Ethnic religion

An ethnic religion is generally defined by the ethnicity of its adherents, and conversion essentially equates to cultural assimilation into that ethnoreligious group. Ethnic religions are distinguished from religions that actively seek converts worldwide, regardless of ethnic affiliation. In contrast, ethnic religions have (diasporas excluded) limited geographic scope, and membership is (by definition) determined by ethnic affiliation.

Religion was a defining part of a nation's culture, along with language and customs. With the rise of the aggressively proselytizing religions that actively sought to cross ethnic boundaries, in particular Christianity and Islam, many of the established ethnic religions began to be polemically belittled as "pagan" (rustic), "heathen" (uncivilized) or shirk (idolatrous, polytheistic), kafirun (unbelieving). In the last 2,000 years, most ethnic religions have been supplanted or marginalized by either one of these two proselytizing religions: In Europe, for example, the indigenous Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, Norse, Greek and Roman ethnic religions were supplanted by Christianity. Accompanying colonial expansion, the same occurred later for the indigenous ethnic religions in the Americas and in Central and Southern Africa. Similarly, Islam replaced not only the traditional religions of the Arabs and the Zoroastrianism of the Iranians. Less stridently, Buddhism, another (historically) proselytizing religion, contributed a moral and ethical framework to various ethnic belief systems in eastern Asia, and these are now considered variants of Buddhism. Some ethnic religions however remain numerically strong, for instance Hinduism of the Indians, Judaism of the Judeans/Jews, Shenism of the Han Chinese, and Shinto of the Japanese.