Alternate History Excercise: Create non-Abrahamic, Abrahamic Syncretic, Alternative Abrahamic Religions in Europe!

With a pod in 800 AD where and how might a non-Abrahamic, Abrahamic syncretic religion (syncretic with any Abrahamic religion) or alternative Abrahamic religion (something that is not Christian, Islamic or Jewish/Samaritan) arise somewhere in Europe?

Religions that would be along the lines of Yazidism, Sikhism, Mandaeism, Hinduism, Shinto, Rastafari, Zorastrianism, etc.

Where there any reasons for why Europe had by 1800 virtually no non-Abrahamic religions, while the Middle East had small Zorastrian and Yazidi populations? It is true that there were some non-Abrahamic people in Europe, mainly in Russia but also among the Sami.

Requirements
  • Organised Religion
  • Written Canon
  • Must originate in Europe, cannot be a transplant from another region
  • Must last for atleast 200 years
 
Have Jesus die earlier, before he can preach his message and have the Roman Pantheon become more organised.
 
Have Jesus die earlier, before he can preach his message and have the Roman Pantheon become more organised.
That is before 800AD, this thread is meant for reactions in a Abrahamic dominated Europe, where most of Southern and Western Europe has become Christian.
 
I think its definitely possible to have one form amongst either North or Eastern European pagan civilizations. In fact, there seems to have been some early attempts in the early Rus state to standardize the national religion, but were swet aside when state Christianized - perhaps this could be more successful and take on Syncretic elements. Although we don't know a lot about early Slavic paganism, so what shape this would take, I do not know (though, one of the benefits of not knowing, it gives you a fair bit of freedom to be creative).

Perhapse another option would be the Khazars. Rather than adopting Judaism so to be able to treat diplomatically and economically on better terms with the Byzantines and theCaliphate, perhaps a sycretic religion is founded instead, which gives them the same benefits while still including elements of their own traditional beliefs (one could almost see this spreading through the steppe if its successful)
 
First off, a hybrid.

Danicism

Inspired by the Irish Book of Invasions, the Danics follow the logical conclusion from said book that there is both the Christian god who is the father, son and holy spirit AND the Goddess Danu who is the mother, daughter and temporal spirit. It's essentially a non antagonistic dualist theology reminiscent of modern Wicca. It however sees the book of Invasions as another testament, and adherents formally see themselves as Christians.

How it survives? Not too sure. On an individual basis its pretty easy as a Danic could theoretically have no problem attending church and then worshiping Danu in their own time. How it could proselytes however is a bit more challenging without an earlier POD.

 
I guess some form of organized Germanic, Slavic, and/or Baltic paganism would be the cliché options.
As far as the Norse go I don't even know if it's possible. In their eyes it was organised in as much as it needed to be. The gods were the central pillar of the cosmos (which is where the word Aesir comes from - 'asa' meant 'pillar/column'), and on Midgard their chieftains, kings, jarls, etc. were the pillars of their homelands. There was a separation between what was civilised (innangard), in terms of both the spirit, mind, and physical being or place (innangard - within the boundary) and what was uncivilised (utangard - outside the boundary), i.e. the forests, mountains, landwights, and so on. Their religious behaviour was completely and utterly ingrained into their everyday lives - offerings were made as needed, not at specific times or places (as in, there was no Church on Sundays, or saying grace before a meal - a Norseman might realise he needs his herd to grow, so he'll light a candle and leave some meat and mead out for Thor to make it so, no other requirements to be met).

Even their stories, passed down through the oral tradition, were not meant to be taken as lessons. I guess the best way to describe the Norse religion is that it was an organised unorganisation. Writing a guidebook such as the Bible and creating a strict religious hierarchy such as the Catholic Church just wouldn't have suited them, which is why conversion happened from the top down (IIRC Christianity didn't take very well with the common folk until Christ was embellished as a warrior rather than a meek lamb of a man, but the kings and jarls and so on found it to be a useful tool of control, power, and diplomacy).

I think 800AD is perhaps too late to really stem the flow of Christianity in Europe, even if Scandinavia, Rus, and the Baltics were still pagan at the time. You'd almost need to change the nature of Christianity itself to be less expansionist and culturally invasive.
 

dcharles

Banned
First off, a hybrid.

Danicism

Inspired by the Irish Book of Invasions, the Danics follow the logical conclusion from said book that there is both the Christian god who is the father, son and holy spirit AND the Goddess Danu who is the mother, daughter and temporal spirit. It's essentially a non antagonistic dualist theology reminiscent of modern Wicca. It however sees the book of Invasions as another testament, and adherents formally see themselves as Christians.

How it survives? Not too sure. On an individual basis its pretty easy as a Danic could theoretically have no problem attending church and then worshiping Danu in their own time. How it could proselytes however is a bit more challenging without an earlier POD.

I think that it's much more likely that a religion like this would simply claim the Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the incarnation of this mother spirit. That way, there's a little less of an issue with the Catholic Church. Don't get it twisted, they would still call it heresy, and they would torture and murder to their hearts content to stamp it out, but I can at least see this being a way that such a divergent belief could fly under the radar for a while.
 
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I think that it's much more likely that a religion like this would simply claim the Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the incarnation of this mother spirit.
I was thinking Mary as mother, with the temporal spirit being an earth reference (works well with some Irish myths and continues the symbolism through Yahweh creating life in the earth) whilst being explanatory RE a dualist interpretation.
Thatat way, there's a little less of an issue with the Catholic Church. Don't get it twisted, they would still call it heresy, and they would torture and murder to their hearts content to stamp it out, but I can at least see this being a way that such a divergent belief could fly under the radar for a while.
That's in part why I would prefer an earlier POD. By 800AD the Catholic church has total monopoly on Irish faith
 
First off, a hybrid.

Danicism

Inspired by the Irish Book of Invasions, the Danics follow the logical conclusion from said book that there is both the Christian god who is the father, son and holy spirit AND the Goddess Danu who is the mother, daughter and temporal spirit. It's essentially a non antagonistic dualist theology reminiscent of modern Wicca. It however sees the book of Invasions as another testament, and adherents formally see themselves as Christians.

How it survives? Not too sure. On an individual basis its pretty easy as a Danic could theoretically have no problem attending church and then worshiping Danu in their own time. How it could proselytes however is a bit more challenging without an earlier POD.
Survival does not need the religion to be dominant or even widespread, a small crowd of followers is still a following. Mandaeism(60-70 Thousand) and Yazidism(1-1,5M) are both (relativly, in the case of Yazidism) small religions. While Yazidism has more than million followers, which is not a small number, it is comparatively small. Prior to the large population growth after the industrial revolution, the number were much lower.

My guess assuming a similar course for Ireland as in OTL. The followers of Danicism will likely be marginalised or ostracised to some extent, at some point. Conversion will probably be a one way affair, with ex-Danicists becoming Christian. Danicists might be 'encouraged' and Implored to leace Ireland for North America, thus freeing up more land for Christians. Therefore Danicists will be overrepresented among Irish emigrants. During famines Danicists might be harder hit by both the famine and the resulting bandidtry. Eventually Danicisim will become more accepted, and even seen as something 'Irish', 'Celtic' or 'British'.
 

dcharles

Banned
That's in part why I would prefer an earlier POD. By 800AD the Catholic church has total monopoly on Irish faith

So then, that leads me to the question: What sort of post 800AD events might lead to a breakdown of Church authority to an extent that the church in the British Isles becomes isolated from Rome?

Pagan Vikings taking over northern France combined with Muslim incursions in southern France? A plague that devastates France or the British Isles in particular?
 
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