AHC/WI: Balance of power between Paganism and Christianity in Europe?

With a POD somewhere between 100 and 300 AD, how could this be made and how would the world look like today? I was thinking along the lines of Christianity having its core in Asia Minor and North Africa, whereas central, Northern and Eastern Europe remain largely pagan. Southern Europe becomes a zone of conflict, with Rome resembling something like OTL Jerusalem: a holy city for both pagans and Christians. Islam might still emerge, though it'd be interesting to make it like a smaller, "back to basics" Christian cult in the Middle East.
 
Having a great charismatic reformer of polytheism - like Shankara was for Hinduism - who didn`t interpret his role predominantly as a philosopher, like the Neoplatonists did, would help. Backed by Roman Emperors at the Empire`s height of power, such a Greco-Roman Shankara could have quickly caused quite a number of monastery-like institutions of this reformed paganism to spring up across the Roman world, and if you put a special stress on deities like Ceres or the Annona principle and have this pagan cult develop a mixture of bottom-up and top-down charity / social security networks like the Christians had them, you might actually have something that appeals both to the educated elites (some of who turned to Gnosticism, secret cults etc. IOTL, who might or might not be incorporated into the reformed paganism) and to the general populace.

Christians would not cease to exist, of course. But, if you revive polytheism in the given timeframe, you might find Christianity reduced to the size Buddhism has in India IOTL today. (And like Buddhism IOTL, Christianity could of course blossom outside of the cultural realm in which it emerged, e.g. in Aksum, in the Caucasus, in Arabia or Central Asia.)

You could always restore the balance later by having the Roman Empire collapse later and parts of it taken over or temporarily dominated by Christian polities.
 
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Having a great charismatic reformer of polytheism - like Shankara was for Hinduism - who didn`t interpret his role predominantly as a philosopher, like the Neoplatonists did, would help. Backed by Roman Emperors at the Empire`s height of power, such a Greco-Roman Shankara could have quickly caused quite a number of monastery-like institutions of this reformed paganism to spring up across the Roman world, and if you put a special stress on deities like Ceres or the Annona principle and have this pagan cult develop a mixture of bottom-up and top-down charity / social security networks like the Christians had them, you might actually have something that appeals both to the educated elites (some of who turned to Gnosticism, secret cults etc. IOTL, who might or might not be incorporated into the reformed paganism) and to the general populace.

Christians would not cease to exist, of course. But, if you revive polytheism in the given timeframe, you might find Christianity reduced to the size Buddhism has in India IOTL today. (And like Buddhism IOTL, Christianity could of course blossom outside of the cultural realm in which it emerged, e.g. in Aksum, in the Caucasus, in Arabia or Central Asia.)

You could always restore the balance later by having the Roman Empire collapse later and parts of it taken over or temporarily dominated by Christian polities.

so perhaps an earlier, more successful Julian the Apostate? or a more actively reformist Marcus Aurelius?
 
so perhaps an earlier, more successful Julian the Apostate? or a more actively reformist Marcus Aurelius?
The Emperor doesn`t have to do all the religious reform work himself; if he backs, structurally influences and finances them, that would suffice.
I think it would actually be better, or maybe even required, to have a figure who is NOT the head of state at the same time travelling around the Empire, teaching here and there, conversing with various groups, weaving a great overarching story in which all the little pieces may fit in. An Emperor is always busy with other stuff (like, in Marcus Aurelius` case, a war with the Barbarians North of the Danube).
 
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