AHC: Non-Abrahamic religion dominates Europe

Mongolians conquer Europe, then go Buddhist. Or keep their native beliefs and become a pro-converting faith.
 
With the latest possible POD, have a non-Abrahamic religion become dominant* in Europe.

* As dominant as Christianity in OTL.

Well are we talking one non-Abrahamic religion ?

is it unified by a single creed and pantheon?

from what culture is it based?

the reason I ask is before the rise of Christianity there where more then you could shake a forest at,and then they where not a single religion as they had no single creed,example the cult of Zeus could be worshipping him one way in one spot and as little as 100 milos away there be variations as to how he was worshipped ,his myths etc etc.

I hope the 100 milos thing gets a laugh out of you.
 
It may be "one religion" in the loose sense that Hinduism is one religion. Or it may be a uniform creed. It may be eclectic, or not. It can be anything, as long as it is dominant in Europe and unrelated to the Abrahamic faiths.
 
It may be "one religion" in the loose sense that Hinduism is one religion. Or it may be a uniform creed. It may be eclectic, or not. It can be anything, as long as it is dominant in Europe and unrelated to the Abrahamic faiths.


ah kool

Well I'd say with a POD in 130 A.d,with the death of Hadrians favorite Antinous,and the founding of the very peace loving religion that resulted in the deification of Antinous it does as in the original time line becomes very popular and is spread to all corners of the Roman empire and eventually to all parts of Europe becaoming the dominate religion.partly because it was able to syncretize with other religions easily.
 
ah kool

Well I'd say with a POD in 130 A.d,with the death of Hadrians favorite Antinous,and the founding of the very peace loving religion that resulted in the deification of Antinous it does as in the original time line becomes very popular and is spread to all corners of the Roman empire and eventually to all parts of Europe becaoming the dominate religion.partly because it was able to syncretize with other religions easily.

I remember coming across someone (possibly Everitt in Hadrian And The Triumph and Rome) explaining that it caught on almost overnight. He could be associated with many gods, and I believe in some parts he was already being associated as a companion to Isis-mixing those two popular cults together would go a long way.
 

dead_wolf

Banned
Obvious one is the last few Pagan Roman emperors successfully forcing the old faith on the empire and holding back the tide of Christianity.
 

Alkahest

Banned
You could attach the popular, high-brow Neoplatonist package to pretty much any basic system of belief. The main problem was that guys like Plotinus and Iamblichus were a bit too high-brow for the hoi polloi, so some sort of dumbed-down version need to catch on if we're going to muscle out Christianity.

Or, as someone else already said, you could go for Buddhism. That religion has shown a remarkable ability to incorporate and adapt local beliefs (see: basically all of East Asia), and I could easily see, for example, Scandinavian people creating their own Buddhism mixed with belief in Thor and Odin, just like the Japanese managed to mix Shinto and Buddhism.
 
Frankly, I can't really see Buddhism gaining dominance in Europe. My candidate would be one of the Roman Emperors creating a mystery cult that had mass appeal while simultaneously reinforcing imperial power.

I also think that Germanic/Norse paganism might be able to pull it off. The Norse religion certainly had a stronger appeal to both the common folk and rulers. Assuming something happens to Christianity, I could see it being spread by Norse raiders and conquerors, especially without Christianity to offer any kind of united front.
 
My candidate would be one of the Roman Emperors creating a mystery cult that had mass appeal while simultaneously reinforcing imperial power.

Mystery cults are by definition esoteric, but an Imperial cult that was open easily to all and had a lot of the theological aspects of a mystery cult(There's one god that's much more powerful than the others, s/he has a special interest in preserving you for eternity: ideas also found in Christianity) could spread like wildfire throughout Rome.

Maybe some kind of Stoic-based Imperial Cult of Minerva based on improving social cohesion put into place in the 2nd Century?
 
Mongolians conquer Europe, then go Buddhist. Or keep their native beliefs and become a pro-converting faith.
That's way too late. Even if the Mongols do conquer all of Europe (which they didn't OTL), they never really made much religious impact on their subjects. Wherever they went, they largely relied on preexisting local infrastructures to govern, and often exerted only loose control over their nominal territory. That's not a recipe for forcing mass conversion.

By that point, both Christianity and Islam had fairly solid hierarchies and attachments in the local population. They also had significant histories of surviving persecution. You can't just have random Mongol say "you are all now Buddhist" and expect anyone to go along with it. More likely, some other Mongol curries favor with the locals by adopting Christianity/Islam, and seizes power himself. There's a reason that OTL the Mongols generally converted to whatever the local religion was.
 
That's way too late. Even if the Mongols do conquer all of Europe (which they didn't OTL), they never really made much religious impact on their subjects. Wherever they went, they largely relied on preexisting local infrastructures to govern, and often exerted only loose control over their nominal territory. That's not a recipe for forcing mass conversion.

By that point, both Christianity and Islam had fairly solid hierarchies and attachments in the local population. They also had significant histories of surviving persecution. You can't just have random Mongol say "you are all now Buddhist" and expect anyone to go along with it. More likely, some other Mongol curries favor with the locals by adopting Christianity/Islam, and seizes power himself. There's a reason that OTL the Mongols generally converted to whatever the local religion was.

It might not be super likely, but it's plausible. OTL the Mongols worked with what was there where they conquered, but European infrastructure was a bit different. It was built almost wholy for defense as it was basically a continent of feuding warlords. The Mongolians would likely end up destroying a lot more of Europe.
 
I'd say instead of allowing non-Jews to be Christians, the church decides instead that only converted Jews would be allowed in.
 
Such an action by Julian or any other emperor would probably result in civil war.

It might have gone better had Juilian abandoned the out of place Princep model and ruled as a divine ruler. Julian didn't need to actively crush Christianity just stop having the state favor one verision of Christanity over all the others
 
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