The historical phenomenon of
Christianization, (or
Christianisation — see spelling differences) the
conversionReligious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ from the convert's previous beliefs. It involves a new religious identity, or a change from one religious identity to another. Conversion requires internalization of the new belief system...
of individuals to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
or the conversion of entire peoples at once, also includes the practice of converting native
paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due to the Christian efforts at proselytism (
evangelismEvangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity's religions, since they mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith...
) based on the tradition of the "
Great CommissionThe Great Commission, in Christian tradition, is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples, that they spread his teachings to all the nations of the world. It has become a tenet in Christian theology emphasizing mission work, evangelism, and baptism. It has been a primary...
".
The process of Christianization has at times been relatively peaceful and at times has been a very violent process, ranging from political conversions to adopt Christianity to military campaigns to force conversion onto native populaces.
In
AntiquityClassical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
, Christianization was effected only partly through laws against indigenous religious practices, official conversions of temples to Christian churches and the placement of Christian churches over ancient religious sites. It was effected also by the
demonizationDemonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones.The term has since been expanded to refer to any characterization of individuals, groups, or political bodies as evil....
of indigenous pagan gods, traditional practices into
witchcraftWitchcraft, in various historical, anthropological, religious and mythological contexts, is the use of certain kinds of supernatural or magical powers. Witchcraft can refer to the use of such powers in order to inflict harm or damage upon members of a community or their property...
and the partial Christianization to outright banning of existing rites under threat of torture and death.
Reformatting native religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned; preserved in the
Venerable BedeBede , also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or Beda , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria.He is well known as an author and...
's
Historia ecclesiastica gentis AnglorumThe Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Church in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history...
is a letter from
Pope Gregory IPope St. Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
to
MellitusMellitus was the first Bishop of London and the third Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the members of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo-Saxons. He was sent to England in 601 AD, and was accompanied by other clergy to agument the missonaries already there...
, arguing that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honour 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 behind them was forgotten. The existence of
syncretismSyncretism is the attempt to reconcile disparate or contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. This may involve attempts to merge and analogise several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an...
in Christian tradition has long been recognized by scholars, and in recent times many of the instances of syncretism have also been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic church.
Humanistic studies of Antiquity and the
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
combined in the sixteenth century to produce works of scholarship marked by an agenda that was occupied with identifying Roman Catholic practices with paganism, and identifying the emerging Protestant churches with a purgative "re-Christianization" of society. The Lutheran scholar Philip Melanchthon produced his
Apologia Confessionis Augustanae (1530) detailing the rites derived from pagan practices.
Heinrich BullingerHeinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...
,
De origine erroris libris duo (1539) detailed the pagan "origins of (Catholic) errors".
Isaac CasaubonIsaac Casaubon was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and then later in England, regarded by many of his time as the most learned in Europe.-Early life:...
,
De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticus exercitationes (1614) makes a third familiar example, where sound scholarship was somewhat compromised by sectarian pleading. Thus such pagan precedents for Christian practice have tended to be downplayed or even sometimes dismissed by Christian apologists as a form of Protestant Apologetics.
The 20th century saw more purely historical inquiries, free of sectarian bias; an early historicist classic in this field of study was
Jean SeznecJean Seznec was a historian and mythographer whose most influential book, for English-speaking readers, has been The Survival of the Pagan Gods: Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art, published in 1953...
's
The Survival of the Pagan Gods: the mythological tradition and its place in Renaissance humanism and the arts. (1972).
Symbols and symbolism
Although
the crossThe Christian cross is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity. It is a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It is related to the crucifix and to the more general family of cross symbols...
is currently the most common symbol of Christianity, and has been for many centuries, it only came to prominence during the fourth century, and was not particularly associated with Christianity before that time. According to Christian tradition, the cross is a reference to the
crucifixion of JesusThe Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
, and the
crucifixA crucifix is a cross with a representation of Jesus' body, or corpus. It is a principal symbol of the Christian religion...
is a more obvious, and some would say gruesome, version of such a reference. However, due to the highly ambiguous nature of the Greek terms used in the bible for his
crucifixion, it may be the case that the correct translation actually points to
JesusJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
having just been tied to a single stake of wood, rather than the cross shaped device in traditional depictions; though Christian translations into English often render these terms as
nailed to a cross, they could equally mean
nailed to a tree and
nailed to a wooden pole, which was another common method of
crucifixion in the Roman empire - the hands being tied above the head.
Crosses, however, were important symbols of several pre-Christian religions, including Hinduism where the
SwastikaThe swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form or its mirrored left-facing form. Archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates from the Neolithic period and was first found in the Indus Valley Civilization of the Indian...
was originally a prominent holy symbol and the religion of
Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
where the increasingly cross-shaped
AnkhThe ankh was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ˁ-n-ḫ...
was regarded as a symbol of life itself. The main early Christianity communities centred on Alexandria and Rome, and it is thought likely that the Alexandrian Christians adopted the Ankh, while the Rome-based Christians adopted the cross from influences such as depictions of
BacchusIn classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos is the god of wine, the inspirer of ritual madness and ecstasy, and a major figure of Greek mythology, and one of the twelve Olympians, amongst whom Greek mythology treated him as a late arrival...
with his head covered by cross symbols. Those who see Jesus as simply a Jewish form of the Osiris-Dionysus mythology consider the use of the Ankh symbol as an obvious continuation, while other scholars consider that it was adopted due to Christianity valuing its metaphysical connotations.
