Christianization: Difference between revisions

Christianization (or Christianisation) was the conversion of societies to Christianity beginning in late antiquity in the Roman Empire and continuing through the Late Middle Ages in Europe. Outside of ancient Europe, the process was significantly reversed in the Levant by the Sunni Caliphate, with parallel process of Islamisation, beginning in pre-Islamic Arabia and the Near East.

Various strategies and techniques were employed in different regions and time periods. Often the conversion of the ruler was followed by the compulsory baptism of his subjects, often leading to the marginalisation of previously practiced religions. Some of these processes included evangelization by monks or priests, organic growth within an already partly Christianized society, or by campaigns against paganism, such as the conversion of pagan temples into Christian churches, or the condemnation of pagan gods and practices, such as declaring that the native pagan gods were actually, unbeknownst to the worshippers, demons. There is a long history of connecting Christianization and colonialism, especially but not limited to the New World and other regions subject to settler colonialism. A strategy for Christianization was Interpretatio Christiana – the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture (see also: Inculturation), pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses.

Christianization

‘Christianization,’ is a verb meaning to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. Jan Jongeneel describes four stages in the observed processes of Christianizing communities, their societies, and their cultures. The first stage is people-oriented, whereas the next three stages involve the transformation of the structures of society and culture. This has historically included translation of the Christian message into local language and the Christianization of that language, education, and the creation of a Christian culture that has periodically crossed into forms of colonialism.

Christianization has never been a one-way process. There has been, instead, a parallelism in the processes of Christianization in that Christianity absorbed indigenous elements just as indigenous religions absorbed aspects of Christianity. For example, Michelle Salzman has shown that in the process of converting the Roman Empire's aristocracy, Christianity was also shaped by the values of that aristocracy. Polytheism openly adopted aspects of the new religion, transforming and adapting them to fit local needs. Several early Christian writers, including Justin (2nd century), Tertullian, and Origen (3rd century) wrote of Mithraists copying Christian beliefs. Christianity adopted aspects of Platonic thought, names for months and days of the week - even the concept of a seven-day week - from Roman paganism. Bruce David Forbes says that "Some way or another, Christmas was started to compete with rival Roman religions, or to co-opt the winter celebrations as a way to spread Christianity, or to baptize the winter festivals with Christian meaning in an effort to limit their [drunken] excesses. Most likely all three".

Ancient (Ante-Nicaean) Christianity

Main articles: Early Christianity and Acts of the Apostles

See also: Christianization of the Roman Empire and Christianization of the Roman Empire as diffusion of innovation

James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19–29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them [Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood..." (NRSV)

Christianization began slowly, amidst opposition in the Roman Empire, in the province of Judaea, in the region of Palestine, around 30–40 AD. There is agreement among twenty-first century scholars that Christianization of the Roman Empire did not happen by imposition from rulers to the ruled in the centuries preceding Constantine (315). Instead, it was acquired by one person from another, through imitation, and learning what constituted Christian self-identification. Christianization of the early Roman Empire was the cumulative result of multiple individual behaviors. This emergence was 'self-organized', distributed away from any central authority, and was based on common causes. Christianity reached critical mass, (when there were enough adopters for it to be self-sustaining and able to generate further growth), in the hundred years between 150 to 250 when it moved from less than 50,000 adherents to over a million. Scholars agree there was a significant rise thereafter in the absolute number of Christians in the third century.

The Council of Jerusalem (around 50 AD) agreed the lack of circumcision could not be a basis for excluding Gentile believers from membership in the Jesus community. They instructed converts to avoid "pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood" (KJV, Acts 15:20–21). These were put into writing, distributed (KJV Acts 16:4–5) by messengers present at the Council, and were received as an encouragement. The Apostolic Decree helped to establish Ancient Christianity as unhindered by either ethnic or geographical ties. Christianity was experienced as a new start, and was open to both men and women, rich and poor. Baptism was free. There were no fees, and it was intellectually egalitarian, making philosophy and ethics available to ordinary people including those who might have lacked literacy. Early Christian communities were highly inclusive in terms of social stratification and other social categories. Heterogeneity characterized the groups formed by Paul the Apostle, and the role of women was much greater than in any of the forms of Judaism or paganism in existence at the time. Early Christians were told to love others, even enemies, and Christians of all classes and sorts called each other "brother" and "sister". Recent research has shown it was the formal unconditional altruism of early Christianity that accounts for much of its otherwise surprising degree of success.

Ante-Nicaean Christianity was also highly exclusive. Believing was the crucial and defining characteristic that set a "high boundary" that strongly excluded the "unbeliever". Keith Hopkins asserts: "It is this exclusivism, idealized or practiced, which marks Christianity off from most other religious groups in the ancient world". In the eyes of many non-believers, Christianity was an unacceptable form of what Romans called superstitio; its founder had been executed by Roman authority, it was seen as having fallen away from the faith of the Jews, and could, therefore, claim no legitimate authority. In response, some second-century apologists took the approach of referring to Christians as another genos or race, with their own history, and legitimate religious practices. This 'third race' concept may have originated in accusations from outsiders such as Suetonius, (Nero 16.2.), who described Christians in a derogatory manner as ‘a genus of people' who held a 'new and mischievous superstitio’. In the Epistle to Diognetus, an extant late second century letter to a Roman official, the anonymous author observes that early Christians functioned as if they were a separate "third race": a nation within a nation. The Christian apologist Tertullian in his ad nationes (1.8; cf. 1.20), mocked the accusation that ‘we are called a third race’, yet there is also ambivalence, since he takes some pride in the uniqueness it represents. The early Christian had exacting moral standards that included avoiding contact with those that were seen as still "in bondage to the Evil One": (2 Corinthians 6:1-18; 1 John 2: 15-18; Revelation 18: 4; II Clement 6; Epistle of Barnabas, 1920). In Daniel Praet's view, the exclusivity of Christian monotheism formed an important part of its success, enabling it to maintain its independence in a society that syncretized religion.

