WI: Hybrid Religions?

I've always been really fond of the idea of buddhism melding with European indigenous religions.
 
I like Tyr's idea.

I think Buddhism would look good in Native American dress, too. Possibly in a Chinese New World tl. A Buddhist temple with sand pictures in the Navaho style, or temple guardians carved in the Pacific North West tradition...
 
Another thing which I've always thought would be interesting would be Christian Plains Indians. I think it would be interesting if they adapted it to their mobile culture. Especially if it were Easterners who did the colonizing or if the Western Liturgy retained the curtain. Nothing would be more lovely than an iconostasis made from buffalo hide!
 
There's the speilwerk or pow-wow folk magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

That one seems particularly weird, because those people are highly religious. And the other high religious colonial settlers in America are famous for, well...
 
Caste Calvinism? Woah, awesome.

I was thinking more of East Asia (China, Japan) than India, but you are correct, a Hindu-Christianity cross, that in some way explained the concepts of Caste system via the Calvinist notion of the Elect.

Whilst it does take some twisting of original Calvinist doctrines, this is quite possible, as wasn't much of the original theory on which Apatheid in South Africa based, because of a particular interpretation of Calvinist thought (ie God has pre-destined the races to be seperate and to have seperate roles within society)?

It would seem to me, that it would be fairly easy to replace race with caste.
 
Explain then the Kaaba.

In Islamic tradition Abraham built the Kaaba as a monotheistic temple for his son Ishmael, who was the ancestor of all Arabic peoples. Ishmael's decedents later apostatized and brought pagan idols into this temple. So in Islamic tradition the Kaaba was the first temple to the God of Abraham.

The presence of a meteorite at an area regarded as a shrine prior to Muhuammad to me suggests that the moon cult idea cannot be dismissed entirely without more evidene than Finn put forth.

In Islamic tradition the Meteorite was a gemstone that fell from God's throne, and has nothing to do with the Moon. The Crescent Moon didn't become associated with Islam until the Ottomans captured the city of Constantinople. You see, the Crescent Moon was the emblem of that city, and the Ottomans used that emblem as their own in an effort to increase their legitimacy.
 
In Islamic tradition Abraham built the Kaaba as a monotheistic temple for his son Ishmael, who was the ancestor of all Arabic peoples. Ishmael's decedents later apostatized and brought pagan idols into this temple. So in Islamic tradition the Kaaba was the first temple to the God of Abraham.



In Islamic tradition the Meteorite was a gemstone that fell from God's throne, and has nothing to do with the Moon. The Crescent Moon didn't become associated with Islam until the Ottomans captured the city of Constantinople. You see, the Crescent Moon was the emblem of that city, and the Ottomans used that emblem as their own in an effort to increase their legitimacy.

I was aware more or less of the official theological justifications for the significance of the Kaaba, but it is irrelevant to this discussion. A Catholic providing an explanation for the dating of Christmas based on Christian teaching would not obscure the fact that the date roughly coincides with preexisting "pagan" festivities. Thus, using the beliefs of a religion to whitewash the influences of other traditions on it is something a believer does, which is fine, but defeats the purpose of this discussion.

With respect to Constantinople, I did not know that.
 
Most Abrahamic religions are formally incompatible. You can make them incompatible by jettisoning some parts while retaining others.

For instance, Islamic Christianity could accept the Koran as revelation and Muhammad as a prophet (even, maybe, the last of the prophets) but still accept Christ as the Son of God. A little unwieldy, but possible.

The minor religious movement Messianic Judaism is the sort of thing you have in mind.

Stoic Christianity or Pagan Christianity would be interesting blends. There were some Stoic Christians in OTL and some of CS Lewis' stuff seems to be moving towards a Pagan Christianity, though he never quite pulled the trigger.

I think Confucian Judaism would also be hella interesting, as the kids no longer say.
Sometimes, I Feel like a Confucian Jew ...

The Idea of Belief for Belief's Sake, is Something I Find Especially Interesting ...

In Fact, The Positions of The Reform Movement in Particular, Seem to be Acquiring More Confucian Principles of Late!
 
I've had a quasi-prediction that at some point in the future, Christianity and Buddhism will realize that they are both the same religion and merge together. The leader will be called the Dali Pope and will worship an amalgamation called the Buddha-Christ. It's still a wip, but I would appreciate help.
 
I've always been really fond of the idea of buddhism melding with European indigenous religions.

I actually discussed that with a friend once, before I got into alternate history. The result is this story:

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=200939

That said, I'm not sure if Buddhism merging with other religions count as hybrid. Buddhism doesn't really have any intrinsic gods to it, it just sort of adopts the gods of whatever religion is native to the region it arrives in. That would make pretty much all forms of Buddhism a hybrid religion.
 
Another thing which I've always thought would be interesting would be Christian Plains Indians. I think it would be interesting if they adapted it to their mobile culture. Especially if it were Easterners who did the colonizing or if the Western Liturgy retained the curtain. Nothing would be more lovely than an iconostasis made from buffalo hide!


Allow me to present to you - Apache Jesus...
 
That one seems particularly weird, because those people are highly religious. And the other high religious colonial settlers in America are famous for, well...

Well, there's actually a lot of misunderstanding about what "Pennsylvania Dutch" means. The term applies to all of the German-speaking settlers of colonial Pennsylvania, no matter what their religion was, and their descendants who maintained the dialectical and cultural ties. You're probably thinking of the Plain Dutch, like the Amish and the Mennonites, who are more visible due to their conservative religious practices.

The others are called the "Fancy Dutch" or the "Gay Dutch" (gotta love archaic language), who belong to more worldly sects like the Lutherans and Reformed Churches. They were always more numerous than the plain people, but because they didn't isolate themselves, most of their descendants eventually assimilated into the English-speaking world, losing the language and identity. Pennsylvania Dutch folk magic, including the hex signs above barns, derived from the Fancy Dutch, while the Plain Dutch have always been staunchly against such practices.
 
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