For my upcoming new TL, once I'll finished my current Greater Germany's TL, I would like to focus on the development of an alternate religion rather than alternate empires (even if both could be linked).
After spending some days in Ireland, I'm thinking about the chance of an alternate Saint Patrick introducing a very different vision of Christianism in Ireland, instead of the official Catholic one. Not the usual heresies regarding trinity or divinity of Christ, but something more distinct like a form of Christianism deprived of the typical Abrahamic sexual morality, accepting homosexuality and a more active role for women, for example. Maybe a merge of Christianism and traditional beliefs of the Isles.
I guess Ireland was far enough from Rome for escaping to their control if some 'heretic' branch of Christianism would have spread there. If this form of alternate branch of Christianism eventually triumphs in Ireland and maybe it is later accepted by the Norse, instead of the official Catholicism, we could have seen a very different branch of Christianism spreading across Northern Europe by the late first millennium.
I would appreciate your feedback about this idea for my next TL
After spending some days in Ireland, I'm thinking about the chance of an alternate Saint Patrick introducing a very different vision of Christianism in Ireland, instead of the official Catholic one. Not the usual heresies regarding trinity or divinity of Christ, but something more distinct like a form of Christianism deprived of the typical Abrahamic sexual morality, accepting homosexuality and a more active role for women, for example. Maybe a merge of Christianism and traditional beliefs of the Isles.
I guess Ireland was far enough from Rome for escaping to their control if some 'heretic' branch of Christianism would have spread there. If this form of alternate branch of Christianism eventually triumphs in Ireland and maybe it is later accepted by the Norse, instead of the official Catholicism, we could have seen a very different branch of Christianism spreading across Northern Europe by the late first millennium.
I would appreciate your feedback about this idea for my next TL