Editing Christianization (section)

{{short description|Process by which Christianity spreads in a society or culture}}
{{Christianization}}
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{{History of religion}}
{{Christianity|expanded=Related}}
'''Christianization''' (or '''Christianisation''') is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to [[Christianity]]. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individual conversions, but has also, in some instances, been the result of violence by individuals and groups such as governments and militaries. Christianization is also the term used to designate the conversion of previously non-Christian practices, spaces and places to Christian uses and names. In a third manner, the term has been used to describe the changes that naturally emerge in a nation when sufficient numbers of individuals convert, or when secular leaders require those changes. Christianization of a nation is an ongoing process.{{sfn|Lim|2012|p=497}}{{sfn|Butler|1990|p=18}}

It began in the [[Roman Empire]] when the early individual followers of [[Jesus]] became [[itinerant preacher]]s in response to the command recorded in Matthew 28:19 (sometimes called the [[Great Commission]]) to go to all the nations of the world and preach the good news of [[The Gospel|the gospel]] of Jesus.{{sfn|Plummer|2005|p=33}} Christianization spread through the Roman Empire and into its surrounding nations in its first three hundred years. The process of Christianizing the Roman Empire was never completed, and [[Armenia]] became the first nation to designate Christianity as its state religion in 301.

After 479, Christianization spread through missions north into western Europe. In the [[High Middle Ages|High]] and [[Late Middle Ages]], Christianization was instrumental in the creation of new nations in what became [[Eastern Europe]], and in the spread of literacy there. In the modern era, Christianization became associated with [[colonialism]], which, in an almost equal distribution, missionaries both participated in and opposed. In the post-colonial era, it has produced dramatic growth in [[China]] as well as in many former colonial lands in much of [[Africa]]. Christianization has become a diverse, pluralist, global phenomenon of the largest religion in the world.