Armenia, Georgia, Ethiopia and Eritrea

In 301, Armenia became the first kingdom in history to adopt Christianity as an official state religion. The transformations taking place in these centuries of the Roman Empire had been slower to catch on in Caucasia. Indigenous writing did not begin till the fifth century, there was an absence of large cities, and many institutions such as monasticism did not exist in Caucasia until the seventh century. Scholarly consensus places the Christianization of the Armenian and Georgian elites in the first half of the fourth century, although Armenian tradition says Christianization began in the first century through the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew. This is said to have eventually led to the conversion of the Arsacid family, (the royal house of Armenia), through St. Gregory the Illuminator in the early fourth century. Christianization took many generations and was not a uniform process. Robert Thomson writes that it was not the officially established hierarchy of the church that spread Christianity in Armenia. "It was the unorganized activity of wandering holy men that brought about the Christianization of the populace at large". The most significant stage in this process was the development of a script for the native tongue.

Scholars do not agree on the date, but most assert 337 as the year Mirian III of Iberia (present-day Georgia) adopted Christianity. According to medieval Georgian narratives, Christianization there began with the Apostle Andrew the First-called and culminated in the evangelization of Iberia through the efforts of a captive woman known in Iberian tradition as "Nona" in the fourth century. Fifth, 8th, and 12th century accounts of the conversion of Georgia reveal how pre-Christian practices were taken up and reinterpreted by Christian narrators.

In 325, The Kingdom of Aksum (Modern Ethiopia and Eritrea) became the second country to declare Christianity as its official state religion.

Late antiquity (4th–5th centuries)

Main articles: Christianization of the Roman Empire and Spread of Christianity

Further information: Constantine I and Christianity and Persecution of paganism under Theodosius I

Constantine's conversion, by Rubens.

Fourth century favoritism, hostility, and iconoclasm

The Christianization of the Roman Empire is frequently divided by scholars into the two phases of before and after the conversion of Constantine in 312. Constantine has long been credited with ending the persecution of Christianity and establishing religious tolerance with the Edict of Milan, but the nature of the Edict, and Constantine's faith, are both heavily debated in the twenty-first century.

According to Harold A. Drake, Constantine's religious policies did not stem from faith as much as they stemmed from his duty as Emperor to maintain peace in the empire. Drake asserts that, since Constantine's reign followed Diocletian's failure to enforce a particular religious view, Constantine was able to observe that coercion had not produced peace. Constantine's religious policy did aim at including the Church in a broader policy of civic unity, and this required some official tolerance of the pagan majority.

Constantine's personal views favored one religion over the other, and he made his revulsion toward sacrifice clear, but contemporary scholars are in general agreement that he did not support the suppression of paganism by force. He never engaged in a purge, there were no pagan martyrs during his reign, and pagans remained in important positions at his court. Constantine ruled for 31 years and never outlawed paganism. In the words of an early edict, he decreed that polytheists could "celebrate the rites of an outmoded illusion," so long as they did not force Christians to join them.

Constantine's main approach to religion was to use enticement by making the adoption of Christianity beneficial. "Imperial patronage, legal rights to hold property, and financial assistance" were important contributions to successful Christianization over the next hundred years. However, most scholars also agree it was Constantine who issued the first law against paganism's practice of animal sacrifice. These laws menaced death, but during Constantine's reign, no one suffered the death penalty for violating them. There is no record of anyone being executed for violating religious laws before Tiberius II Constantine at the end of the sixth century (574–582). Still, classicist Scott Bradbury notes that the complete disappearance of public sacrifice by the mid-fourth century "in many towns and cities must be attributed to the atmosphere created by imperial and episcopal hostility".

In Eusebius' church history, there is a bold claim of a Constantinian campaign against the temples, however, there are discrepancies in the evidence. Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only four have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Trombley and MacMullen explain that discrepancies between literary sources and archaeological evidence exist because it is common for details in the literary sources to be ambiguous and unclear. For example, Malalas claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said Theodisius destroyed them all, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches.

Head of Aphrodite, 1st century AD copy of an original by Praxiteles. The Christian cross on the chin and forehead was intended to "deconsecrate" a holy pagan artifact. Found in the Agora of Athens. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Constantine did not destroy large numbers of temples, but he did destroy a few. In the previous 300 years, Roman authority had periodically confiscated various church properties, some of which were associated with Christian holy places. For example, Christian historians alleged that Hadrian (2nd century) had, in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), constructed a temple to Aphrodite on the site of the crucifixion of Jesus on Golgotha hill in order to suppress Jewish Christian veneration there. Constantine was vigorous in reclaiming confiscated properties whenever these issues were brought to his attention, and he used reclamation to justify the destruction of Aphrodite's temple in Jerusalem. Using the vocabulary of reclamation, Constantine acquired several more sites of Christian significance in the Holy Land. At the sacred oak and spring at Mamre, a site venerated and occupied by Jews, Christians and pagans alike, the literature says Constantine ordered the burning of the idols, the destruction of the altar, and erection of a church on the spot of the temple. The archaeology of the site, however, shows that Constantine’s church, along with its attendant buildings, only occupied a peripheral sector of the precinct, leaving the rest unhindered.

