AHC make Islam or christianity polytheistic

Has to be after 500 for christianity, and after 900 for islam.

Bonus points after 800 for christianity, and after 1200 for islam.

This means that the most dominant sect has to be polytheistic. EX only sunni, or only Catholicism.
 
This is impossible without pre-Christian POD when both are fundamentally monotheist religions. Polytheism is extremely against base dogmas of the religions. And even with 1 AD POD you don't get anything else than bitheist religion like Zoroastrianism. And even that is quiet difficult. Probably if you make Judaism monotheist it could work and even that you would need very ancient POD.
 
De facto polytheism is possible, like believing witchcraft is real or that the Devil can possess people/objects and give them magical powers sometimes even overcoming God. Ironically Satanic panic was one of the closest things to polytheism in Abrahamic religions.
 
This has been suggested on the site before, but insofar as Christianity is concerned, the most you can get is a scenario where, rather than the pagan gods of Europe being dismissed as mere demons trying to lead men astray, they are identified with angels and archangels, with a theological school sprouting up to argue that they had been tasked by God to instill basic moral values in the population of Europe meant to prepare them for the coming of Christ. Call it the C. S. Lewis/J. R. R. Tolkien option.
 
De facto polytheism is possible, like believing witchcraft is real or that the Devil can possess people/objects and give them magical powers sometimes even overcoming God. Ironically Satanic panic was one of the closest things to polytheism in Abrahamic religions.
German bishop and chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (975-1018) who described pagan Slavic Veleti and their gods seemingly believed in existence of these deities (despite being member od Catholic clergy). He regarded them as evil demons, but their existence and powers were not denied by him. Viewing gods from pagan pantheons as really existing (just evil/demonic) wasn't something unusual.
 
The Shahada literally begins with “There is no god but God.”

Which kinda encapsules what Islam was all about when Muhammad received his revelations. It was a strictly monotheistic doctrine - a return to the old faith of Abraham: Polytheism is specifically mentioned as one of the vices God's messenger set out to destroy.

Denying the oneness of God and the setting of other beings equal to Him was therefore unthinkable.

As for Christianity, given the fact that different opinions on the Eucharist* led to Catholics, Protestants, Calvinists and Anabaptists passionately murdering each other, I really can’t see a divergence from the doctrine of monotheism ever happening. Christ was, after all, the son of God, not a god.





*Yes I know it’s more complicated than that.
 
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German bishop and chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg (975-1018) who described pagan Slavic Veleti and their gods seemingly believed in existence of these deities (despite being member od Catholic clergy). He regarded them as evil demons, but their existence and powers were not denied by him. Viewing gods from pagan pantheons as really existing (just evil/demonic) wasn't something unusual.
Interesting. I thought henotheism was mainly an ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan thing and did not really survive into the Middle Ages. I wonder if over the course of the Crusades and Renaissance it became more likely to regard "pagan" gods as definitively nonexistent rather than just demonic.
 
Christianity is doable if a faith that identifies Jesus as s seperate entitity from God the father wins over. There were all kinds of debate about this in early christianity and just because the trinity won in otl doesn't mean it has to.
 
From a theological point of view, polytheism is impossible to justify both in Islam and Christianity. In Islam it violates the Shahada and in Christianity the Ten Commandments.

This said, the construct closest to polytheism I could think of would be a regional, layman-founded (and maybe syncretic) sect influenced by Arianism completely rejecting the Trinity and in the process viewing God, Christ and the Holy Spirit all as divine but separate entities.

Arius himself saw Christ as a different entity than God, created by the latter’s will. While he concluded that this assumption negates the full divine character of Christ, a local sect less educated and keen on orthodox theological doctrine could maybe develop some kind of de-facto polytheism.
 
I'd be inclined to suggest that this is definitionally impossible: monotheism is a core tenet of both Christianity and Islam, so a polytheistic religion would be a separate religion in its own right, regardless of how many other similarities it might have.

Interesting. I thought henotheism was mainly an ancient Mesopotamia and Canaan thing and did not really survive into the Middle Ages. I wonder if over the course of the Crusades and Renaissance it became more likely to regard "pagan" gods as definitively nonexistent rather than just demonic.

It's not really henotheism, because the pagan deities weren't regarded as gods, but as subordinate and created beings. That no more implies henotheism than traditional Christian beliefs on the existence of angels, demons, Satan, etc., does.
 
Honestly they kind of are, especially depends on the branch.

God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit God in three persons, blessed trinity.

And then we have non Trinitarian denominations. Like my childhood faith, God has a literal (I suppose gigantic) flesh and bone body and we are made in his imagine. Jesus is a separate entity entirely, yet still worshiped.

Even the devil, Lucifer is kind of a chaos god.

And it at times seems the bible does allude to other gods existing too.
 
Well concerning Christianity and Roman/orthodox in particular I would suggest they are polytheism. Witness the veneration of saints. Witness Saint days. Witness the cult of Mary.

Christians are deluded if they think they are monotheistic. I state this as no criticism of the faith, only that the early church took a pragmatic approach to attracting believers.
 

Kaze

Banned
The easiest way for Christianity would be three routes

a. Saints and Angels being upgraded. Some have suggested Catholic / Orthodox Saints and Angels are nothing more than paganism light.
b. A problem with the Trinity. There were quite a few heresies and questions about the Trinity and the Dual nature of Christ. One of the heretics went as far as saying that there are three guys separate and not equal and the same - if that won out, in a couple generations we could have three Gods -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
c. ASB
 
In reference to the idea that it is impossible for Christianity to be polytheist, it should be remembered that some early schools notably were. Various gnostic sects for instance.

Islam however is much harder to achieve this with.
 
Has to be after 500 for christianity, and after 900 for islam.

Bonus points after 800 for christianity, and after 1200 for islam.

This means that the most dominant sect has to be polytheistic. EX only sunni, or only Catholicism.
Maybe Virgin Maria Godmother as a deity of the Catholic Church ?
 
One complicating factor here, of course, is that monotheism is not an objective definition, but a subjective description of a religion. For instance, my understanding is that some folks who adhere to the other Abrahamic religions have argued that, given the doctrine of the Trinity, Christianity at least borders on polytheism. Most serious Christians would strongly dispute this charge.

In other words, a religion is only polytheistic (or part of any category) if its adherents understand it as such.
 
What if native americans or criollos made christianity polytheist? At least here in Latin America many people devotes their life to Mary, also padres and santos are subject of worship nowadays and a lot of people travel hundreds, if not thousands of miles just to worship them
 
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