AHC: Christianity survives as a minority religion

How can Christianity still arise like OTL, but never become a majority religion, and still survive to the present day as a small religion like Judaism or Jainism or something? Preferably not simply by Judaizing itself until its just some messianic Jewish sect, and at least somewhat recognizable as OTL Christianity (though some Arian-like beliefs would be fine). Note that they should never become a major religion, so nothing like Islam conquers Europe and converts 90%. Having one or two small regions like Ethiopia or Armenia become majority Christian is good, just not swathes of continents.

My idea (that I tried in my early timeline attempt) was to make Christianity more radical, like Jainism is. Could that work, or was the Roman world not conductive to small radical religions like that and it would be wiped out?
 
Another big question is what is the majority religion. Do you envision more or less the pagan status quo? Assuming Rome still falls in this TL, you got all the religions that developed under the empire, with the barbarian invaders adding even more to the mix, competing and co-existing. Or maybe does this stew form into a new pan-reglion under say Neo-Plantoicism, where we get the European version Hinduism?
 
Another big question is what is the majority religion. Do you envision more or less the pagan status quo? Assuming Rome still falls in this TL, you got all the religions that developed under the empire, with the barbarian invaders adding even more to the mix, competing and co-existing. Or maybe does this stew form into a new pan-reglion under say Neo-Plantoicism, where we get the European version Hinduism?
Would a new religion rising and converting the Romans instead be a better bulwark against Christianity than the existing Roman religion?
 
Start by defining what you consider to be essential to Christianity. The Bible as we know it? The gospels? Any particular doctrines?

While it's bad AH and questionable even as fantasy entertainment, the Kushiel series sort of has this. So near as I can figure out, the PoD is no apostle Paul; without him turning Christianity into a universal religion, the doctrines of Jesus are ironically easier for the Jews to accept, and as a result the "Habiru" pretty much all accept Yeshua bin Miriam as the Messiah, but remain a highly-educated minority religion without a homeland in a paganish Europe.

But if you don't want to over-Judaize it, your only real option is to create a superior competition. A more organized and inclusive and philosophically rigorous Mithracism or Sol Invictus cult, perhaps. I also had the idea once to have Lucius Ceionius Commodus survive; this turns Marcus Aurelius into the Imperator's bookish, woolly-headed brother-in-law, neither seeking civic duty nor having it thrust upon him. The mind that wrote Meditations turns itself to religion full-time, reinvigorating Roman paganism and the Quirinal cult perhaps, while the less competent Emperors allow the Empire to fall apart faster, leaving Christianity somewhat confined to Egypt and Palestine, perceived in the West as a foreign religion.
 
Start by defining what you consider to be essential to Christianity. The Bible as we know it? The gospels? Any particular doctrines?

While it's bad AH and questionable even as fantasy entertainment, the Kushiel series sort of has this. So near as I can figure out, the PoD is no apostle Paul; without him turning Christianity into a universal religion, the doctrines of Jesus are ironically easier for the Jews to accept, and as a result the "Habiru" pretty much all accept Yeshua bin Miriam as the Messiah, but remain a highly-educated minority religion without a homeland in a paganish Europe.

But if you don't want to over-Judaize it, your only real option is to create a superior competition. A more organized and inclusive and philosophically rigorous Mithracism or Sol Invictus cult, perhaps. I also had the idea once to have Lucius Ceionius Commodus survive; this turns Marcus Aurelius into the Imperator's bookish, woolly-headed brother-in-law, neither seeking civic duty nor having it thrust upon him. The mind that wrote Meditations turns itself to religion full-time, reinvigorating Roman paganism and the Quirinal cult perhaps, while the less competent Emperors allow the Empire to fall apart faster, leaving Christianity somewhat confined to Egypt and Palestine, perceived in the West as a foreign religion.
Really it just needs to be different enough for it to be counted as a different religion from Judaism by almost all scholars.
 
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