Deleted member 5909
It's been a while since I posted here, but lately, I've been mulling over an idea for a TL: What if Jesus had never been born, and instead, an alternate Abrahamic faith had been founded by St John the Baptist, that ended up taking the place of OTL Christianity? What would such a faith look like?
I was thinking of a *Johannine faith that is, like OTL Christianity, influenced by Hellenistic philosophy early in its development, with an emphasis on monotheism, theosis, and the remission of sin, with John the Baptist being seen as the "seal of the prophets". Likely, the eschatology would view him as the forerunner to an eventual Messiah in the distant future. This is, of course, only a rough idea, I'm certainly open to suggestions.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?
Note: The non-existence of Jesus in this TL is purely for the purposes of fiction and not meant to offend anyone's religious sensibilities (or lack thereof). Interestingly enough, as an aside, I'm actually an Anglo-Catholic who came up with the idea while reading the Church Fathers in preparation for possibly attending seminary to take Holy Orders.
I was thinking of a *Johannine faith that is, like OTL Christianity, influenced by Hellenistic philosophy early in its development, with an emphasis on monotheism, theosis, and the remission of sin, with John the Baptist being seen as the "seal of the prophets". Likely, the eschatology would view him as the forerunner to an eventual Messiah in the distant future. This is, of course, only a rough idea, I'm certainly open to suggestions.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?
Note: The non-existence of Jesus in this TL is purely for the purposes of fiction and not meant to offend anyone's religious sensibilities (or lack thereof). Interestingly enough, as an aside, I'm actually an Anglo-Catholic who came up with the idea while reading the Church Fathers in preparation for possibly attending seminary to take Holy Orders.