The predecessor of the cross as the main Christian symbol was the
labarumThe labarum was a vexillum that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol, formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" — Chi and Rho . It was first used by the Roman emperor Constantine I. Since the vexillum consisted of a flag suspended from the crossbar of a cross, it was ideally suited...
, a symbol formed by overlaying the first two letters of the Greek word for
christ in the Greek alphabet.
Constantine ICaesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus , commonly known in English as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or Saint Constantine , was Roman emperor from 306, and the sole holder of that office from 324 until his death in...
is widely considered to have introduced the symbol into Christianity, but the symbol itself predates this, and was also used by the major religion of
Sol InvictusSol Invictus was the Roman state-supported sun god created by the emperor Aurelian in 274 and continued, overshadowing other Eastern cults in importance, until the abolition of paganism under Theodosius I...
, due to its prior use as a major symbol representing good fortune. Prior to Christianity, the symbol had become considered to represent auspiciousness since it was earlier the symbol of
ChronosIn Greek mythology, Chronos in pre-Socratic philosophical works is said to be the personification of time. His name in Modern Greek also means "year" and is alternatively spelled Khronos or Chronus .Chronos was imagined as an incorporeal god...
, the Greek deity of time itself, whose name it forms the
monogramA monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos...
of, in much the same way as it monograms an epithet given by Christians to Jesus.
Although Christian tradition argues that Constantine chose the labarum because
he had a vision that lead him to convert to ChristianityThe Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. Under his rule, Christianity rose to become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire, and for his example of a "Christian monarch" Constantine is revered as a saint in...
, Constantine's conversion is disputed by many historians since he continued using clearly Sol Invictus related symbolism and wording on his currency for much of the remaineder of his life, remained the
Pontifex MaximusThe Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
of Mithraism/Ancient Roman religion for his entire life, and was only baptised on his deathbed (although this was common at the time; many Christians believed that if one sinned after baptism one's salvation was lost), and even that is disputed since the only witnesses were the same people that claimed that Constantine had been Christian for much longer. Most secular historians see Constantine's motive for choosing the labarum as political rather than supernatural or religious, with him deliberately making his banner one which could be interpreted as supporting either of the two major religions of the Roman Empire at the time; Constantine saw unity and conformity as the way to achieve political stability, and spent a great deal of time attempting to reduce division (for example by holding the
First Council of NicaeaThe First Council of Nicaea was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 CE...
to settle the question of
ArianismArianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heretic at the First Council of Nicea of 325, later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then pronounced a heretic again after his death at the First Council of Constantinople of 381...
). Although many Christian groups treat the symbol as having always been exclusively Christian, certain Protestant groups, particularly
RestorationistsIn Christianity the term restorationism, sometimes called Christian primitivism, refers to the belief that a purer form of Christianity should be restored using the early church as a model...
support the conclusions of secular scholars, and consequently regard the symbol as non-Christian, disowning it.
Prior to the labarum, the main Christian symbol, and the earliest, was a fish-like symbol now known as
IchthysIchthys or Ikhthus is the ancient and classical Greek word for "fish." In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, said to have been used by early Christians as a secret...
(the Greek word for
fish); the Greek word ιχθυς is an
acronymAcronyms and initialisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters or parts of words . There is no universal agreement on the precise definition of the various terms , nor on written usage...
for the phrase transliterated as " Iesou Christos Theou Yios Sotiras," 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 apostlesIn Christianity, apostles were missionaries among the leaders in the Early Church and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ himself. The term was also used, especially by the Gospel of Luke, for "the Twelve," Jesus' inner circle of disciples...
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).
Sacred sites
Few Christian churches built in the first half millennium of the established Christian Church were not built upon sites already consecrated as pagan temples or
mithraeaFor related deities see Mitra .The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery religion which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Information on the cult is based mainly on interpretations of monuments. These depict Mithras as born...
, the church of
Santa Maria sopra MinervaThe Basilica of Saint Mary Above Minerva is a titular minor basilica and one of the most important churches of the Roman Catholic Dominican order in Rome, Italy. The church, located in the Piazza della Minerva in the Campus Martius region, is considered the only Gothic church in Rome. It houses...
(literally
Saint Mary above MinervaMinerva was the Roman goddess whom Hellenizing Romans from the second century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of warriors, poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic and the inventor of music...
) in
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
being simply the most obvious example.
Sulpicius SeverusSulpicius Severus was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania. He is known for his chronicle of sacred history, as well as his biography of Saint Martin of Tours.-Life:...
