[f. EVANGELIZE v. + -ATION.]
1. The action or work of preaching the Gospel.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 270. The work of Christs Ministers, is Evangelization; that is, a Proclamation of Christ, and a preparation for his second comming, as the Evangelization of John Baptist, was a preparation to his first coming.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., v. 122. Instead of holding up … evangelisation…, they make the cultivation of knowledge the business of the life.
2. The action or process of evangelizing, or bringing under the influence of the Gospel.
1827. G. S. Faber, Sacred Cal. Prophecy (1844), I. 195. When this universal evangelisation shall have taken place.
1869. Farrar, Fam. Speech, iii. (1873), 105. The Aryan should advance farther and farther to the civilisation … the evangelisation of the whole habitable globe.
1879. Maclear, Celts, iii. 38. The most powerful influence in the gradual evangelization of the Celtic races.
1883. F. D. Millet, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 498/2. The evangelization of the Dalecarlians.
b. The action of interpreting (heathen myths) in an evangelic or Christian sense.
1843. Turner, trans. Geijer’s Hist. Sweden (L.). The evangelization of the native superstitions was the first object of these latitudinarian missionaries.
3. The state or condition of being evangelized or converted to the Christian faith.
1870–4. R. Anderson, Missions Amer. Board, IV. xlvi. 481. The effect of the thorough evangelization of that community.
Hence Evangelizationer (nonce-wd.), one engaged in evangelization.
1825. R. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXII. 26. One of these qualified evangelizationers has devised what he calls Church questions.
