Pagan Europe

What would happen if Paganism is to remain the dominant religion of Europe and Christianity never rises? How will things change with a pagan Europe? What would the cultures of the Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Germanics, Baltics, and Celts be like? Are there any butterflies and byproducts of this?
 
Last edited:
What would happen if Paganism is to remain the dominant religion of Europe and Christianity never rises? How will things change with a pagan Europe? What would the cultures of the Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Germanics, Nordic, and Celts be like? Are there any butterflies and byproducts of this?

A few, yeah.
 
What would happen if Paganism is to remain the dominant religion of Europe and Christianity never rises? How will things change with a pagan Europe? What would the cultures of the Romans, Greeks, Slavs, Germanics, Nordic, and Celts be like? Are there any butterflies and byproducts of this?

No Christianity means No Islam. So many butterflies. But Paganism is a very broad thing. Is there one dominant form of Paganism in this timeline or just varying kinds of it all across?
 
The cult of Sol Invictus was very popular in the Imperial armies at the same time as the rise of Christianity and Constantine. Perhaps Sol and Jupiter would be combined into one god and serve as the official state religion of Rome and after the fall of the empire may be adopted by the new arrivals
 
The cult of Sol Invictus was very popular in the Imperial armies at the same time as the rise of Christianity and Constantine. Perhaps Sol and Jupiter would be combined into one god and serve as the official state religion of Rome and after the fall of the empire may be adopted by the new arrivals

Which would create a distinctly Roman form of monotheism in which Roman Emperors could still proclaim their divinity and thereby still rule Rome as demigods.

While Christ's apostles could spread his faith across the Middle East which garners a few followers and is heavily exposed to Zoroastrianism. It remains a predominantly Mesopotamian religion in the centuries to come.

I don't know just brainstorming some ideas for a potential timeline.
 
Which would create a distinctly Roman form of monotheism in which Roman Emperors could still proclaim their divinity and thereby still rule Rome as demigods.

While Christ's apostles could spread his faith across the Middle East which garners a few followers and is heavily exposed to Zoroastrianism. It remains a predominantly Mesopotamian religion in the centuries to come.

I don't know just brainstorming some ideas for a potential timeline.

Yeah this is kind of what happened in OTL as Diocletian was the first to use the divine dominus instead of the traditional princep model. By Julian's time the divine Augustus had become ingrained.

Preferably Christianity would be either butterflied away or have its organizational structure neutered. One of the main appeals os Christianity was the material benefits one could earn within the church hierarchy
 
It'd be pretty different, depending on where you were, and to say it, sectarian violence between religion would still exist, societal strife would still exist etc. It really isn't that hard to imagine a world without Christendom, more than half the world had never heard of That Jesus Guy prior to people coming along conquering in his name.
 
Ironically, a "No Roman Empire" might be one of the best scenarios for this. Christianity might just become a minor sect, or spread through an ATL Empire that holds Israel (probably Parthia/Persia), with a lot of other minor pagan kingdoms nearby adopting it while others shun it. Christianity never becomes dominant in the entire OTL! Roman Empire area, but rather it goes east.

We could get Christianized Arabia, Persia, Africa and maybe even India instead.
 
I suspect that sooner or later, a new religion would take over the Roman Empire. The cult of Sol Invictus seems like a likely candidate. Then there's weirder possibilities, like Buddhist or some alternate Gnosticism taking over Rome.
 
Europe and paganism is basically going to look like India and Hinduism, with bonus points for Christianity eventually serving as an equivalent to Islam.
 
I suspect that sooner or later, a new religion would take over the Roman Empire. The cult of Sol Invictus seems like a likely candidate. Then there's weirder possibilities, like Buddhist or some alternate Gnosticism taking over Rome.

There are quite a few candidates. Mithraism, Isis worship, the cult of Epona…
 
Europe and paganism is basically going to look like India and Hinduism, with bonus points for Christianity eventually serving as an equivalent to Islam.

More or less. At least I was envisioning it that way with tribes in Mesopotamia spreading the faith through the sword. This ATL Christianity is appealing because of its inherent Anti-Roman ethos. But I see them as stuck between Persia and Rome

I suspect that sooner or later, a new religion would take over the Roman Empire. The cult of Sol Invictus seems like a likely candidate. Then there's weirder possibilities, like Buddhist or some alternate Gnosticism taking over Rome.

Roman Religion is going to perhaps coalesce into a Sun-centered religion that synthesizes Sol Invictus with Jupiter while keeping the Emperor as a living demigod. Dynasties could rise and fall with a Roman equivalent of the Mandate of Heaven. Yet shrines to Epona, Mithra, Isis, and Serapis exist. So a form of Monotheism with henotheistic tendencies.


There is no driving point for colonialism.

Colonialism is inevitable throughout history, but it's not going to fold in the way it did OTL
 
I could see Buddhist Rome. It would take a longshot, but if you can restart Buddhist evangelization you might be able to squeak it out.
 
Personally, I always envisaged the Mediterranean world ending up a bit like China without Christianity. Multiple philosophical schools overlaying localised folk paganism, possibly with a semi-divine monarchy, and with significant influence on its neighbours. If a concept like the mandate of heaven arises, and the concept of Romanitas endures, you could see a persistant Roman Empire, occasionally breaking up into regional kingdoms when a dynasty falls, but always reuniting, and the semidivinity of the Emperor and the rituals he'd need to perform as Pontifex Maximus would become a crucial ideological glue.
 
Ironically, a "No Roman Empire" might be one of the best scenarios for this. Christianity might just become a minor sect, or spread through an ATL Empire that holds Israel (probably Parthia/Persia), with a lot of other minor pagan kingdoms nearby adopting it while others shun it. Christianity never becomes dominant in the entire OTL! Roman Empire area, but rather it goes east.

We could get Christianized Arabia, Persia, Africa and maybe even India instead.

The Roman Empire was established before Christ, so with a POD before the rise of the Roman Empire, Christianity would be butterflied away.
 
Top