, in his
Vita of
Martin of ToursSaint Martin of Tours , was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela...
, 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
BenedictBenedict of Nursia was a saint from Italy, the founder of Western Christian monasticism, and a rule-giver for cenobitic monks. His purpose may be gleaned from his Rule, namely that "Christ .....
took possession of the site at
Monte CassinoMonte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 km southeast of Rome, Italy, c. 2 km to the west of the town of Cassino and 520 m altitude. St. Benedict of Nursia established his first monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, here around 529. It was the site of Battle of Monte Cassino in...
, 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
druidA druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul, and perhaps in Celtic culture more generally, during the final centuries BCE...
ic are still densely punctuated by holy wells and holy springs that are now attributed to some
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
, 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 great
IrminsulAn Irminsul was a kind of pillar which is attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxon people. The oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air...
(whose location is now lost, but was possibly located at
ExternsteineThe Externsteine [ˈɛkstɐnʃtaɪnə] are a distinctive rock formation located in the Teutoburger Wald region of northwestern Germany, not far from the city of Detmold at Horn-Bad Meinberg. The formation consists of several tall, narrow columns of rock which rise abruptly from the surrounding wooded hills...
), were destroyed by Christianizing forces.
During the
ReconquistaThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
and the
CrusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
, the cross served the symbolic function of possession that a flag would occupy today. At the
siege of LisbonThe Siege of Lisbon, from July 1 to October 25, 1147, was the military action that brought the city of Lisbon under definitive Portuguese control and expelled its Moorish overlords...
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
The
historicityHistoricity may mean:*the quality of being part of recorded history, as opposed to prehistory*the quality of being part of history as opposed to being ahistorical myth or legend** Historicity of the Iliad**Historicity *** Historicity of Jesus...
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 officially decanonised some Christian Saints, demoted others, and pronounced the historicity of others to be dubious. Though highly popular in the Middle Ages, many of these such saints have since been largely forgotten since, and their names may now seem quite unfamiliar. The most prominent amongst these is
Saint EustaceSaint Eustace, also known as Eustachius or Eustathius, was a legendary Christian martyr who lived in the 2nd century AD. A martyr of that name is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, which, however, judges that the legend recounted about him is "completely fabulous." For that reason...
, who was extremely popular in earlier times, but scholars now see 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 SarahSaint Sarah, also known as Sara-la-Kali , is the mythic patron saint of the Roma people. The center of her veneration is Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a place of pilgrimage for Roma in the Camargue, in southern France...
, for example, also known as
Sarah-la-Kali, is thought by scholars to be a Christianization of
KaliKali , also known as Kalika , is a Hindu goddess associated with eternal energy. The name Kali means "black", but has by folk etymology come to mean "force of time ". Despite her negative connotations, Kali is today considered the goddess of time and change...
, a Hindu deity.
Other more obviously Christian figures, such as certain bishops whose existence are widely attested in historic literature, and central figures such as Mary, the mother of Jesus, Michael, the archangel, and
SatanSatan is an embodiment of antagonism that originates from the Abrahamic religions, being traditionally considered an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and a Jinn in Islamic belief...
, are not however, without later legendary additions to their more historic narratives. Not only are there
apocryphal writingsThe New Testament apocrypha are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. These writings often have links with those books which are regarded as "canonical"...
such as the
Home-going of the holy Mary (about her death), but much iconography associated with certain figures, such as with Michael and with Mary, is suspected by several historians to be Christianization of earlier iconography that originally concerned other, non-Christian, figures. The similarity of Christian depictions of demons to several pre-Christian deities, and deity-related figures such as
SatyrIn Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains...
s, has led several scholars to argue that the stereotypical Christian depiction of Satan, and of demons in general, was deliberate demonisation of benign figures from rival religions.
Calendar
Several Christian feasts occupy moments in the year that were formerly devoted to pagan celebrations. Familiar examples are the Roman
SaturnaliaSaturnalia is the feast with which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which was on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, to 23 December.Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals...
, converted to
ChristmasChristmas , also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini...
, the festivities of
YuleYule or Yule-tide is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic peoples as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January...
in northern Europe, the name of
EostreOld English Ēostre and Old High German Ôstarâ are the names of a putative Germanic goddess whose Anglo-Saxon month, Ēostur-monath, has given its name to the Christian festival of Easter...
converted to English "
EasterEaster is the most important annual religious feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day from his crucifixion...
" to identify the Paschal festival, the celebration of
MidsummerMidsummer may simply refer to the period of time centered upon the summer solstice, but more often refers to specific European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice, or that take place around the 24th of June and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between cultures...
Day as the birthday feast of
John the BaptistJohn the Baptist was a mission preacher and a major religious figure who led a movement of Baptism at the Jordan River in expectation of a divine apocalypse that would restore occupied Israel...
