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Evangelization Conversion Proselytism EVANGELIZATION CONVERSION PROSELYTISM _____________________ edited by DRAGAN TODOROVIĆ YUGOSLAV SOCIETY FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION KOMREN SOCIOLOGICAL ENCOUNTERS PUNTA Niš 2004 EVANGELIZATION, CONVERSION, PROSELYTISM YSSSR Anuual – Year XI XI Annual International YSSSR Conference Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism Founder Yugoslav Society for the Scientific Study of Religion – Niš, S&M Editors YSSSR / KSE / PUNTA, Niš Edited by Dragan Todorović Computer Support Đokica Jovanović Cover Design Nebojša Đorđević Illustrations on the Covers Reiser, La vie au grand air , (editions Albin Michel, Paris, 1985) Print PUNTA – Niš Circulation 300 THE BOOK PREPARED AS A PART OF THE PROJECT ROMANI PLACES OF CULT AND CULTURE OF DEATH WHICH RESEARCH TEAM UNDERTAKES FOR OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE (PROGRAM ROMA CULTURE IN CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE – Budapest) CONTENTS 1 From Missionaring to Proselytism (Conceptual Differentiation, Historical Survey and Indications of Future Perspectives) 5 Dragan Todorović 2 Religious Conflicts in the Modern Society 29 Danijela Gavrilović 3 Relations Between Christians and Muslims (The Case of Balkan) 33 Ivan Cvitković 4 Evangelization and Proselytism at the Orthodox Christian Theology 41 Ivica Živković 5 Perceptions of Religious Conversion in the Formation of the Serbian National Consciousness 49 Bojan Aleksov 6 Canonic Disputes or Clerical-political Proselytism: Relations Between Serbian, Macedonian and Montenegrin Orthodox Churches 55 Bogdan Đurović 7 Remarks on the Roman Catholics of the Byzantine Ritual 61 Mirko Vid Mlakar 8 Is Conversion Result of Church Missionary Work or Proselytism? 67 Zorica Kuburić 9 Evangelization, Conversion, Proselytism: Example of Romas’ Protestantization 75 Dragoljub B. Đorđević 10 Possibilities for Changes in Roma Confessional Matrix in the Republic of Macedonia 83 Ruzica Cacanoska 11 The “Turkish Gypsies” in Bulgaria and their New Religious Identiti 87 Magdalena Slavkova Notes on the Contributors WE ARE THANKFUL FOR THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THE FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR HUMAN AND MINORITY RIGHTS AND THE MINISTRY OF FAITHS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA UDK 316 : 2 161.14 : 2-76/-767 2-67(497)(091) Dragan Todorović FROM MISSIONARING TO PROSELYTISM (Conceptual Differentiation, Historical Survey and Indications of Future Perspectives) * Introduction Any consideration of the process of ethno-cultural separation or coming to- gether of different religious and ethnic communities inevitably involves a complex scheme of evangelization, conversion and proselytism that has evidently been ne- glected in the domestic sociology of religion and even in theological disciplines. “A modern department store of religion and spirituality”, as E. Barker would call it, made the population of the Balkan societies in transition face religious pluralism, that is, the demand for peaceful co-existence of the traditional and the alternative religious structures. This encounter has actually launched a two-way process, namely, on one hand, there is diverse and controversial acceptance of religious inno- vations on the part of the believers (i. e., deeply devoted and traditional believers), and, on the other hand, the same ones are being transformed into objects of intensi- fied influence of minority and, especially, new religions. Hence, in the whole whirl- pool of the relations among religions of the minorities and minority historical and un-historical beliefs, traditional religions and new religious movements, a problem of evangelization, conversion and proselytism inevitably opens up. The paper first discusses the understanding of the crucial concepts, namely, “missionaring”, “conversion” and “proselytism” in domestic and translated layman and theological literature. Further on, we follow a historical development and inter- relations among the traditional religions as well as a chronology of differences in the religious worldviews in the Balkan societies from the Middle Ages till the very end of the twentieth century with a special reference to the territories of the “second” Yugo- slavia. This is followed by making a map of the whole plurality of social and material reasons that favored further spreading of minority and new religions all over the Balkan religious field which was, up to that time, mostly pervaded with the tradi- tional national churches. The paper ends with an analysis of the character of the small religious communities’ religious engagement at the Balkans in the first decade of the new millenium. Missionaring/Evangelization The concept of “missionaring” (lat. missio , errand) has its own internal and external meaning. The internal missionaring implies “the work of the church among its own believers for the sake of keeping and improving their religious and moral life” (Драшковић, 1982: 19); in its external sense it is understood as “an activity of the religious organizations thereby they spread their beliefs among followers of other religions in order to convert them to their religion (Mandić, 1969: 315), “activities of * PREPARED AS A PART OF THE PROJECT “ROMANI PLACES OF CULT AND CULTURE OF DEATH ”, WHICH RESEARCH TEAM UNDERTAKES FOR OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE (PROGRAM ROMA CULTURE IN CENTRAL&EASTERN EUROPE – Budapest). 