Christianization

Christianization or Christianisation was the conversion of societies to Christianity beginning in late antiquity in a Roman Empire & 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 together with 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 ago practiced religions. Some of these processes identified evangelization by monks or priests, organic growth within an already partly Christianized society, or by campaigns against paganism, such(a) as the conversion of pagan temples into Christian churches, or the condemnation of pagan gods and practices, such(a) as declaring that the native pagan gods were actually, unbeknownst to the worshippers, demons. There is a long history of connecting Christianization and colonialism, particularly but non limited to the New World and other regions intended 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.

Reformatting native religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized earn was officially sanctioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory I to Mellitus, arguing that conversions were easier if people were gives to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honor of the Christian God, "to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God". In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still existed, but that the reasoning slow them was altered. The existence of syncretism in Christian tradition has long been recognized by scholars. Since the 16th century and till sophisticated days, significant scholarship was devoted to deconstruction of Interpretatio Christiana, i.e., tracing the roots of some Christian practices and traditions to paganism. Early workings of this type pull in tended to be downplayed and even dismissed as a work of Protestant apologetics aimed at "purification" of Christianity.