Calculated acts of desecration - removing the hands and feet of statues of the divine, mutilating heads and genitals, tearing down altars and "purging sacred precincts with fire" - were acts committed by the people during the early centuries. While seen as 'proving' the impotence of the gods, pagan icons were also seen as having been “polluted” by the practice of sacrifice and were, therefore, in need of "desacralization" or "deconsecration" (a practice not limited to Christians). Brown says that, while it was in some ways studiously vindictive, it was not indiscriminate or extensive. Once these objects were detached from 'the contagion' of sacrifice, they were seen as having returned to innocence. Many statues and temples were then preserved as art.

Rewriting history

Late Antiquity from the third to the sixth centuries was the era of the development of the great Christian narrative, an interpretatio Christiana of the history of humankind. This meant reassessing and relocating past histories, ideas and persons on the historical mental map. In this construction of the past, Christian writers built on the models of the preceding tradition, creating competing chronologies and alternative histories.

Representation of Saint Clement fighting the Graoully dragon in the Roman amphitheater of Metz. Christian hagiography presents bishops as pious and powerful, defeating temple demons that had posed as gods, thereby demonstrating Christianity's victory over paganism represented by a harmful dragon.

In the early fourth century, Eusebius wrote Chronici canones in which he developed an elaborate synchronistic chronology wherein he reinterpreted the Greco-Roman past to reflect a Christian perspective. In the early fifth century Orosius wrote Historiae adversus paganos in response to the charge that the Roman Empire was in misery and ruins because it had converted to Christianity and neglected the old gods. Maijastina Kahlos explains that, "In order to refute these claims, Orosius reviewed the entire history of Rome, demonstrating that the alleged glorious past of the Romans in fact consisted of war, despair and suffering. Orosius’s Historiae adversus paganos is a counter-narrative... Instead of a magnificent Roman past, he construes a history in which ... Christ is born and Christianity appears to have appeared ... just when Roman power was at its height – all this according to a divine plan... Both writers took over and reinterpreted the Greco-Roman past to explain and legitimize their own present".

Despite the ongoing presence of a Christian majority, Christian literature of the fourth century does not focus on converting pagans. Instead, it depicts Constantine's conversion as evidence of the Christian god's final triumph in Heaven over the pagan gods. Historian Peter Brown indicates that, as a result of this "triumphalism," paganism was seen as vanquished. Based on the sheer number of laws directed against it, Salzman says heresy, rather than paganism, was the greatest concern for most Christians of the fourth and fifth centuries including Constantine. According to Brown, "It would be a full two centuries before Justinian would envisage the compulsory baptism of remaining polytheists, and a further century until Heraclius and the Visigothic kings of Spain would attempt to baptize the Jews. In the fourth century, such ambitious schemes were impossible". There is no evidence to indicate that conversion through force was an accepted method of Christianization at any point in this era.

Historian John Curran writes that, under Constantine's successors, Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits and starts. Paganism in a broader sense did not end when public sacrifice did. Historian Peter Brown explains that polytheists were accustomed to offering prayers to the gods in many ways and places that did not include sacrifice, that pollution was only associated with sacrifice, and that the ban on sacrifice had fixed boundaries and limits. Paganism continued, co-existing with Christianity despite official threats, occasional mob violence, and Constantine's confiscation of temple treasures for his new capitol. Paganism remained widespread into the early fifth century continuing in parts of the empire into the 600s.

Theodosius

Main article: Theodosius I

In the centuries following his death, Theodosius gained a reputation as the champion of orthodoxy and the vanquisher of paganism. Modern historians see this as a later interpretation of history by Christian writers rather than actual history. Theodosius reiterated his Christian predecessors' support of Christianity and bans on animal sacrifice, divination, and apostasy. A number of laws against these practices were issued towards the end of his reign in 391 and 392, however recent historians have tended to downplay the role of the emperor's 'copious legislation' as limited in effect. Most religious legislation was aimed at heretics rather than pagans. Contemporary scholarship indicates the Edict of Thessalonica (380) was about opposing Arianism, establishing unity in Christianity, and suppressing heresy. As German ancient historian Karl Leo Noethlichs writes, the Edict of Thessalonica was neither anti-pagan nor antisemitic; it did not declare Christianity to be the official religion of the empire; and it gave no advantage to Christians over other faiths. In his 2020 biography of Theodosius, Mark Hebblewhite concludes that Theodosius never saw himself, or advertised himself, as a destroyer of the old cults. The emperor's efforts at promoting Christianization were "targeted, tactical, and nuanced". They were intended to prevent political instability and religious discord and promote the peace.

Barbarian conversions

While the Roman empire was being Christianized, Germanic, Asiatic and Celtic peoples were migrating into Roman territory. The earliest references to the Christianization of the Germanic peoples are in Irenaeus, (who refers to the churches in what would become Germany as already being well-organized), in Origen, and in Tertullian (Adv. Jud. VII). Eusebius and Athanasius omit Germany from their lists, but that is possibly because, by the 4th century, many from the Eastern Germanic tribes, notably the Goths, had adopted Arianism. It is most probable that "bottom-up" conversion prevailed during this early period.

In 341, Romanian born Ulfila (Wulfilas, 311-383) became a bishop and was sent to instruct the Gothic Christians living in Gothia in the province of Dacia. While pursuing this, Ulfila attracted a number of native followers who later became missionaries themselves. While Ulfilas is traditionally credited with the voluntary conversion of the Goths between 369-372, contemporary scholars offer four different dates and a variety of methods of conversion, none of which have produced consensus.

