What does dechristianize mean?
Dechristianize is a formal verb meaning to strip a society, institution, place, or individual of Christian character, influence, or practice. It is most closely associated with the French Revolution, when government campaigns sought to eliminate Christianity from public life by closing churches, persecuting clergy, replacing the Christian calendar, and installing secular civic rituals in its place. Beyond that historical context, the word appears in academic writing about secularization more broadly and occasionally in modern debates over religion's role in public institutions. The verb takes what is being transformed as its object — one dechristianizes a nation, a school system, or a population — and its noun form, dechristianization, names the resulting process. Because it denotes deliberate, often state-driven removal of religion rather than gradual cultural drift, it tends to carry a weightier, more dramatic connotation than the broader term secularize, and it remains a precise and useful term for historians and sociologists of religion.
verbTo deprive a society, institution, person, or place of its Christian character, influence, or practices; to cause something to cease being Christian in character.
- To remove Christian character, influence, or institutions from a country, society, or community (the dominant sense, especially in historical accounts of Revolutionary France).
- To cause an individual person to abandon Christian belief or practice.
"The revolutionary government sought to dechristianize France by closing churches and replacing the Gregorian calendar."
"The Jacobins attempted to dechristianize France, renaming churches and abolishing the Christian calendar."
"Historians debate how thoroughly the regime managed to dechristianize rural communities, where Catholic practice often persisted in private."
During the French Revolution, radicals were so committed to dechristianizing France that they rededicated Notre-Dame Cathedral to the 'Cult of Reason' — and even replaced Christianity with a new 'Religion of Humanity'.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dechristianize
Dechristianize combines the privative prefix de-, meaning reversal or removal, with 'Christian', which traces through Latin Christianus ('follower of Christ') to Greek Khristos ('anointed'), plus the verb-forming suffix -ize from Greek -izein. The word was formed on the model of earlier verbs like 'Christianize' and entered English via French déchristianiser during the late eighteenth century, when the French Revolution made dechristianization a matter of intense political concern. It shares its root with cognates such as 'Christendom' and 'christen'.
Related word forms
How dechristianize is actually used
A formal, largely historical or academic term, most frequently encountered in discussions of the French Revolution and other state-led secularization campaigns. It carries no inherent approval or condemnation, but because it describes deliberate action against religion, it can sound charged in contemporary political debate.
Easily confused with dechristianize
To Christianize means to convert something to Christianity, whereas dechristianize means precisely the opposite — to strip away Christian character or influence.