AH Challenge: Gnosticism dominates!

Exactly what would have happened if (one branch of) Gnosticism would have survived and outcompeted Christianity in those early centuries?

I mean, how much would it change Europe and the rest of the world?
Would it result into an age of enlightenment for Europe?

Or would there simply be another Dark Age, but then with a different religion that's grown dogmatic and intolerant?
 

Keenir

Banned
Exactly what would have happened if (one branch of) Gnosticism would have survived and outcompeted Christianity in those early centuries?

I mean, how much would it change Europe and the rest of the world?
Would it result into an age of enlightenment for Europe?

Gnostic Christianity, Gnostic Judaism, or some other Gnostic group?
 
This is pretty much an open challenge, so you're free to create a plausible scenario.

Although I'd say it is most likely that a form of Christian Gnosticism would dominate Europe, hence Christian Gnosticism was the most widespread variety in the Mediterranian, unlike Jewish and original Persian Gnosticism.

Besides... there was a kind of Jewish Gnosticism?
I have read about several Jewish sects in the first half of the first millenium,
but as far as I remember, none of them were really Gnostic...
So any information about such Jewish Gnosticism is welcome.

..
The idea of Catharism becoming dominant in Europe is interesting as well, although not precisely what I meant.

My idea for this scenario was that Gnosticism would outcompete Christinianity before it becomes an acknowledged religion.
So, in other words; before Constantine the Great.

So that instead of orthodox Christianity, Gnosticism would become the dominant religion, and orthodox Christianity would be but a minor "heresy", or even disappear alltogether.

And of course, you can include the existence of some smaller states that adopt orthodox Christianity as their state-religion, such as Armenia (301 in OTL) and Axum (around 350 in OTL) to make the scenario more interesting...​
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
IIRC, some of the Nag Hammadi texts (such as the Apocalypse of Adam) seem to belong to a Jewish (or at least non-Christian) form of Gnosticism. Late antique Judaism had all the necessary ingredients for a Gnostic sect, I think, when you consider the fusion between Neoplatonism and Jewish thought in Philo Judaeus and the esoteric cosmology of the Sefer Yetzirah.
 
I would think the most likely POD for Gnosticism to triumph would be to have Valentinius elected pope. He very nearly made it.

According to the sources, it appears that Marcion was in Rome at the same time as Valentinius but it would seem the two never met. If they combined forces it would seem inevitable that Valentinius would be elected.

A Gnostic pope would mean all the orthodox would be proscribed from church positions and the gnostic previlences in the other churches outside Rome would be able to develop with the support of the papacy. All future popes would be gnostic and the self perpetuation of the theology would continue.

Would such a philosophy be able to hold it together or would the church fragment? The lack of cooperation between Marcion and Valentinius may have been due to differences in theological points. Gnosticism was not a monolithic belief.
 
Marcion sends a letter to Valentinus, saying he will help Valentinus become pope as long as his sect is allowed room to expand. Valentinus agrees, as long as netiher Marcion or his sect try to undermine Papal Authority. Valentinus gets the Papacy, and institutes sweeping reforms. This causes a schism in the Church between Valentinians and Catholics. All though I don't know how this would affect the geopolitial landscape, I can say that to avoid fragmentation, Valentinus would have to find someway of accomodating as many Gnostic sects as possible, and marginalising those he couldn't. Valentinian tolerance would not sit over well with some of the more extreme Gnosticsa after all.
 
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