File:Bateme de Clovis par St Remy-edit.jpg

Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remigius.

Noel Lenski writes that the emperor Valens offered encouragement rather than active sponsorship of Christianization beyond Roman borders. Tacitus is an important early source describing the nature of German religion, and their understanding of the function of a king, as facilitating Christianization. Conversion of the West and East Germanic tribes sometimes took place "top to bottom" in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting Germanic nobility first. A king had divine lineage as a descendent of Woden. Ties of loyalty between German kings and their followers, and the concerns of these early societies as communal, not individual, sometimes produced mass conversions of entire tribes. Afterwards, their societies would begin a gradual process of Christianization that would generally take a matter of centuries, with some traces of earlier beliefs remaining.

Christianization of the central Balkans is documented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to "those mountain wolves", the Bessi.

Christianization of Europe (5th–1 8th centuries)

Romanness, tolerance and intolerance

The nature of Roman culture contributed to its Christianization: religious syncretism, Roman political culture, a common language, and Hellenist philosophy made Christianization of the Roman empire easier than in places like Persia or China. The relative ease of travel that was enabled by universal currency, a system of laws, relative internal security, and good roads aided the process of Christianization as well. Judaism was also significantly important to the spread of Christianity. Evidence clearly shows the Jewish Diaspora communities were where Christians gave many of their earliest sermons.

The two religious traditions co-existed and largely tolerated each other throughout most of the fourth and fifth centuries. Christianization had worked in both directions transforming the structure and ideals of both the Church and the Empire through this long period of symbiosis. By the time a fifth-century pope attempted to denounce the Lupercalia as 'pagan superstition', religion scholar Elizabeth Clark says "it fell on deaf ears". In Historian R. A. Markus's reading of events, this marked a colonization (the appropriation of something belonging to others for one's own use) by Christians of pagan values and practices. For Alan Cameron, the mixed culture that included the continuation of the circuses, amphitheaters and games – sans sacrifice – on into the sixth century involved the secularization of paganism rather than appropriation by Christianity.

Up to the time of Justin I and Justinian I (527 to 565), there was some toleration for all religions; there were anti-sacrifice laws, but they were not enforced. Thus, up into the sixth century, there still existed centers of paganism in Athens, Gaza, Alexandria, and elsewhere. Brown points out that, even though the imperial laws against sacrifice were not enforced, they did have a cumulative effect: by 425, they had set in place a religious ordering of society with Catholics at the center and others at the periphery. That ordering would thereafter prove to be an inseparable adjunct of imperial rule, in the empire itself and, later, in the sub-imperial states of the west.

It is possible to follow in the laws the emergence of a language of intolerance shared by the Christian court and by vocal elements in provincial society. Christian writers and imperial legislators alike drew on a rhetoric of incessant conquest and reconquest that affected every facet of upper-class society. These Christian sources with their violent rhetoric, have had great influence on modern perceptions of this period. However, outside of violent rhetoric, non-Christian (non-heretical) groups of pagans and Jews lived peacefully alongside their Christian neighbors through a tolerance based on contempt throughout most of Late Antiquity.

Paradigm shift: Justinian I and the Byzantine papacy

Main article: Byzantine papacy

See also: Interpretatio Christiana

The extent of the Byzantine Empire under Justinian's uncle Justin I shown in light brown. The orange shows the conquests of his successor, Justinian I also known as Justinian the Great

Christianization changed between the fifth and eighth centuries. The weight of wealth after the fifth century turned Christianity in a new direction. This period shifted away from the "massive" Greek and Roman secularism common to John Chrysostom's and Augustine's fourth century world. By the time of Pope Gregory I (540 – 604), "there was little room for the secular" in it.

The era that begins with Justinian I is a threshold of beginnings and endings. In these centuries, Ancient Christianity, (as it had existed in the Western empire with some religious competition, toleration and secularism), comes to an end. Most scholars agree the 7th and 8th centuries are when the 'end of the ancient world' is most conclusive and well documented. The middle Byzantine period develops. Eleven of the thirteen men who held the position of Roman Pope from the late seventh to the middle of the eighth century were the sons of families from the East. This Byzantine papacy, along with losses to Islam, and changes within Christianity itself, transformed Christianity into its medieval form as exemplified by the creation of the Papal state and the alliance between the papacy and the militant Frankish king Charlemagne.

Ireland

See also: Hiberno-Scottish mission, Christianization of Ireland, and Celtic Christianity

Pope Celestine I (422-430) sent Palladius to be the first bishop to the Irish in 431, and in 432, St Patrick began his mission there. Scholars cite many questions (and scarce sources) concerning the next two hundred years. Relying largely on recent archaeological developments, Lorcan Harney has reported to the Royal Academy that the missionaries and traders who came to Ireland in the fifth to sixth centuries were not backed by any military force. Conversion and consolidation were long complex processes that took centuries. Patrick and Palladius and other British and Gaulish missionaries aimed first at converting royal households. Patrick indicates in his Confessio that safety depended upon it. Communities often followed their king en masse. It is likely most natives were willing to embrace the new religion, and that most religious communities were willing to integrate themselves into the surrounding culture.

Christianization of the Irish landscape was a complex process that varied considerably depending on local conditions. Ancient sites were viewed with veneration, and were excluded or included for Christian use based largely on diverse local feeling about their nature, character, ethos and even location.