, and the celebrations of the
Feast of the LemuresIn Roman religion, the Lemuralia or Lemuria was a feast during which the ancient Romans performed rites to exorcise the malevolent and fearful ghosts of the dead from their homes. The unwholesome spectres of the restless dead, the lemures or larvae were propitiated with offerings of beans...
and of Celtic
SamhainSamhain is a festival held at the end of the harvest season in Gaelic and Brythonic cultures. The festival has aspects of a festival of the dead...
combined and transferred to the eve of All Saints' Day a.k.a.
HalloweenHalloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Gaelic pagan festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones...
.
Christians in authority frowned upon the riot and disorder of the pre-Christian festivals; in regard to Yule, the friend and biographer of
Saint EligiusSaint Eligius or Loye is the patron saint of goldsmiths, other metalworkers, and coin collectors. He is also the patron saint of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers , a corps of the British Army, but he is best known for being the patron saint of horses and those who work with them...
recorded that the bishop called the "Apostle to the Frisians" would caution his flock
[Do not] make vetulas, (little figures of the Old Woman), little deer or iotticos or set tables at night (for the house-elf, compare PuckPuck may refer to:* Puck , a nature spirit* Puck , used instead of a ball in ice hockey and other sports* Puck , a late 20th century US periodical* Puck , a 19th century US periodical...
) or exchange New Year gifts or supply superfluous drinks. However, such pre-Christian activities proved hard to suppress, and several edicts were given that instruct missionaries to attempt to absorb earlier traditions into Christianity so as to distract people from their pre-Christian gods; All Souls' Day was for example accepted by Odilo (died 1048) in the
CluniacCluny Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in Cluny, department of Saône-et-Loire, France.It was founded in 910 by William I, Count of Auvergne, who installed Abbot Berno and placed the abbey under the immediate authority of Pope Sergius III...
monasteries, and its observance spread through the Celtic north before it was introduced into Italy.
Ritual
The obvious connection to Jewish rituals of Christian practices such as the
EucharistThe Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Table, the Blessed Sacrament, or The Lord's Supper and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance, generally considered to be a commemoration of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his...
and
BaptismIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
, is often argued to be by design. Christian tradition places these Christian use of these activities as having originated in the life of Jesus, as attested by the Biblical narratives (e.g. the
Baptism of JesusThe Baptism of Jesus Christ inaugurates his public ministry as an adult. Matthew's infancy narrative has established Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, Son of David and King of the Jews. Matthew's description of John the Baptist explains that John preached repentance before the coming judgment,...
for Baptism, and
Last SupperIn the Christian Gospels, the Last Supper was the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles and disciples before his death...
for the Eucharist), and the Biblical incidents are said to be examples of Jewish ritual (e.g. Baptism as ritual cleansing, and the
Last SupperIn the Christian Gospels, the Last Supper was the last meal Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles and disciples before his death...
as a
passoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
sederSeder is a Hebrew word meaning "order", and can have any of the following meanings:For Jewish holidays:*Passover Seder, relives the enslavement and subsequent Exodus of the Children of Israel from Ancient Egypt...
). However, these practices are also present in several non-Christian, non-Jewish, ancient religions, a fact that made several
church fathersThe Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The term is used of writers and teachers of the Church, not necessarily saints...
uncomfortable. So similar were the practices of major rivals, such as
MithraismFor related deities see Mitra .The Mithraic Mysteries or Mysteries of Mithras was a mystery religion which became popular among the military in the Roman Empire, from the 1st to 4th centuries AD. Information on the cult is based mainly on interpretations of monuments. These depict Mithras as born...
, and so obviously did they occur before the existence of Christianity, and unconnected to Judaism, that church fathers such as
TertullianQuintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian, was a prolific and controversial early Christian Berber author, and the first to write Christian Latin literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy...
and
Justin MartyrJustin Martyr was an early Christian apologist and saint. His works represent the earliest surviving Christian "apologies" of notable size.-Life:Most of what is known about the life of Justin Martyr comes from his own writings...
argued that Satan himself had given the rituals to the rival religions, as a sort-of prophetic mockery. According to several secular scholars, the fact that even early Christian church fathers admitted that the other religions used these rituals, and that they admitted the other religions used them first, suggests that Christianity adopted them from these sources, and the biblical narrative was invented later to justify Christian usage. However, it could also be argued that the biblical narrative refers to the practices as they were known in Judaism, while the forms in traditional Christianity were taken from other religious sources.
Early Christianity (pre-Nicaean)
The
Council of JerusalemThe Council of Jerusalem is a name applied subsequently to a meeting described in Acts of the Apostles chapter and possibly referred to in Paul's letter to the Galatians chapter...
