DBWI: Roman Christians try to suppress other religions

[Mort the Reaper]

What astonished many people at the time - and still astonishes today - is that after becoming the dominant religious group in the Roman Empire, the Christians as a whole never made any attempt to "turn the tables" and persecute and suppress other religions. Anytime something of the sort was proposed, it was resoundingly condemned by Christian religious and political authorities. One emperor was even forced to abdicate after the Pope discovered his plans to coerce people into converting and turned most of the military against him. To this day, it's used as an example of the Christian virtues of tolerance and forgiveness.

But what if the Roman Christians had decided to suppress other religions? Maybe a desire for vengeance became overwhelming, maybe they turned to self-righteous fanaticism, or maybe they did so for some other reason. What might happen?

 

[Dolan]

Maybe you should stop the doctrine of predestination to take root inside Christian Church early on. The belief that you only need to believe Jesus is Son of God to be saved, and anyone who believe is already predestined meant The Church is practically chill with Traditional Paganism and many folk religions.

 

[Plateosaurus]

Maybe you should stop the doctrine of predestination to take root inside Christian Church early on. The belief that you only need to believe Jesus is Son of God to be saved, and anyone who believe is already predestined meant The Church is practically chill with Traditional Paganism and many folk religions.

You'd also have to get rid of the judaic influences in Roman Catholicism, and the concept of Compitism, where you're free to convert back to your old religion.

Considering how things went for England and the Samsonic Church in the Western Continents and with Islam (that middle eastern sect of christianity which stated "There is no God but God" and anyone who isn't christian must be put to death), I imagine things would get messy fast if Christians try to suppress other religions.

 

[AltoRegnant]

You'd also have to get rid of the judaic influences in Roman Catholicism, and the concept of Compitism, where you're free to convert back to your old .

Considering how things went for England and the Samsonic Church in the Western Continents and with Islam (that middle eastern sect of christianity which stated "There is no God but God" and anyone who isn't christian must be put to death), I imagine things would get messy fast if Christians try to suppress other religions.

What's the Samsonic Church? I'm american so pardon my ignorance. Obv England went through a time of mass over zealotry and forced conversions of any captured pagans because of the viking invasions but i don't remember an organization by that name

 

[Plateosaurus]

What's the Samsonic Church? I'm american so pardon my ignorance. Obv England went through a time of mass over zealotry and forced conversions of any captured pagans because of the viking invasions but i don't remember an organization by that name

It's pretty well-known what the Samsonic Church was: a branch of protestantism which England adopted in the 1700's to earky 1900's. You haven't heard of it?

 

[AltoRegnant]

It's pretty well-known what the Samsonic Church was: a branch of protestantism which England adopted in the 1700's to earky 1900's. You haven't heard of it?

That'd be it, i'm an athiest and a yank, and Britain adopted it a bit after we left the empire, so i've no real reason to care for it.

 

[Ερρίκος ο βάρβαρος]

the Christians as a whole never made any attempt to "turn the tables" and persecute and suppress other religions

Are you kidding me?! Watch this!
Hellenic cultural genocide by Christianity and Byzantium

 

[danteheadman]

You'd also have to get rid of the judaic influences in Roman Catholicism, and the concept of Compitism, where you're free to convert back to your old.

OOC: the reason why OTL Judaism isn't proselytizing is because Christian and Muslim empires forbade it. Jews internalized the idea that proselytizism leads to mass executions, and generally decided that it wasn't worth it. Before Christianity, Jews did proselytize - sometimes really violently and brutally, like concerning the forced conversion of Edom under the rule of John Hyrcanus (c. 125 BC).

If in the DBWI TL !Christianity isn't proselytizing, then !Judaism might still be, at least outside the areas where !Muslims kill non-!Christians.

 

[danteheadman]

Are you kidding me?! Watch this!
Hellenic cultural genocide by Christianity and Byzantium

OOC: this is a DBWI thread. As in, "double blind what if" - we assume the prompt happened, pretend to be in that alternate timeline, and theorize the prompt's question as if it were alternate history. So in this thread, Christians really didn't forcibly convert European pagans at all. And the what-if prompt is "what if Christians did violently force pagans to convert?"

 

[Ερρίκος ο βάρβαρος]

this is a DBWI thread

I'm new to this forum. Still learning. Sorry.

 

[Mort the Reaper]

I'm new to this forum. Still learning. Sorry.

It's fine. No harm done.

 

[Deleted member 114175]

Seems like it would be a waste of effort by the Romans. If the Christians had focused on suppressing pagans, then once everyone was Christian, they'd have to start suppressing other varieties of Christianity, like Homousianism for example, as a proxy for who supports the Emperor.

Seeking religious consolidation, Roman Emperors would probably even turn on the monasteries at some point. Despite the monasteries having been key centers of craft production and the strongest mechanisms of Romanization in the empire. They would have been seen as too independent if a more centralized hierarchy were created.

The Empire probably would have collapsed earlier.

 

[Night Gaul]

Seems like it would be a waste of effort by the Romans. If the Christians had focused on suppressing pagans, then once everyone was Christian, they'd have to start suppressing other varieties of Christianity, like Homousianism for example, as a proxy for who supports the Emperor.

Seeking religious consolidation, Roman Emperors would probably even turn on the monasteries at some point. Despite the monasteries having been key centers of craft production and the strongest mechanisms of Romanization in the empire. They would have been seen as too independent if a more centralized hierarchy were created.

The Empire probably would have collapsed earlier.

Indeed. Once you start persecuting people for having different religious beliefs, it's hard to stop.