The Irish monks developed a concept of peregrinatio where a monk would leave the monastery to preach among the 'heathens'. From 590, Irish missionaries were active in Gaul, Scotland, Wales and Britain.

Great Britain

See also: Anglo-Saxon Christianity and Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England

The most likely date for Christianity getting its first foothold in Britain is sometime around 200. Recent archaeology indicates that, it had become an established minority faith by the fourth century. It was largely mainstream (there is no such thing as 'Celtic Christianity'), and in certain areas, had been continuous.

The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was begun at about the same time in both the north and south of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in two unconnected initiatives. Irish missionaries led by Saint Columba, based in Iona (from 563), converted many Picts. The court of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, and the Gregorian mission, who landed in 596, did the same to the Kingdom of Kent. They had been sent by Pope Gregory I and were led by Augustine of Canterbury with a mission team from Italy. In both cases, as in other kingdoms of this period, conversion generally began with the royal family and the nobility adopting the new religion first.

In early Anglo-Saxon England, non-stop religious development meant paganism and Christianity were never completely separate. Lorcan Harney has reported that Anglo-Saxon churches were not built by pagan barrows before 11th century.

Frankish Empire

Main articles: Germanic Christianity and Christianisation of the Germanic peoples

See also: Christianization of the Franks

File:Bateme de Clovis par St Remy-edit.jpg

Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remigius.

The Franks first appear in the historical record in the 3rd century as a confederation of Germanic tribes living on the east bank of the lower Rhine River. Clovis I was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler. According to legend, Clovis had prayed to the Christian god before his battle against one of the kings of the Alemanni, and had consequently attributed his victory to Jesus. The most likely date of his conversion to Catholicism is Christmas Day, 508, following that Battle of Tolbiac. He was baptized in Rheims. The Frankish Kingdom became Christian over the next two centuries.

The conversion of the Saxons began with their forced incorporation into the Frankish kingdom in 776 by Charlemagne (r. 768-814). Thereafter, the Saxon's Christian conversion slowly progressed into the eleventh century resulting in a unique form of Christianity known as Germanic Christianity. Saxons had been raiding Frankish holdings from the time of Clovis, and went back and forth between rebellion and submission to the Frankish king for decades. Charlemagne placed missionaries and counts across Saxony in hopes of pacifying the region, but Saxons rebelled again in 782 with disastrous losses for the Franks. In response, the Frankish King "enacted a variety of draconian measures" beginning with the massacre at Verden in 782 when he ordered the decapitation of 4500 Saxon prisoners offering them baptism as an alternative to death. These events were followed by the severe legislation of the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae in 785 which prescribes death to those that are disloyal to the king, harm Christian churches or its ministers, or practice pagan burial rites. His harsh methods of Christianization raised objections from his friends Alcuin and Paulinus of Aquileia. Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797.

The Sachsenhain memorial in Verden, Germany

Italy

See also: Early centers of Christianity § Rome

The Church of Rome was founded by Peter and Paul in the 1st century.

In 303, the most severe persecution of Christians took place under Emperor Diocletian but in 313, with the Edict of Milan, Constantine I and Licinius establish toleration of all religions including Christianity. In 380, Theodosius I makes Christianity the official state religion of the Roman Empire and, between 389 and 391, the "Theodosian decrees" banned pagan sacrifices and closed pagan temples. Roman aristocrats have virtually all converted to Christianity in the mid-5th century.

Rural areas were particularly slow to convert to Christianity. When Benedict of Nursia went to Monte Cassino around 530, he found a temple to Apollo with its statue and altar on which people still placed their offerings. By the 590s, Pope Gregory I complains about pagan rituals among landowners and peasants on Church lands in Sicily and Sardinia. The life of St Barbatus, bishop of Benevento in the 670s, describes the Lombards of Benevento worshipping a simulacrum of a viper and swearing oaths as they galloped past a hide hung on a tree. When St. Barbatus converted the Beneventine Lombards to Christianity, he caused the tree to be cut down but some centuries afterwards, in 1526, Judge Paolo Grillandi wrote of witches in Benevento who worship a goddess at the site of an old walnut tree. The laws issued for the Lombards by King Liutprand in 727 condemned, along with divination, the practice of 'sorcery' and incantation, any Lombard "who like a rustic prays to a tree as sacred or adores springs".

By the mid-8th century, Italy can be said to be a Christian country.

Greece

Christianity began to spread in the cities of Greece by the preaching of St. Paul.

In 380, the Roman emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity the empire's only official state religion, and over the next few years he harshly persecuted pagans.

In 529, the Byzantine emperor Justinian closed down the Pagan schools in Athens.

The majority of modern historians agree that Greek polytheism continued for an extended period, even after repressive legislation against it

Czech lands

Main articles: Christianization of Bohemia and Christianization of Moravia

Great Moravia and its successor state Duchy of Bohemia were founded by West Slavs in Central Europe in 9th century. The territory of Great Moravia was originally evangelized by missionaries coming from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves in Italy and Dalmatia since the early 8th century and sporadically earlier. The first Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs known to the written sources was built in 828 by Pribina, the ruler and Prince of the Principality of Nitra, although probably still a pagan himself, in his possession called Nitrava (today Nitra, Slovakia). The first Moravian ruler known by name, Mojmír I, was baptized in 831 by Reginhar, Bishop of Passau. Despite the formal endorsement by the elites, the Great Moravian Christianity was described as containing many pagan elements as late as in 852.

