Smallest "World-Power" Christianity

what is the smallest (geographical) size that Christianity can realistically be, while still being acknowledged as one of the major religions in the world? ... no reconquestia & Ottoman Balkans?
 
Go back further. Rome breaks apart during the crisis of the third century, with Palmyra and Gaul surviving as separate entities, Constantine doesn't convert, the Edit of Milan expy is less generous to Christians, enshrining tolerance but not giving back property, handicapping some of the growth. Palmyra eventually converts but in Rome they remain a minority community. Ethiopia and Armenia still become Christianized.
If there is an Islam in this TL, it will likely take hold in Egypt and Syria, relegating the Palmyrene Christians to large minority status.
Fast forward to the present, Christianity is a substantial minority religion in Italy, Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, and North Africa, with a few Christian majority nations in East Africa and the Caucuses.
Enough to be a major world religion on the level of Hinduism or Judaism, not a major world player though.
 
I don't think if the above scenario occurred, it'd be considered a "World-Power" religion, unless Christians had disproportionate influence (i.e. like how Jews do). I think the smallest possible geographic area would be no Christianisation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, no Christianisation of Russia (probably an extremely liberal form of Islam), Ottoman Balkans and an Islamic Iberia. I can't really see Christianity losing any more ground than that without a very early PoD. Also, you have to butterfly away the colonisation of Africa and the Americas.
 
I agree with Odd Numbered Bonaparte about going back to the crisis of the third century. Have the Roman split between the Roman Empire, the Gallic Empire, and the Palmyrene Empire remain permanent. Have the Palmyrene Empire convert to Christianity.
 
going from the guide-rails that Bonaparte set up, what would happen to the British isles, and everything north of Rhine? ... (semi)Organized polytheism?

one thing that it would probably mean otherwise would maybe be that Zoroastrianism survives (as a world religion that is) ... prehaps with Manichaeism growing up to become the 'Islam' to Zoroastian 'Christianity'
 
If you want a later POD, you could have a much more extensive Muslim conquest, perhaps as the result of an early Mongol conversion to Islam. Everything outside of western Europe is Islamized, including all the territories associated with Eastern Christianity: Russia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, North Africa, the Levant, and everything beyond. Christendom is reduced to a Germano-Latin rump.

Nevertheless, as rumps go, this one is pretty powerful. It does not suffer too terribly from the trauma of the Muslim conquest, since this conquest came at the expense of schismatics whom the Roman Catholic Europeans had already considered outsiders. Even if Christianity occupies only the westernmost extremity of Eurasia, that is enough to confirm it as a world religion. Even if it is never exported to the Americas, it becomes a regional powerhouse like Buddhism.
 
going from the guide-rails that Bonaparte set up, what would happen to the British isles, and everything north of Rhine? ... (semi)Organized polytheism?

one thing that it would probably mean otherwise would maybe be that Zoroastrianism survives (as a world religion that is) ... prehaps with Manichaeism growing up to become the 'Islam' to Zoroastian 'Christianity'

I think it depends on what the Gallic Empire does religious wise (for Britain), since they controlled Britain officially. It would be interesting if say Posthumous (Assuming he lives longer than OTL which is really the only viable way I can see the Gallic Empire surviving) pulls an Aurelian and associates himself with and promotes the cult of the unconquerable sun (Sol Invictus).
 
How about an Islamic conquest of Gaul in the eighth century which is followed in the ninth by a slow expansion into Germany and Britain. Byzantium, however, hangs on, so that most of eastern Europe, plus southern Italy, Anatolia and the Caucasus, stays Christian.

Or, the converse of this: Byzantium falls in the seventh century, but expansion into the Balkans and Italy soaks up the energy of the Umayyads, so that North Africa, Iberia, Gaul and Britain remain Christian.
 
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