, according to , determined that circumcision was not required of Gentile converts, only avoidance of "pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood" (KJV, Acts 15:20), establishing nascent Christianity as an attractive alternative to
JudaismHellenistic Judaism was a movement which existed in the Jewish diaspora before the Siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD, that sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism...
for prospective
ProselyteThis article is about the Biblical term "Proselyte", derived from the Koine Greek προσήλυτος/proselytos, as used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the New Testament for a convert to Judaism from Paganism...
s. The
Twelve ApostlesIn Christianity, apostles were missionaries among the leaders in the Early Church and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ himself. The term was also used, especially by the Gospel of Luke, for "the Twelve," Jesus' inner circle of disciples...
and the
Apostolic FathersThe Apostolic Fathers are a small number of Early Christian authors who lived and wrote in the second half of the 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century. They are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, although their writings were not included in the New Testament. They include St....
initiated the process of integration of the originally Jewish sect (outlawed as
religio illicita since the 80s) into
Hellenistic religionHellenistic religion is any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the peoples who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and the Roman Empire . There was much continuity in Hellenistic religion: the Greek gods continued to be worshipped, and...
(Christianity and Neoplatonism), a process culminating only at the end of Classical Antiquity, with
Pseudo-Dionysius the AreopagitePseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century whose Corpus Areopagiticum was pseudonymously ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of St. Paul mentioned in...
.
The Armenian and Ethiopian churches are the only instances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulers predating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
occurred mostly in urban areas of Europe, where the first converts occurred through the conversion of most of the Jewish population. Later conversions happened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations over centuries, again mostly among its urban population and only spread to rural populations in much later centuries. The term "pagan" is from Latin, it means
"villager, rustic, civilian" and is derived from this historical transition. The root of that word is present in today's word "paisan" or "paisano". Consequently, while the initial converts were found among the
JewishJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
populations, the development of the Orthodox Church as an aspect of State society occurred through the co-option of State Religion into the ethos of Christianity and only then was conversion of the large rural population accomplished.
Late Antiquity (4th-6th centuries)
When
YaleYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
historian
Ramsay MacMullenRamsay MacMullen is an Emeritus Professor of history at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics...
treated the Christianization of the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
, he divided his book in two sections, before and after the year 312, which marked the momentous conversion of Constantine. Constantine ended the persecution of Christianity (and other religions) with the
Edict of MilanThe Edict of Milan was a letter signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire...
, so that the Imperial
paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
religion of Ancient RomeAncient Roman religion encompasses the collection of beliefs and rituals practised in ancient Rome in the form of cult practices. It is therefore the practical counterpart of Roman mythology. Within the Roman world, religious practice varied enough so that one might speak of Roman religions. The...
was no longer the only acceptable religion by the state. Whether or not Constantine himself was a proponent of what was to follow is contested. Under Constantine's successors, Christianization of Roman society proceeded by fits and starts, as John Curran recently documented in detail.
Constantine's sons, for example, banned pagan State religious sacrifices in 341, but did not close the temples. Although all State temples in all cities were ordered shut in 356, there is evidence that traditional sacrifices continued. Under
JulianFlavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher , was Roman Emperor , last of the Constantinian dynasty...
, the temples were reopened and State religious sacrifices legalized once more. When
GratianFlavius Gratianus , known usually by the anglicised name Gratian, was a Western Roman Emperor from 375 to 383....
declined the position and title of
Pontifex MaximusThe Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
, his act effectively brought an end to the state religion due to the positions authority and ties within the Imperial administration. Again however, this process ended State official practices but not the private religious practices. Consequently, the temples remained open until
Theodosius IFlavius Theodosius , also called Theodosius I and Theodosius the Great , was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Reuniting the eastern and western portions of the empire, Theodosius was the last emperor of both the Eastern and Western Roman Empire...
made the public expression of the ancient cults illegal, bringing an era of religious toleration decisively to an end.
After Rome was declared a
Christian EmpireChristendom, or the Christian world, has several meanings. In a cultural sense it refers to the worldwide community of Christians, adherents of Christianity. This community numbers in the billions of people of the world population. This community is spread across many different nations and ethnic...
by Theodosius in 380, laws were passed against pagan practices over the course of the following years. Many of the ancient pagan temples were subsequently defiled, sacked, and destroyed, or converted into Christian sites. As such, the Christianization attributed to Constantine eventually became a more coercive process under Theodosius.
The early Christianization of the various Germanic peoples was achieved by various means, and was partly facilitated by the prestige of the Christian
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
amongst European pagans. The early rise of Germanic Christianity was, thus, mainly due to voluntary conversion on a small scale.
In the 4th century some Eastern Germanic tribes, notably the
GothsThe Goths were a heterogeneous East Germanic tribe. The historian Jordanes claimed that the Goths arrived from semi-legendary Scandza, believed to be somewhere in modern Götaland , and that a Gothic population had crossed the Baltic Sea before the 2nd century, lending their name to the region of...
, an East Germanic tribe, adopted
ArianismArianism is the theological teaching of Arius , a Christian priest, who was first ruled a heretic at the First Council of Nicea of 325, later exonerated in 335 at the First Synod of Tyre, and then pronounced a heretic again after his death at the First Council of Constantinople of 381...
. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted) by
missionariesA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, firstly among the
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
, after
Clovis IClovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one king. He also introduced Christianity. He was the son of Childeric I and Basina. At age 16, he succeeded his father, in the year 481...
's conversion to Catholicism in 496. The
LombardsThe Lombards were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italy in 568 under the leadership of Alboin. They established a Kingdom of Italy which lasted until 774, when it was conquered by the Franks...
adopted Catholicism as they entered
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, also during the 6th century.
Unlike the history of Christianity in the Roman Empire, conversion of the West and East Germanic tribes took place "top to bottom", in the sense that missionaries aimed at converting Germanic nobility first, which would then impose their new faith on the general population.
The
FranksThe Franks or Frankish people were a West Germanic tribal confederation first attested in the 3rd century as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul...
were converted in the 5th century, after
Clovis IClovis was the first King of the Franks to unite all the Frankish tribes under one king. He also introduced Christianity. He was the son of Childeric I and Basina. At age 16, he succeeded his father, in the year 481...
's conversion to Catholicism. In 498 (497 or 499 are also possible) he let himself be baptised in
ReimsThe city of Rheims , in English and in French, lies in the Champagne-Ardenne region in north-eastern France 129 km east-northeast of Paris....
. With this act, the Frankish Kingdom became Christian, although it would take until the 7th century for the population to abandon some of their pagan customs. This was typical of the Christianization of Europe. Christian and pagan practices would effectively exist in parallel.
Middle Ages (7th-15th centuries)
Anglo-Saxon England
During the reign of
Ethelbert of KentÆthelberht was King of Kent from about 580 or 590 until his death. In his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, the monk Bede lists Aethelberht as the third king to hold imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms...
,
Pope Gregory IPope St. Gregory I , better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death...
decided to regain the island for Christianity. Between the sixth and the tenth century, the mission of the Catholic Church and the
Hiberno-Scottish missionThe Hiberno-Scottish mission was a mission led by Irish and Scottish monks which spread Christianity and established monasteries in Great Britain and continental Europe during the Middle Ages. The mission began in 563 with the foundation of Iona by the Irish monk Saint Columba, and was initially...
Christianized England, working largely independently.
Frankish Empire
The
Germanic peoplesThe Germanic peoples are a historical ethno-linguistic group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age...
underwent gradual Christianization in the course of the
Early Middle AgesThe Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It lasted from about AD 500 to 1000. The period featured raiding, migration, and conquest by Huns, Germanic peoples, Arabs, Vikings, Hungarians and others. There was frequent...
, resulting in a unique form of Christianity known as
Germanic ChristianityThe Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By the 8th century, most of England and the Frankish Empire was, in principle, Christian, and by AD 1100, Germanic paganism had also ceased to have political influence in...
in some cases. The Eastern and Western tribes were the first to convert through various means. However, it wouldn't be until the 12th century until the North Germanic Tribes had Christianized.
In the polytheistic Germanic tradition it was even possible to worship Jesus next to the native gods like Wodan and
ThorThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
. Before a battle, a pagan military leader might pray to Jesus for victory, instead of Odin, if he expected more help from the Christian God. Clovis had done that before a battle against one of the kings of the
AlamanniThe Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–17 and claimed thereby to be their...
, and had thus attributed his victory to Jesus. Such
utilitarianIn economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from, or desirability of, consumption of various goods and services. Given this measure, one may speak meaningfully of increasing or decreasing utility, and thereby explain economic behavior in terms of attempts to increase one's utility...
thoughts were the basis of most conversions of rulers during this period. The Christianization of the Franks laid the foundation for the further Christianization of the Germanic peoples.
The next impulse came from the edge of Europe. Although
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
had never been part of the Roman Empire, Christianity had come there and developed, largely independently into
Celtic ChristianityCeltic Christianity or Insular Christianity is a term referring broadly to the Early Medieval Christian practice that developed in Britain and Ireland before and during the sub-Roman period. During this period, the Roman withdrawal and the Anglo-Saxon invasion sharply reduced contact between the...
. The Irish monks had developed a concept of
peregrinatio. This essentially meant, that a monk would leave the monastery and his Christian country to proselytize among the heathens, as self-chosen punishment for his sins. From 590 onwards Irish missionaries were active in Gaul, Scotland, Wales and England.
On the Continent, the
West GermanicThe West Germanic tribes were Germanic peoples who spoke the branch of Germanic languages known as West Germanic languages.They appear to be derived from the Jastorf culture, a Pre-Roman Iron Age offshoot of the Nordic Bronze Age culture....
Saxon peoples were converted by force. In the course of the
Saxon WarsThe Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany...
CharlemagneCharlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe...
destroyed their
IrminsulAn Irminsul was a kind of pillar which is attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxon people. The oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air...
in 772, and in 782 he allegedly ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxon nobles who were caught practicing their native paganism in spite of being baptized, at the Blood court of Verden.
Bulgaria
After its establishment under
Krum of BulgariaKrum was Khan of Bulgaria, from sometime after 796, but before 803, to 814 AD. During his reign the Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle Danube to the Dnieper and from Odrin to the Tatra Mountains.-Family Origin:...