The Church organization in Great Moravia was supervised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of the Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863, upon Prince Rastislav's request. Cyril developed the first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the Old Church Slavonic language. Foundation of the first Slavic bishopric (870), archbishopric (880), and monastery was the politically relevant outcome of the Byzantine mission. In 880, Pope John VIII issued the bull Industriae Tuae, by which he set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra, and Old Church Slavonic was recognized as the fourth liturgical language, along with Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

Bulgaria

Main article: Christianization of Bulgaria

Baptism of the Preslav Court by Nikolai Pavlovich (date of completion unknown)

After its establishment under Khan Asparukh in 681, Bulgaria retained the traditional Bulgar religion Tengriism and the pagan beliefs of the local Slavic population. In the mid-9th century, Boris I decided to establish Christianity as a state religion in Bulgaria. In 864, he was baptized in the capital Pliska by Byzantine priests. After prolonged negotiations with both Rome and Constantinople, he managed to create an autocephalous Bulgarian Orthodox Church and used the newly created Cyrillic script to make the Bulgarian language the language of the Church.

Christianity was challenged during the rule of his first-born son, Vladimir-Rasate (889–893), who decided to return to the old Bulgarian religion. Boris I, who had previously retired to a monastery, led a rebellion against his son and defeated him. At the counsel of Preslav in 893, his third son, Simeon I who was born after the Christianization, was installed on the throne and the capital was moved from Pliska to Preslav as a symbol of the abolition of the old religion. Simeon I led a series of wars against the Byzantines to gain official recognition of his Imperial title and the full independence of the Bulgarian Church. As a result of his victories in 927, the Byzantines finally recognized the Bulgarian Patriarchate.

Serbia

Main article: Christianization of Serbs

Seal of prince Strojimir of Serbia, from the late 9th century – one of the oldest artifacts on the Christianization of the Serbs

Basil I with delegation of Serbs

The Serbs were baptised during the reign of Heraclius (610–641) by "elders of Rome" according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his annals (r. 913–959).

In 733, Leo III attaches Illyricum to Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople.

The establishment of Christianity as state religion dates to the time of Eastern Orthodox missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius during Basil I (r. 867–886), who baptised the Serbs sometime before sending imperial admiral Nikita Orifas to Knez Mutimir for aid in the war against the Saracens in 869, after acknowledging the suzerainty of the Byzantine Empire. The fleets and land forces of Zahumlje, Travunia and Konavli (Serbian Pomorje) were sent to fight the Saracens who attacked the town of Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in 869, on the immediate request of Basil I, who was asked by the Ragusians for help. A Serbian bishopric (Diocese of Ras) may have been founded in Stari Ras in 871 by Serbian Knez Mutimir, confirmed by the Council of Constantinople in 879–80.

The adherence is evident in the tradition of theophoric names in the next generation of Serbian monarchs and nobles; Petar Gojniković, Stefan Mutimirović, Pavle Branović. Mutimir maintained the communion with the Eastern Church (Constantinople) when Pope John VIII invited him to recognize the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium. The Serbs adopt the Old Slavonic liturgy instead of the Greek.

By the 870s, the Serbs were baptized and had established the Eparchy of Ras, on the order of Emperor Basil I.

Croatia

According to Constantine VII, christianization of Croats began in the 7th century. Viseslav (r. 785–802), one of the first dukes of Croatia, left behind a special baptismal font, which symbolizes the acceptance of the church, and thereby Western culture, by the Croats. The conversion of Croatia is said to have been completed by the time of Duke Trpimir's death in 864. In 879, under duke Branimir, Croatia received papal recognition as a state from Pope John VIII.

The Narentine pirates, based on the Croatian coast, remained pagans until the late ninth century.

Poland

Main article: Christianization of Poland

See also: Pagan reaction in Poland

Introduction of Christianity in Poland, by Jan Matejko, 1888–89, National Museum, Warsaw

The "Baptism of Poland" (Template:Lang-pl) in 966, refers to the baptism of Mieszko I, the first ruler of a future united Polish state. His baptism was followed by the building of churches and the establishment of an ecclesiastical hierarchy. Mieszko saw baptism as a way of strengthening his hold on power, with the active support he could expect from the bishops, as well as a unifying force for the Polish people. Mieszko's action proved highly successful because by the 13th century, Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion in Poland.

Hungary

See also: Vata pagan uprising

Image of the King Saint Stephen I of Hungary, from the medieval codex Chronicon Pictum from the 14th century.

In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Hungary (which was larger than modern day Hungary) was Christianized initially by Greek monks sent from Constantinople to convert the pagan Hungarians. In 950, the tribal chief, Gyula II of Transylvania, visited Constantinople and was baptized. Gyula also had his officers and family baptized under the Orthodox confession. The conversion of the Hungarian people was not completed until the reign of Gyula's grandson, King Stephen I of Hungary. Stephen was the son of Grand Prince Géza of Hungary and Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula II. His authority as leader of the Hungarian tribal federation was recognized with a crown from Pope Sylvester II. King Stephen converted the nomadic barbarian tribes of the Hungarians and induced them to sedentary culture. The conversion of Hungary is said to have been completed by the time of Stephen's death in 1038.

Soon the Hungarian Kingdom counted with two archbishops and 8 bishops, a defined state structure with province governors that answered to the King. In the other hand, Saint Stephen opened the frontiers of his Kingdom in 1016 to the pilgrims that traveled by land to the Holy Land, and soon this route became extremely popular, being used later in the Crusades. Saint Stephen was the first Hungarian monarch that was elevated to the sanctity for his Christian characteristics and not because he suffered a martyr death.

