I would define missionary encounter as a non-coercive encounter of ultimate and comprehensive religious commitments and ways of life—a non-coercive encounter between ultimate and comprehensive religious commitments that gives shape to a way of life. On the one hand, it is an encounter. It advocates an unflinching commitment to its ultimate and all-embracing claims. It refuses to allow those ultimate claims to be swallowed up in more ultimate claims, and it refuses to narrow its scope, but remains