, the new Kingdom of
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
found itself between the kingdom of the East Franks and the
Byzantine EmpireThe Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on the capital of Constantinople, and ruled by Emperors in direct and de jure succession to the ancient Roman Emperors...
. Christianization then took place in the 9th century under
Boris I of BulgariaBoris I or sometimes Boris-Mihail , also known as Bogoris was the ruler of Bulgaria 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III.-Name and titles:...
. The Bulgarians became
Eastern Orthodox ChristiansThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
and the
Bulgarian Orthodox ChurchThe Bulgarian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.8 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 2.5 and 3.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
was created.
Poland
The "Baptism of Poland" in 966 refers to the baptism of
Mieszko IMieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. Member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of the legendary Siemomysł, grandchild of Lestek and father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland, and Świętosława , a Nordic Queen.The first historical ruler of Poland,...
, the first ruler of a 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; by the 13th century, Roman Catholicism had become the dominant
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
in Poland.
Hungary
In the Middle Ages, the
Kingdom of HungaryThis article deals with the history of the Kingdom of Hungary from the 10th century to c. 1526.Note that, although strictly speaking a "kingdom" arose only in AD 1000 and a Hungarian state or principality only in the late 9th century, this text also describes its early development after the year...
(which was larger than modern day
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
) was Christianized between 970 and 1038.
Kievan Rus'
Between the 8th and the 13th century the area of what now is
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
was settled by the
Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus , usually written simply Kievan Rus and sometimes Kyivan Rus, was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 13th century...
. An attempt to Christianize them had already been made in the 9th century, with the
Christianization of the Rus' KhaganateThe Christianization of the Rus' Khaganate is supposed to have happened in the 860s and was the first stage in the process of Christianization of the East Slavs which continued well into the 11th century...
. The efforts were finally successful in the 10th century, when about 980 Vladimir the Great was baptized at
ChersonesosChersonesos was an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2500 years ago in the southwestern part of Crimea, known then as Taurica...
.
Scandinavia
For the purposes of this article the
Christianization of Scandinavia refers to the process of
conversionReligious conversion is the adoption of new religious beliefs that differ from the convert's previous beliefs. It involves a new religious identity, or a change from one religious identity to another. Conversion requires internalization of the new belief system...
to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
of the
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
n people, starting in the 8th century with the arrival of
missionariesA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
in Denmark and it was at least nominally complete by the 12th century, although the
SamisThe Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia but also in the border area between south and middle Sweden...
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 sinOriginal sin is, according to a doctrine proposed in Christian theology, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt,...
, the
Immaculate ConceptionThe Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic Dogma, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain of original sin. Under this aspect Mary is sometimes called the Immaculata , particularly in artistic contexts...
, the
TrinityThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Each of the persons is understood as having the one...
and so forth. Archaeological excavations of burial sites on the island of
LovönLovön is an island located in the Swedish Lake Mälaren in Ekerö Municipality of Stockholm County. It was a municipality of its own until 1952, when it was joined with Ekerö Municipality. Lovön's greatest attraction is Drottningholm Palace and its many public gardens, which were built on the island...
near modern-day
Stockholm' is the capital and largest city of Sweden. It is the site of the national Swedish government, the Riksdag , and the official residence of the Swedish Monarch as well as the prime minister. The Monarch resides at Drottningholm Palace outside of Stockholm since 1980 and uses the Royal Palace of...
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. 13th century runic inscriptions from the bustling merchant town of
BergenBergen is the second largest city in Norway, with a population of 253,600 as of July 2009. Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Economic Region, as defined by Statistics Norway, had a population of 385,450 as of January 2009.Bergen is located in the...
in Norway show little Christian influence, and one of them appeals to a
ValkyrieIn Norse mythology, a valkyrie is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. The valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin, where the deceased warriors become einherjar...
. At this time, enough knowledge of
Norse mythologyNorse, North Germanic, or Scandinavian mythology comprises the myths of North Germanic pre-Christian religion.Most of the written sources for Norse mythology were assembled in medieval Iceland in Old Norse, notably as the Edda....
remained to be preserved in sources such as the Eddas in
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
.
Baltic
The
Northern Crusades or
Baltic Crusades were
crusadesThe Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
undertaken by the
CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
kings of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
and
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
, the German
LivonianBishop Albert of Riga founded the military order of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202; Pope Innocent III sanctioned the establishment in 1204. The membership of the order comprised German "warrior monks"...
and
TeutonicThe Order of the Teutonic Knights of St. Mary's Hospital in Jerusalem , or for short the Teutonic Order , is a German Roman Catholic religious order. It was formed to aid Catholics on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals to care for the sick and injured...
military orderA military order is a Christian order of knighthood that is founded for crusading, i.e. propagating and/or defending the faith , either in the Holy Land or against Islam or pagans in Europe, but many became secularized later.-History:Catholic military orders appeared following the...
s, and their allies against the
paganPaganism is a word with several different meanings.In its broadest definition, pagan denotes all non-Abrahamic religions, that is to say it denotes all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.Other usages are:*Paganism may mean Polytheism: The group so defined includes most of the...
peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the
Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
. Swedish and German campaigns against
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n
Eastern Orthodox ChristiansThe Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
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 onesFirst Swedish Crusade is a legendary military expedition presumably in the 1150s that has traditionally been seen as the conquest of Finland by Sweden, with pagan Finns converting to Christianity. According to the legend, the crusade was conducted by King Eric IX of Sweden...
