Christianization

Christianization or Christianisation is 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. It began in the Roman Empire, continued through the Middle Ages in Europe, and in the twenty-first century has spread around the globe.

Quotes

• Tell Augustine that he should by no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within those temples. Let him, after he has purified them with holy water, place altars and relics of the saints in them. For, if those temples are well built, they should be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true God. Thus, seeing that their places of worship are not destroyed, the people will banish error from their hearts and come to places familiar and dear to them in acknowledgement and worship of the true God. Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (1.30)
  • Bede (2007) [1910]. The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. Translated by Jane, L. C. New York: Cosimo Classics. ISBN 9781602068322. Retrieved September 16, 2017. 53

• From the end of the twelfth century, Christianization was linked to military conquest. Finland was incorporated and Christianized by Sweden from the second half of the twelfth century...
  • Christianization and the Rise of Christian Monarchy: ... - 33 Nora Berend · 2007

• It should not be a matter of surprise, therefore, that the mission has started singing hymns of praise to Hindu culture. That is the mission casting covetous glances before mounting a marauding expedition. What causes concern is the future of Hindu culture once it falls into the hands of the Church. The fate of Greek culture after it was taken over by the Church is a grim reminder.
  • (S.R. Goel 1989, Catholic Ashrams) quoted in J. Paul Pennington - Christian Barriers to Jesus (Revised Edition)_ Conversations and Questions from the Indian Context (2022, William Carey Publishing) - chapter 7

• Rajiv Malhotra, more picturesquely, uses the metaphor of a tiger (Western Christianity) digesting a deer (Hinduism): Just as the tiger, a predator, would, the West, a dominant and aggressive culture dismembers the weaker one—the deer—into parts from which it picks and chooses pieces that it wants to appropriate; the appropriated elements get mapped onto the language and social structures of the dominant civilization’s own history and paradigms, leaving little if any trace of the links to the source tradition.
  • Rajiv Malhotra, . “The Tiger And The Deer: Is Dharma Being Digested Into The West?” , quoted in J. Paul Pennington - Christian Barriers to Jesus (Revised Edition)_ Conversations and Questions from the Indian Context (2022, William Carey Publishing) - chapter 7.