proselytizing religion if it got going.

Yes - heavily influential, but not "evangelical" by any means. Many of its strong philosophical members during the 4th and 5th centuries took a Gnostic approach in regard to what they taught and learned however, i.e. "we're on the "inside" and you're on the "outside" and we'd like to keep it that way" kind of deal.
 
At the time of Christ, Judaism was very proselytizing.

If they continued that, and if Christianity were less successful for som reason, you could have Judaism being one.

Obviously, a PoD that far back butterflies Islam, so maybe this doesnt quite meet the challenge.
 
Pretty much all religions widespread religions went through a missionary phase at some point, even if it's only missionary activity within a tribe. Otherwise it's really hard to get a lasting religion going with only the descendants of the original prophet.

So the easiest is probably to take a major religion and keep it missionary. Many religions today that are mostly ethnic (e.g. Judaism) were previously missionary, but got constrained by a more powerful/dominant missionary religion (trying to convert Christians to Judaism became unhealthy when the Christian authorities might retaliate).

Another option is to create an offshoot of one of the big 3; in the same way that Christianity split off from Judaism, a branch of one of these religions that was sufficiently different from the rest might become a missionary religion in its own right (Mormonism is the closest here; find some way for an LDS-like movement to reject the "Christian" label because they view mainstream Christianity as too corrupt/flawed, while keeping the strong missionary impulse).
 
. . . Manichaeism is also a distinct possibility, insofar that it was different from Christianity.
It's kind of hard to believe that from 300 AD to 1300, there was this major religion. And I think Manichaeism believes that good and evil are approximately equal powers in the universe.
 
If Manichaeism had retained it's missionary streak it could have outpaced the wave of persecutions that wiped it out.

Zoroastrianism is another candidate, if they had an equivalent of a 'Great Revival' in the later centuries and sent missionaries to places like Africa and the Far East...
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
Maybe Scientology is much more successful somehow

IMO Scientology is too exclusive and insular. Although most religions have cult-like aspects, scientology is especially so, it requires a huge amount of focus on each individual member, and a structure whereby all members are closely watched, they are even alleged to be imprisoned in some scientology bases. Like all other cults, this model is limited (although you could argue Juche or other State Religions or Cults of Personality fit the description I suppose, but that requires absolute control over an entire nation). In the New Age I think a likely candidate would be the Unification Church, which claims millions of members Worldwide but likely has around 100,000, compared to an estimated 40,000 for Scientology (who claim a following of 10 million).
 
Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism are the three large missionary religions, in order of which is most recent.

Give me two other actual religions or possible religions which could have become just as large.

Eh? Hinduism is already twice as large as Buddhism.
 
Eh? Hinduism is already twice as large as Buddhism.
Point well taken. And because of a relatively young population, India is expected to soon have more people than China, at least in the relative near future.

All the same, I am looking for a religion which has been adopted by a number of different cultures. Although on thinking about it . . . since India itself has a number of different cultures, maybe Hinduism does meet the challenge.
 

Morty Vicar

Banned
Point well taken. And because of a relatively young population, India is expected to soon have more people than China, at least in the relative near future.

All the same, I am looking for a religion which has been adopted by a number of different cultures. Although on thinking about it . . . since India itself has a number of different cultures, maybe Hinduism does meet the challenge.

I took the OP to imply a widespread religion as much as anything. Hinduism is largely confined to India, but Indian emigrants and slaves were to be found all over the British Empire. Maybe you can get a lasting Hindu population in South Africa among the 'coloreds' or in Uganda perhaps.
 
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