41 EVANGELIZATION, CONVERSION, PROSELYTISM representatives of a religious community directed to winning over members of other religion” (Cvitković, 1991: 190), “a movement or action for converting infidel, usually non-Christian, backward peoples into Christianity” (Драшковић, 1982: 20) or “a systematic effort to expand Christianity so as to captivate non-Christian peoples by teaching, preaching and social activity” ( Енциклопедија живих религија /Dictionary of Living Religions/ , 1990: 459). The mission is “activity of some reli- gious community” while the missionary is “a person carrying out a religious mission among followers of other religions” (Cvitković, 1991: 189-190). And evangelization in a narrow sense means giving instructions about “the principles and ideas of the Gospels” (Cvitković, 1991: 97) while in its wider meaning it implies “activities of some Christian community among people; conversion to Christianity” (Cvitković, 1991:97), that is, “the process by which the members of a certain nation, namely those that are colonization target, are converted to one of the Christian religions” (Mandić, 1969: 162). The beginnings of the Christian missionaring are related to the personage and deeds of Jesus Christ, that is, missionary journeys and missionary sermon of his disciples and Apostle Paul all over Asia Minor, Greece and Palestine (around 45-58). His message was focused upon the birth of new humanity thanks to the redeeming act of Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected (Dap. 17, 16-34; 1. Corinthians, 1, 18-31; Galatians, 2, 15-3, 14). Early in the second century Christianity reached Britain in the north and the Persian Gulf in the east while the Roman Empire becomes Christian in the fifth century. It reached Slavic peoples in the 9 th and 10 th centuries while between the 7 th and 12 th centuries it expanded to Germany and Scandinavia. The Islam cam- paign and the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in the year of 1453 caused the center of the Roman Catholic mission to cross the Atlantic Ocean: the Spanish got to Central and South America, Portugal reached Brazil while the English and French reached North America. At the same time, the Portuguese reached the Far East thus laying the foundation for further mission spread across Asia. In the seventeenth cen- tury the first Protestant missionary programs developed in India as well as in Chine in early 19 th century ( Енциклопедија живих религија /Dictionary of Living Relig- ions/ , 1990: 459-460). The genuine Christian missionary activity in Asia started as late as the nine- teenth century. It was especially forwarded by the Protestant spirit eager to promote trade activities in the New World together with the spread of education as a means of diverting people from idolatry and superstition. The sermons of the Christian Protestant missionaries among the enlightened layers of the mainstream religious traditions of Asia did not give any significant results mainly due to the fear of reject- ing the former religious confessions while they did have impact on lower social classes and tribal cultures. 1 Following the footsteps of the Protestant missions, the Roman Catholic ones also developed. They set up, among other things, missionary activities and, in addition to religious orders, especially organized widest layer of religious population (for instance, the Society for Expansion of Faith founded in Lyon in 1822). It was also noted that the Orthodox Church, in the mid-nineteenth century, also developed missionary activity, most of all in the Altai Mountains in Central Siberia, in Alaska (that belonged to Russia till 1864) and in Japan. 1 T. Ling (1990: 419) presents statistical data of the German Rheine mission in the region of Batak at Su- matra: “After the first twenty years of missionary activity, up to 1881, the result was 7,500 converts; it the next twenty years it became a mass movement with an inflow of 103,000 of converted natives. Since the Protestant Christian was focused on the conversion of individuals as well as their introduction into the Church as individuals , on principle one for one, such mass movements gave birth to the problems for whose solution Protestantism was not validly equipped”. 6 From Missionaring to Proselytism Conversion Any analysis of the process of ethno-cultural separation or
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