Kievan Rus'

Main article: Christianization of Kievan Rus'

The Baptism of Kievans, a painting by Klavdiy Lebedev

Between the 8th and the 13th century, the area of what now is Ukraine, Belarus and a part of European Russia was settled by the Kievan Rus'. An attempt to Christianize them had already been made in the 9th century, with the Christianization of the Rus' Khaganate. In the 10th century, around 980, the efforts were finally successful when Vladimir the Great was baptized at Chersonesos. To commemorate the event, Vladimir built the first stone church of Kievan Rus', called the Church of the Tithes, where his body and the body of his new wife were to repose. Another church was built on top of the hill where pagan statues stood before.

Scandinavia

According to Heimskringla, During the Christianization of Norway, King Olaf Trygvasson had male völvas (shamans) tied up and left on a skerry at ebb (woodcut by Halfdan Egedius (1877–1899).

Main article: Christianization of Scandinavia

The Christianization of Scandinavia started in the 8th century with the arrival of missionaries in Denmark and it was at least nominally complete by the 12th century, although the Samis remained unconverted until the 18th century. In fact, although the Scandinavians became nominally Christian, it would take considerably longer for actual Christian beliefs to establish themselves among the people. The old indigenous traditions that had provided security and structure since time immemorial were challenged by ideas that were unfamiliar, such as original sin, the Immaculate Conception, the Trinity and so forth. Archaeological excavations of burial sites on the island of Lovön near modern-day Stockholm have shown that the actual Christianization of the people was very slow and took at least 150–200 years, and this was a very central location in the Swedish kingdom. Thirteenth-century runic inscriptions from the bustling merchant town of Bergen in Norway show little Christian influence, and one of them appeals to a Valkyrie. At this time, enough knowledge of Norse mythology remained to be preserved in sources such as the Eddas in Iceland.

Baltic

Danish Bishop Absalon destroys the idol of Slavic god Svantevit at Arkona in a painting by Laurits Tuxen

Main article: Northern Crusades

The Northern Crusades (or "Baltic Crusades") were crusades undertaken by the Catholic kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Swedish and German campaigns against Russian Eastern Orthodox Christians are also sometimes considered part of the Northern Crusades. Some of these wars were called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, were first dubbed crusades by 19th-century romantic nationalist historians. Lithuania and Samogitia were ultimately Christianized from 1386 until 1417 by the initiative of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila and his cousin Vytautas.

Iberian Peninsula and Reconquista

Main article: Reconquista

San Pedro de la Nave, one of the oldest churches in Spain.

Depiction of the Battle of Navas de Tolosa by 19th-century painter Francisco de Paula Van Halen.

Christianity began in Spain when St. Paul went to Hispania to preach the gospel.

By the late 6th century, certainly during the reign of Reccared I, the Visigothic Kingdom in Spain can be said to be a Christian country, although paganism persisted among segments of the population for some decades afterwards.

Despite early Christian testimonies and institutional organization, Basque Christianization was slow. Muslim accounts from the period of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and beginning of 9th century identify the Basques as magi or 'pagan wizards', they were not considered 'People of the Book' (Christians).

Between 711–718 the Iberian peninsula had been conquered by Muslims in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. Between 722 (see: Battle of Covadonga) and 1492 (see: the Conquest of Granada) the Christian Kingdoms that later would become Spain and Portugal reconquered it from the Moorish states of Al-Ándalus. The notorious Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition were not installed until 1478 and 1536 when the Reconquista was already (mostly) completed.

Colonial era (16th–19th centuries)

Further information: Civilizing mission

See also: Christianization of Goa

Evangelization of Mexico

"First Mass in Brazil". painting by Victor Meirelles.

Colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific

The expansion of the Catholic Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire with a significant role played by Catholic missionaries led to the Christianization of the indigenous populations of the Americas such as the Aztecs and Incas. A large number of churches were built.

Later waves of colonial expansion such as the Scramble for Africa or the struggle for India, by the Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany and Russia led to Christianization of other native populations across the globe such as the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Filipinos, Indians and Africans led to the expansion of Christianity eclipsing that of the Roman period and making it a truly global religion.

United States

Main article: History of immigration to the United States

The colonies which later became the United States were largely colonized by England, and therefore their colonists were predominantly Protestant. Even colonists with non-English backgrounds—Scots, Scotch Irish, Germans, Dutch, French, and Swedes—were mostly from Protestant countries in Northern Europe. Thus Protestantism as a religious force shaped the mind of pre-independence colonial America.

By the 1790 Census, the total immigration over the approximately 130-year span of colonial existence of the U.S. colonies was summarized as: 3.9 million total, comprising 2.56 million British, 0.76 million African, and 0.58 million "other" who probably included a large proportion of people with poorly recorded English ancestry. It was not until the nineteenth century that Roman Catholics became a numerically significant segment of American life, mainly due to large-scale immigration from Ireland (driven by the Great Famine from 1845 onward) and countries in Southern Europe (partly due to farming improvements which created surplus labor), and absorption of territories originally colonized or influenced by Catholic countries such as Spain.

20th century

United States

Main article: Christianity in the United States

In 1908 Pope Pius X declared that the United States was no longer a missionary territory for Roman Catholicism. By this time the Roman Catholic church was well established enough to stake a place for itself in the U.S. religious landscape. It was about 15 million strong by 1901. Thus, the church adopted a mission to Christianize other cultures. On November 16, 1908, a missionary conference was held in Chicago to mark the transition from becoming a church that received missionary help to a church that sends it. Attendees included Boston's Archbishop William H. O'Connell and Chicago's Archbishop James Edward Quigley, who called attention to the "new era" into which the church in the U.S. now entered.

