宗教是社会发展到一定阶段的产物。开始统治阶级都将其视为异端,后来又被他们作为统治人民的工具。到了近代,宗教又成为列强对外侵略的工具。外国教会和传教士就是近代西方资本主义列强侵略中国的工具之一,而且往往是作为殖民主义的开路先锋而进入中国的。这里所说的洋教是指基督教。基督教的三大派别天主教、东正教、新教都先后传入中国大陆。在我国,人们习惯于将基督新教称为基督教,这实际上是狭义的称呼。基督教应该是天主教,东正教和基督新教的总称。在这里我们还是沿用习惯的称呼。 Religion is the product of social development to a certain stage. The beginning of the ruling class regarded it as heresy and later they were used as a tool to rule the people. In modern times, religion has become a tool for foreign aggression by the powers. Foreign churches and missionaries were one of the tools used by the Western powers in their invasion of China in modern times and often entered China as the pioneer of colonialism. The foreign religion here refers to Christianity. The three major Christian factions, Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism, have all been introduced into mainland China. In our country, people are used to calling Protestantism Christianity a Christianity, which is actually a narrow name. Christianity should be the general term for Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism. Here we still follow the habit of calling.