Save one Pagan Religion to the modern-day

Save one Pagan Religion to the modern-day

  • Celtic polytheism

    Votes: 21 14.3%
  • Germanic paganism

    Votes: 8 5.4%
  • Ancient Greek religion*

    Votes: 16 10.9%
  • Norse Religion

    Votes: 27 18.4%
  • Ancient Egyptian Religion

    Votes: 16 10.9%
  • Ancient Roman Religion*

    Votes: 15 10.2%
  • Lithuanian paganism

    Votes: 23 15.6%
  • Slavic paganism

    Votes: 10 6.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 7.5%

  • Total voters
    147
Wholeheartedly quoting you here. Once I came up with the weird idea of Julian becoming a Christian reformer, blending it heavily with the traditional Roman religion, but I would love to see a TL where he actually succeeds.
Not really weird considering that OTL Julian's version of Paganism was heavily influence by his christian upbringing. I can see such influence working both ways (although the leading figures of the Christian church might have something to say about it). However this was also the reason why IOTL Julian was mostly unsuccessful at appealing to the traditional pagan elite, it was mostly a one-man faith (this and Julian dying immediately after taking the purple). A TL on Julian (not just focusing on religion but also on the implications of butterflying away the Valentiniads, several civil wars and Hadrianopolis) would be great. I remember reading a great introduction to such timeline many years ago (not sure if it was on this website or somewhere else), now unfortunately abandoned, and I reckon the reason we don't see more of those around is that it is hard to do proper justice to both Julian and the IV century without falling on cliques and oversimplifications.
 
Paganism isn't a useful term when discussing subjects such as these, especially given it's etymology. Lumping them under the banner of "Not Abrahamic" really ignores all the historical nuance and differences in between them.
2. Zoroastrianism doesn't count, as it is already an Ancient Religion that survived to this day. A surviving Zoroastrian Iran is an entirely different subject, saved for another thread.
Modern-day Parsis would be utterly unrecognizeable to Zoroaster and his followers operating on the Central Asian steppes of 1500-1000 BC. Zoroastrianism today is very much a reinterpretation of the religion by Christian orientalists and missionaries like Martin Haug, rather than the original faith practiced by the Achaemenids, Parthians, Sassanians, etc... The evidence against a specific monotheism pre-dating the Late Sassanian era at the very least are far too great.
Vote for Egyptian religion. There is some really intresting things on the religion. Just avoid Romans ever conquering the countyr. Perhaps even better if there is not Ptolemaic Dynasty. And so no too rise of Christianity and Islam.
Circumstances in Ptolemaic Egypt actually did favor the easy communication and syncretization of religion, unlike say, for example, jn Seleucid Iran.
3. Neo-Pagan movements, such as Roman Polytheistic Reconstructionism, Hellenism, Slavic Native Faith, Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism, or heathenry, as well as modern eclectic traditions such as Wicca and its many offshoots, Neo-Druidism, and Discordianism, does not count. We're talking about the Original Paganism being saved, and surviving to this day, not so the various revivalist movements taking over.
"Neopagan" faiths are thoroughly modern movements that need to be cleanly seperated from the ancient beliefs they claim to take inspiration from, and given religion tends to reflect the society in which it is followed, it doesn't make much sense to project it back toward today's era, especially when our information is limited. And given that their morals and the society they live in is still based on monotheism or at least shaped by a monotheistic paradigm, I'm sure they probably don't imitate the crueler aspects of ancient Greek religion, like, for example, offering human sacrifices on Mount Lykaion to Zeus.
Do we even know much about Mesopotamian religion&mythology beside Gilgamesh?

And you have too other option there. I don't think that it would get much of votes anyway.
There are thousands upon thousands of clay tablets excavated since the early 19th century, that shed light on almost every aspect of Mesopotamian society, including religion. And probably even more just sitting in museums, untranslated, so there's always the opportunity for further advancement. By the standards of antiquity at least, yeah, we do know a rather lot.
 
I'd like to see a surviving take on the Ancient Egyptian religion. If I had the resources, time and patience, I'd be tempted to try to construct a timeline where it survives in a more prosperous Egypt into the present in a similar way to Hinduism in India, persisting alongside Islam and Christianity.
 