Sacred sites

Main article: Christianized sites

Physical Christianization: the choir of San Salvatore, Spoleto, occupies the cella of a Roman temple.

Many Christian churches were built upon sites already consecrated as pagan temples or mithraea, the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (literally Saint Mary above Minerva) in Rome being simply the most obvious example, though a period of about 350 years of abandonment intervened between temple and church in this case. Sulpicius Severus, in his Vita of Martin of Tours, a dedicated destroyer of temples and sacred trees, remarks "wherever he destroyed heathen temples, there he used immediately to build either churches or monasteries", and when Benedict took possession of the site at Monte Cassino, he began by smashing the sculpture of Apollo and the altar that crowned the height.

The British Isles and other areas of northern Europe that were formerly druidic are still densely punctuated by holy wells and holy springs that are now attributed to some saint, often a highly local saint unknown elsewhere; in earlier times many of these were seen as guarded by supernatural forces such as the melusina, and many such pre-Christian holy wells appear to survive as baptistries. Not all pre-Christian holy places were respected enough for them to survive, however, as most ancient European sacred groves, such as the pillar Irminsul, were destroyed by Christianizing forces.

During the Reconquista and the Crusades, the cross served the symbolic function of possession that a flag would occupy today. At the siege of Lisbon in 1147, when a mixed group of Christians took the city, "What great joy and what a great abundance there was of pious tears when, to the praise and honor of God and of the most Holy Virgin Mary the saving cross was placed atop the highest tower to be seen by all as a symbol of the city's subjection."

Myths and imagery

Main article: Christianized myths and imagery

Ivory diptych of a priestess of Ceres, defaced and damaged by Christians

The historicity of several saints has often been treated sceptically by most academics, either because there is a paucity of historical evidence for them, or due to striking resemblances that they have to pre-Christian deities. In 1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed some Christian Saints from its universal calendar and pronounced the historicity of others to be dubious. Though highly popular in the Middle Ages, many of these saints have since been largely forgotten, and their names may now seem quite unfamiliar. The most prominent amongst these is Saint Eustace, who was extremely popular in earlier times, but whom Laura Hibberd sees as a chimera composed from details of several other Saints. Many of these figures of dubious historicity appear to be based on figures from pre-Christian myth and legend, Saint Sarah, for example, also known as Sarah-la-Kali, is thought by Ronald Lee to be a Christianization of Kali, a Hindu deity.

Symbolism

Main article: Christian symbolism

The Baptism of Kievans, a fresco by Viktor Vasnetsov

The cross is currently the most common symbol of Christianity, and has been for many centuries, coming to prominence during the 4th century (301 to 400 AD) And its known to be the most familiar and widely recognized symbol of Christianity today.

Ancient pagan funeral rituals often remained within Christian culture as aspects of custom and community with very little alteration. Pagans and Jews decorated their burial chambers, so Christians did as well, thereby creating the first Christian art in the catacombs beneath Rome. This art is symbolic, rising out of a reinterpretation of Jewish and pagan symbolism.

Noah catacomb (orans)

While many new subjects appear for the first time in the Christian catacombs - i.e. the Good Shepherd, Baptism, and the Eucharistic meal - the Orant figures (women praying with upraised hands) probably came directly from pagan art.

The Ichthys, Christian Fish, also known colloquially as the Jesus Fish, was an early Christian secret symbol. Early Christians used the Ichthys symbol to identify themselves as followers of Jesus Christ and to proclaim their commitment to Christianity. Ichthys is the Ancient Greek word for "fish," which explains why the sign resembles a fish; the Greek word ιχθυς is an acronym for the phrase transliterated as "Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter", that is, "Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Savior". There are several other connections with Christian tradition relating to this choice of symbol: that it was a reference to the feeding of the multitude; that it referred to some of the apostles having previously been fishermen; or that the word Christ was pronounced by Jews in a similar way to the Hebrew word for fish (though Nuna is the normal Aramaic word for fish, making this seem unlikely).

See also

• Anti-paganism policies of the early Byzantine Empire
• Forcible conversion to Christianity
• Christian debate on persecution and toleration
• Conquistador
• Crusades
• European colonization of the Americas
• Goa Inquisition
• Inculturation
• Missions
• Taiping Rebellion
• Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England
• Christianization of England
• Christianization of Ireland
• Christianization of the Celtic peoples
• Christianization of Roman (Southern) France
• Christianization of Bavaria
• Christianization of the Netherlands
• Christianization of the Swiss
• Christianization of Lithuania
• Christianization of the Faroe Islands
• Christianization of the Basque people
• Christianization of Iceland
• Christianization of Scandinavia
• Christianization of Finland
• Christianization of Kievan Rus'
• Christianization of the Rus' Khaganate
• Christianization of Poland
• Christianization of Bulgaria
• Christianization of Armenia
• Christianization of Goa
• Christianization of Tonga

In other religions

• Islamization
• Judaization

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External links

• Jorge Quiroga and Monica R. Lovelle, "Ciudades atlánticas en transición: La "ciudad" tardo-antigua y alto-medieval en el noroeste de la Península Ibérica (s.V-XI)" from Archeologia Medievale vol xxvii (1999), pp 257–268 Christianizing Late Antique Roman sites from the 6th century onwards.
• Unilineal Descent Groups and Deep Christianization: A Cross-Cultural Comparison