, were first dubbed crusades by 19th century
romantic nationalistRomantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...
historians.
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
and
SamogitiaSamogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania.-Geography:The region is located in northwestern Lithuania in the territories of Palanga city municipality, Rietavas municipality, Tauragė district municipality, Šilalė district municipality, Skuodas district municipality, Jurbarkas...
were ultimately Christianized from 1386 until 1417 by the initiative of the Grand Duke of Lithuania
JogailaJogaila, later ' , was Grand Duke of Lithuania and later King of Poland. He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle, Kęstutis. In 1386, he converted to Christianity, was baptized as Władysław, married the young Queen Jadwiga of Poland, inducted into the Order of the Dragon and was...
and his cousin Vytautas.
Reconquista
Between 711–718 the
Iberian peninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
had been conquered by Muslims in the
Umayyad conquest of HispaniaThe Umayyad conquest of Hispania began as an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Berbers, inhabitants of Northwest Africa recently converted to Islam, invaded the Christian Visigothic Kingdom located on the Iberian peninsula...
; Between 722 (see:
Battle of CovadongaThe Battle of Covadonga was the first major victory by a Christian military force in Iberia following the Muslim Moors' conquest of that region in 711...
) and 1492 (see:
the Conquest of GranadaThe Conquest of Granada is a Restoration era stage play, a two-part tragedy written by John Dryden that was first acted in 1670 and 1671 and published in 1672...
) the Christian Kingdoms that later would become
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
reconquered it from the
MoorishThe description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of Muslim people of Berber, Black African and Arab descent from North Africa, some of whom came to conquer and occupy the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. The North Africans termed it Al Andalus, comprising most...
states of
Al-ÁndalusAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
.
The notorious
Spanish InquisitionThe Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal started in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the medieval inquisition which was under papal control...
and
Portuguese InquisitionThe Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but it was only after his death that the pope acquiesced...
were not installed until 1478 and 1536 when the Reconquista was already (mostly) completed.
Colonial era (16th-19th centuries)
The expansion of the
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
Portuguese EmpireThe Portuguese Empire was the first global empire in history, with territories in South America, Africa, India and South East Asia...
and
Spanish EmpireThe Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in world history, and one of the first global empires. It included territories and colonies in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, from the 15th century through—in the case of its African holdings—the latter portion of the 20th century...
with a significant roled played by the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
led to the Christianization of the indigenous populations of the Americas such as the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
s and
IncaThe Inca civilization began as a tribe in the Cuzco area, where the legendary first Sapa Inca, Manco Capac founded the Kingdom of Cuzco around 1200. Under the leadership of the descendants of Manco Capac, the Inca state grew to absorb other Andean communities. In 1442, the Incas began a...
s. Later waves of colonial expansion such as the
Scramble for AfricaThe Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa, was the result of conflicting European claims to African territory during the New Imperialism period, between the 1880s and the First World War in 1914....
or the struggle for India, by the
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
led to Christianization of other native populations across the globe such as the
American IndiansThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
,
FilipinosThe Filipino people are the nationals of the Republic of the Philippines and to persons having Filipino ancestry. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines and about 11 million outside the Philippines....
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
ns and
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
ns led to the expansion of Christianity eclipsing that of the Roman period and making it a truly global religion.
See also
- Christian debate on persecution and toleration
- European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492, although there was at least one earlier colonization effort...
- Goa Inquisition
The Goa Inquisition was the office of the Inquisition acting in the Indian state of Goa and the rest of the Portuguese empire in Asia. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774-1778, and finally abolished in 1812....
- Missions
A Christian mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974, as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous church-planting and world changing movement." This definition is motivated by a theologically imperative theme of the Bible to make God known, as outlined in the...
- Missionaries in India
-Early missionaries:* Thomas the Apostle. * St. Francis Xavier.* Roberto de Nobili.* Edward H Noel. -Protestant missionaries:These include:* Michelle Barglind.* Paul Olaf Bodding.* Paul Wilson Brand....
- Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religiously-sanctioned military campaigns waged by much of Latin Christian Europe, particularly the Franks of France and the Holy Roman Empire. The specific crusades to restore Christian control of the Holy Land were fought over a period of nearly 200 years, between...
- Conquistador
Conquistador is the term widely used to refer to the Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th through the 17th centuries following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
- Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt in China from 1850 to 1864, during the Qing Dynasty, by an army led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan...
External links