How Much Longer Could Pre-Constantinian Religious Chaos Have Lasted if Maxentius Had Won?

If Maxentius had eliminated Constantine at the Milvian Bridge, and conquered the rest of the empire, how much longer could the religious chaos of official imperial cult Hellenism, many mystery cults, and increasing Christianity could have lasted. Could official hellenism have been revitalized by turning its ritualistic official version into an actual faith? Would Christianity's triumph just be delayed? Could another religion, such as that of Sol Invictus, have became the state religion instead, and would Christianity have survived if that had happened?
 
Christianity would certainly have survived. After all it had already done so (and spread from Palestine to the Atlantic) for 300 years without needing any Emperor's permission.

If any rival religion is to outstrip it, your best bet is Manichaenism. That kept popping up in various corners of Europe right through the Middle Ages, whereas we don't seem to hear much about Sol Invictus after the 4C. It seems to have been pretty thoroughly "victus" once the Emperors stopped patronising it, so apparently it lacked the staying power of Christianity. After all, those Emperors were looking for a religion which would strengthen them, not one that they had to prop up.
 
Neoplatonism perhaps? Manichaeism is already a better option than most anything else, but a modified, Julian the Apostate sort of neoplatonism would preserve the religions of Antiquity best and turn it into some sort of Hinduism type thing.
 
Neoplatonism perhaps? Manichaeism is already a better option than most anything else, but a modified, Julian the Apostate sort of neoplatonism would preserve the religions of Antiquity best and turn it into some sort of Hinduism type thing.


But wasn't that essentially a bee in one man's bonnet? Did it ever really have any life of its own?
 
If you're a pagan, then it makes perfect sense. Gather up traditions, compile them into a form acceptable for intellectuals that can filter down into the masses, promote regional beliefs when possible, resist Christianity and Gnosticism as foreigners out to destroy the traditional way of life. You'd need multiple Julians, I think (make the process more organic), though, to really convert European heathen faiths into a unified form capable of resisting Christianity to the degree India resisted Islam. Effectively, you want paganism to be the European religion in the way Hinduism is the Indian religion.

Now, it might not bear much relationship to older practices of Antiquity, but I think a mutation is plausible. The doctrine of theurgy in Neoplatonism seems like it could have mass popular appeal, while the philosophy of Neoplatonism could become the subject for philosophical debates on the level of those held within Christianity on Jesus's nature and such.
 
If you're a pagan, then it makes perfect sense. Gather up traditions, compile them into a form acceptable for intellectuals that can filter down into the masses, promote regional beliefs when possible, resist Christianity and Gnosticism as foreigners out to destroy the traditional way of life. You'd need multiple Julians, I think (make the process more organic), though, to really convert European heathen faiths into a unified form capable of resisting Christianity to the degree India resisted Islam. Effectively, you want paganism to be the European religion in the way Hinduism is the Indian religion.

Now, it might not bear much relationship to older practices of Antiquity, but I think a mutation is plausible. The doctrine of theurgy in Neoplatonism seems like it could have mass popular appeal, while the philosophy of Neoplatonism could become the subject for philosophical debates on the level of those held within Christianity on Jesus's nature and such.


But not just because some king or other happens to fancy it. Real religions catch the popular imagination first, after which any king or whatever who gets in the way is liable to just get rolled over and flattened. Constantine embraced Christianity, he didn't invent it - and if he had invented it, it would probably have died with him.
 
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