Religious organizations have long been at the forefront of the global movement of people and ideas (Rudolph and Piscatori 1997: 3). Missionary activity has preceded or accompanied trade and political domination across continents since well before the beginning of the Christian era, alongside less organized forms of dissemination of religious belief. Even today, religion is a key element in the development and intensification of globalization (Beyer 1994: 3).

The conceptualization of this process also has its own more recent intellectual history, which has become the object of academic scrutiny. The term ‘world religion’ only appeared in European writings towards the end of the nineteenth century, and initially in association with the universalizing claims of Christianity (Masuzawa 2005: 23). By the early twentieth century, the term was taking on an expanded meaning to include a number of other religions that are now widely listed under this heading.

The category of ‘world religion’ has oftentimes been conceptualized to mean large, established world religions with universal claims to relevance, in contrast to locally based religions. This assumed division has not gone unchallenged. Masuzawa (2005: 20-21) explains that this system of classification tends to operate within an Orientalist discourse, and elides specificities of locality and power relations among the so-called world religions. Another aspect of the dominant discourse of ‘world religions’ is that global relevance is seen as a marker of authenticity and status in the religious sphere.