History of Evangelization: Encounters and Disencounters During the Modern Age (16th–19th Centuries)
A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 February 2026) | Viewed by 2129
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The history of Christianization, from the conquest of the Nasrid Kingdom by Spanish Christian troops (1492) to the end of the 19th century, has had common elements across different continents. The various trade routes that opened up across the oceans—such as the Portuguese Carreira da Índia, the Manila Galleon or Nao de la China, and the Spanish Carrera de Indias, as well as the English, Dutch, or French trade routes—became vehicles for the development of new missionary strategies of evangelization alongside trade. European Catholic, Protestant, or Anglican countries deployed missionaries in the new territories that had been conquered or with which trade relations had been established. This changed after the emergence of a new world order in the wake of the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), which led to the reorganization of international balances of power. The fall of the empires of the Modern Age with their overseas territories also meant a change in the methods of Christianization.
This Special Issue will deal with these missionary methods in the different African, Asian, and American territories, where Catholics, Protestants, and Anglicans designed unique Christianization strategies for the populations they encountered. The encounters between different cultures and their varied degrees of scientific development influenced the design of different methods.
The form of economic globalization in which we currently live has led to a rediscovery and study of these catechetical programs and, along with this fact, there is also interest among the various Christian confessions in undertaking a new global evangelization in the contemporary age. In our opinion, and from the Catholic perspective, the fact that the previous Pope (Francis)—a Jesuit—appropitiated the mission from his religious tradition, and that the current Pope (Leo XIV)—an Augustinian—is an American and a missionary in Latin America who seeks to enhance the essential Catholic evangelizing dimension and the research thereof.
We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send this to the Guest Editor (jfolgado@comillas.edu) or to the Religions Editorial Office (religions@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the special issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Jesús Folgado García
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- evangelization
- Christianization
- Papacy
- Protestant reformation
- Anglicanism
- cultural adaptation
- inculturation
- cultural hybridization
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