WI: Less Christian Mormonism

I'm still thinking about what if a fourth Abrahamic branch would spring up (the Cathars were always a possible good choice), and considering how different Mormonism is from Christianity already, what if Joseph Smith had decided to make it into a whole different religion? Sure all of the Abrahamic religions claim to be the legitimate successor to the previous faith (the old ones have only gotten corrupted, they say), but what if Mormonism had been more blatantly different from Christianity. You know, the name "Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints" aside, it already is.

Hah, I just googled "fourth Abrahamic faith" and all of the links are about Mormonism.
 
I'm sure it would have been seen as less legitimate and gained far fewer converts - it was seen as a sort of "Americentric Christianity" by many, I believe, so didn't go against their earlier beliefs, just added a lot of new stuff onto them

In addition, if its anything BUT Abrahamic its going to get tarred as Pagan, no better than the Indians etc, and they'd probably find it even harder than OTL to get land, establish a community

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
I think it's going to be definitely Abrahamic. But I'm thinking with less Christian trappings, somehow. Their theology would probably be pretty much the same but they wouldn't use terms such as "Christian" and so on. From what I know Mormon cosmology and the events in the Book of Mormon aren't very reminiscent of the New Testament to begin with, even though they acknowledge Jesus as a deity of some sort. Like Islam (and the Baha'i, Rastafari, Druze) Mormonism venerates Christ.
 
Former Mormon's Opinion

I think it's going to be definitely Abrahamic. But I'm thinking with less Christian trappings, somehow. Their theology would probably be pretty much the same but they wouldn't use terms such as "Christian" and so on. From what I know Mormon cosmology and the events in the Book of Mormon aren't very reminiscent of the New Testament to begin with, even though they acknowledge Jesus as a deity of some sort. Like Islam (and the Baha'i, Rastafari, Druze) Mormonism venerates Christ.

I'd be interested in how exactly one could make Mormonism less Christian. The entire origin story of Mormonism is that Jews came to America roughly 500 BC, founded a civilization that split and eventually was consumed by the dark skinned (native american) sinful offspring of Nephi, one of the original Jews. Now if the religion followed this spur and rejected Christian theology afterwards (Mormonism was the continuance of a pure Abrahamic faith that fled Judea and was fostered in the New World) then I could see how one could strip the Christian trappings and make it a fourth religion.

But that would require a major revamping of what made Mormonism so potent. At the time of Smith's founding of Mormonism, there was a period of religious revival running through America. Smith claimed that all the sects of Christianity were wrong and that the Church had perished with the death of the final apostle. Christ had come to bring the faith back to Earth, thus the Mormons are, according to their dogma, the one true Christian faith because all others stem from Catholicism which never had spiritual rights to begin with. People latched onto Mormonism because of the fact they were willing to listen due to Christian revival. Persecution only made it stronger, ironically spurred by those who deemed a new Christian faith pagan. Imagine how much worse that persecution would be if there were no Christian trappings. I could see Joseph Smith being branded the Anti-Christ by some. Strip out the Christian precepts and you lose a great swath of "saints."
 
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