Missionaries functioned as unwitting agents of Western Christian cultural expansion

Evidence

Missionaries have indeed worked to implant the Roman Catholic Church in countries where it was not, and which, to boot, no longer belonged to themselves. Missionaries tend to be utterly unaware of the fact that they are agents of a Western Christian romanité. They say they work to save souls, extend the true faith, preach the gospel. And doubtless this is what they do. But they do so by working for the implanting of the Roman Church, its doctrine, its liturgy, its discipline, its organization, and its mentality. They do so unaware, since, after all, it goes without saying in the common consciousness: the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church of Jesus Christ, the sole depositary of salvation. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 733

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the machinery of colonialism readings already seen in critical theory and missionary studies on the list. — connects to: American missionaries followed soldiers and merchants, driven by trade and manifest destiny. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 213