什麼是基督教國外傳教事業

指有組織的宣傳基督教教義的運動。使徒聖保羅把福音傳到小亞細亞和希臘很多地方，這種新興宗教迅速沿着羅馬帝國的商道傳播開來。西元500年後基督教推進的步伐隨着羅馬帝國的瓦解和7～8世紀的阿拉伯人力量的增強而放慢，但塞爾特和英格蘭傳教士繼續在西歐和北歐傳播信仰，同時君士坦丁堡的希臘教會的傳教士在東歐和俄國發展。對伊斯蘭地區和東方諸國的傳教事業始於中世紀，並且當16世紀西班牙、葡萄牙和法國建立起海外帝國時，羅馬天主教會將傳教士派到美洲和菲律賓羣島去。19世紀天主教傳教士活動再次集中在非洲和亞洲。在國外傳教事業上新教稍微遲了一些，但在19世紀和20世紀初新教傳教活動達於頂點。傳教工作今天仍在繼續，雖然它經常被已經獲得獨立的前歐洲殖民地的政府所阻撓。

mission

Organized effort to spread the Christian faith. St. Paul evangelized much of Asia Minor and greece, and the new religion spread rapidly along the trade routes of the Roman empire. The advance of Christianity slowed with the disintegration of the Roman empire after 500 and the growth of Arab power in the 7th-8th century, but Celtic and British missionaries continued to spread the faith in western and northern Europe, while missionaries of the Greek church in Constantinople worked in eastern Europe and Russia. Missions to Islamic areas and the Orient began in the medieval period, and when Spain, Portugal, and France established overseas empires in the 16th century, the Roman Catholic church sent missionaries to the Americas and the Philippines. A renewed wave of Roman Catholic missionary work in the 19th century focused on Africa and Asia. Protestant churches were slower to undertake foreign missions, but in the 19th and early 20th century there was a great upsurge in Protestant missionary activity. Missionary work continues today, though it is often discouraged by the governments of former European colonies that have won independence.