I'd like to see a surviving take on the Ancient Egyptian religion. If I had the resources, time and patience, I'd be tempted to try to construct a timeline where it survives in a more prosperous Egypt into the present in a similar way to Hinduism in India, persisting alongside Islam and Christianity.

That would be intresting but you need such POD that probably Christianity and pretty surely Islam would are butterflied away.
 
That would be intresting but you need such POD that probably Christianity and pretty surely Islam would are butterflied away.
Yeah, it wouldn't really work for a realistic timeline, but with butterfly nets large enough it could make for some fun worldbuilding.
 
Well, the best way for that to happen is to create some Irish version of the Yamato Clan that unites the island sometime between Constantine's withdrawal of the Legions from Britain and the Fall of Rome, preferably after an aborted Late Roman attempt at conquest of Ireland.

This united Ireland will treat the Druidic institution the way Pharaonic Egypt treated temple priesthoods, and will utterly despise Christianity. Saint Patrick will die a martyr as a slave.

Naturally, this will provide ripples in the history of Post-Roman evangelization in Europe. Consider that both St. Dennis and St. Boniface were both Irish...
 
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Well, the best way for that to happen is to create some Irish version of the Yamato Clan that unites the island sometime between Constantine's withdrawal of the Legions from Britain and the Fall of Rome, preferably after an aborted Late Roman attempt at conquest of Ireland.

This united Ireland will treat the Druidic institution the way Pharaonic Egypt treated temple priesthoods, and will utterly despise Christianity. Saint Patrick will die a martyr as a slave.

Naturally, this will provide ripples in the history of Post-Roman evangelization in Europe. Consider that both St. Dennis and St. Boniface were both Irish...
I don't think there would be much effect. I think the Irish get too much credit for the spread of christianity. I would give my dues to the Franks.
 
I don't think there would be much effect. I think the Irish get too much credit for the spread of christianity. I would give my dues to the Franks.

The Irish, or rather the spiritual descendants of the Celtic Church were better persuaders. We see this with Norse Kings preferring English clergy to those from Hamburg-Bremen who, among other things were seen as stooges for the Holy Roman Empire, while the mostly Danelaw descended priests were trained in monastaries founded by Irishmen

And yes, I am speaking broadly and and in general terms.

The primary legacy of the Franks and later the Holy Roman Empire is the military threat going back to the Saxon Wars or before and going straight fhrough to the Northern Crusades. A threat that can also vanish if they accept Christianity. It's a tradition of people like Olaf Trygvasson, who years ago I remember described as "Christ's best hatchet man".

And yeah, I think the economic/military threat had more to do with the spread of Christianity than anything else. Based off experiences in similar conversations that will piss someone off. It doesn't matter for this argument.

I would suggest, without the 'cultural translation' that has a lot of roots in the Irish Church, Western Christianity doesn't get as far. We see this in the Orthodox Churches that are generally in former Byzantine areas and Russian or formerly Russian dominated areas and has little outside influence. Just compare the worldwide influence of the Bishop of Rome and the Metropolitan of Moscow.

Simultaneously, without the military threat, say an aborted Frankish Empire, your more likely to have more situations like the Anglo Saxon conquest of England, where the grandchildren of Romanized Britons are Germanic Pagans. Even the Christian wives of Pagan rulers aren't taken as seriously in spreading their faith without daddy's relatively bigger army in the back of their husband's minds.

Reduce either of these factors, and you're likely to have a less influential Christian cocktail and more likely to have a surviving Germanic/Norse Paganism.
 
Andean religions as they were before becoming syncretic with catholicism. Ok, I mean they continue developing but without becoming colonized or converting. Like people in east asia did.
 
Zoroastrianism today is very much a reinterpretation of the religion by Christian orientalists and missionaries like Martin Haug
Source? I understand modern Zoroastrianism is very different to the religion of antiquity, but I've never heard it being the result of meddling by non-Zoroastrians.
 
Source? I understand modern Zoroastrianism is very different to the religion of antiquity, but I've never heard it being the result of meddling by non-Zoroastrians.
Sorry for replying incredibly late, but my source is Mary Boyce's "Zoroastrians. Their Religious Beliefs and Practices" written in 1979.
 
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