~CONTEST~ Alternate History Contest ~CONTEST~ (Kingdom, Buddhism, church, gnostic)

[Druidus]

Every week, I will think of an alternate history topic, and there will be a contest.

The winner is the one who provides the best summarization of what this alteration to history will cause in the short term (1-10 years), the long term (10-50 years) and the very long term (>50 years). Provide reasons.

I and two other volunteers will judge. Please volunteer here.

This week's contest is:

What if Rome had never accepted Christianity as a state religion?

(I thought I'd kick it off with a religious topic. It's not meant to offend Christians, I just like alternate history.)

Any use of supernatural forces as a reason will disqualify your entry from judging. You have until seven days from now to formulate your alternate history. Wikipedia is a good place to start.

[James the Persian]

Do you mean, what if mere toleration of Christianity had been promulgated as by Constantine in the edict of Milan or do you mean what if the persecutions had continued as in Diocletian's rule? The questions are quite different and would have very different implications so I thought I'd best get clarification.

For those who tend to believe all the ignorant nonsense spouted about Constantine the Great, he did not accept Christianity as the state religion of Rome but merely tolerated it and forbade its persecution. It wasn't until Theodosius that Christianity was established. A related and interesting question might be, what would have happened if Julian the Apostate had succeeded in reestablishing persecution of Christianity.

James

[Bouncing Ball]

Then another religion would have taken over. I don't need wikipedia for that

[Druidus]

Then another religion would have taken over. I don't need wikipedia for that

Such an answer fails to examine the full effect that the alteration would have on history. You should be able to speculate on what that religion would be, the effect it would have on Rome, how the rest of Europe would be affected, in the long term, etc.

An answer such as yours fails to interest anybody, and fails to get many points.

Do you mean, what if mere toleration of Christianity had been promulgated as by Constantine in the edict of Milan or do you mean what if the persecutions had continued as in Diocletian's rule?

I mean that the prosecution had continued, Christianity never being accepted as a valid religion in Rome.

Good post, frubals to you, James.

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Druidus

I mean that the prosecution had continued, Christianity never being accepted as a valid religion in Rome.

Good post, frubals to you, James.

Thanks. In which case, I suggest that Christianity would still have continued to grow within the Empire as the persecutions only seem to have strengthened the faith. Every so often a slightly less vicious emperor would have come along and the Church would have been able to consolidate in the relative peace but their would have been less of a chance to call councils against heresy. This would probably have meant that the heretical sects such as the Gnostics and Arians would have existed for much longer than they did, though as some extra-Imperial states accepted Christianity very early (such as Armenia and Ethiopia), it might be that such councils would have been held outside the borders of the Empire. Obviously the importance of such states to our faith would be markedly greater than is true now.

The religion of Europe would have almost certainly been less homogeneous, though orthodox Christianity would have had a presence in all provinces from Britain to the Middle East. Other popular contemporary cults would probably have survived (such as Mithraism) but it's hard to see how such religions, which were usually popular with specific subsections of society, could have ever risen to dominance. Assuming that the political events in the life of the Empire would have stayed more or less the same, then when the western Empire fell, western Europe would have been relatively freer. Continental Europe could well have become (outside of the Empire) a stronghold of Arianism as it was very popular with the Gothic tribes. Orthodox Christianity would have dominated the Celtic lands and probably have spread into the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms solely from the north via Iona and so there'd have been no synod of Whitby and the British isles would have continued down the peculiarly idiosyncratic (though completely orthodox) way of Celtic worship. Some pagan cultures would almost certainly have survived, certainly outside of the former Imperial lands and probably in Britain.

I believe that without the Christian eastern Empire to spread and defend the faith, it would never have been so prominent in the middle east (though I doubt it would have died out) and so I would doubt that Islam would have arisen at all (no offense intended to the Muslims here). The two great powers in the East would probably have remained pagan, syncretistic Rome and predominantly Zoroastrian Persia. Zoroastrianism would probably have remained a major world religion, much more so than now.

If I go any further forward than now the speculation is just going to get wilder and wilder as the unknown possibilities just mount up. I could posit, for instance, that the religion of Zalmoxis (which had some uncanny paralels to Christianity incertain ways) would have spread out from the Carpathian-Danubian region, for instance, but there's no evidence to suggest it would. It is a (vague) possibility, though, as it only died out with the spread of Christianity north of the Empire. Who knows which would have been the most prevalent religions today? My bets would be that Christianity would survive in much the way that Judaism did with the addition of a few countries having Christianity as a state religion, but I'd guess that the major world religions would be Zoroastrianism, Buddhism (assuming my no Islam scenario) and Hinduism.

There, no miraculous interventions and all argued (so far as possible) from historical trends that I can see in the centuries after Christ. I hope that this is interesting. Do I win?

James

[jewscout]

i think that Christianity would have continue to grow w/in the Roman Empire, which was falling apart at the time, but the structure of the Roman Church, modeled heavily on Roman levels of government in the Empire, would have been vastly different, i think.