Is the decline of polytheism inevitable?

[PsyloSurgeon]

It seems that the decline of Polytheism and its associated culture appears to be inevitable. Either it is a benign marginalization and cooption with Nontheistic religions such as Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, Confucianism/Taoism/Buddhism in East Asia; or complete displacement as with Monotheistic Christianity and Islam. A third option is partial displacement with as seen with Zoroastrianism's relationship with Iranian polytheism.
Duotheistic Manichaeans in contrast seem to have had a deliberate policy of cooption and coexistence, which allowed them to spread far and wide, but caused dissipation and their ultimate extinction.

In China, Confucianism marginalized Chinese polytheism as the dominant guiding force of Chinese civilization beginning with the Han dynasty, with Buddhism and Taoism following soon after. However in this case, Chinese folk religion still remains popular though no longer the guiding force of the Chinese civilization, having been overtaken by nontheistic doctrines such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Even Shintoism was largely fused with Buddhism, and it fared better than Korean folk religion because of less Confucian influence in Japan. In contrast, Neo-Confucianism in Korea led to heavy decline of Korean folk religion.

Theravada Buddhism, which is Nontheistic became the dominant religion of mainland SE Asia, but the native religions still exist to a large degree. In Burma, they worship Nat spirits, and similar traditions exist in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. But again, Buddhism is king and is the guiding force of their traditional cultures.

Zoroastrianism displaced the Iranian polytheism during the Sasanid period, with the exception of the Goddess Anahita and the God Mithra.

In the Greco-Roman world, Christianity became the dominant religion, a monotheism displacing all of the polytheisms there, from Mesopotamia to Iceland.

Islam displaced Arabian, Berber, and Iranian polytheisms, and Hinduism from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. It also displaced African traditional religion in Sahel and Horn of Africa.
Similar fates were also attested for the Mesoamericans, Andeans, African traditionalists, Oceanians by European Christianity.

Hinduism somehow managed to avoid marginalization and cooption by Nontheistic Buddhism and Jainism, and complete displacement by Monotheistic Islam and Christianity.

Is Polytheism doomed to be erased by the Winds of Change and does history belong to Nontheism, Duotheism and Monotheism?
@Emperor-of-New-Zealand @herkles @CountPeter

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Confucianism wasn't so much a religion as it was a philosophical movement. That and Buddhism are both compatible with many of the polytheistic folk religions of the ancient east. You'll find that Confucianism didn't displace Chinese folk religion; it became a part of it, for the most part. People practiced Confucian philosophy while still practicing god- and ancestor-worship.

I've never bought into the idea that monotheism is the least bit inevitable; it's an idea that comes from a largely Christocentric viewpoint. Judaism on its own would never have become as dominant in an ATL as Christianity did in OTL, and Islam would never have arisen at all without Christianity, at least not as we know it, and certainly Christianity itself was never inevitable as a dominant world religion even after its conception.

The main thing to remember about paganism in ancient people is that wasn't something you did, it was something you were, and in general it was very syncretic, which basically means that pagan religions were generally compatible with one another and borrowed from one another. In a world without a dominant monotheistic, organised religion, there's no reason to think that any of the world's pagan traditions will suddenly morph into a monotheistic, proselytising faith. It didn't happen with Hinduism, or Japanese folk traditions.

 

[Lalli]

No it is not.

Christianity can be easily butterflied or marginalised early. And probably any other monotheistic faith in Roman Empire so Greco-Roman polytheims has good chances to survive and prospect. And so Celtic and German-Scandinavian polytheims can too survive.

Egyptian polytheims can too survive easily. Just avoid rise of Christianity.

Confucianism is ratherly philosophy than religion. Many traditional Chinese religions are characterically polytheists.

So decline of polytheims is not really inevitable. Just remove Christianity and then you can keep many of them around to modern day.

 

[PsyloSurgeon]

Confucianism wasn't so much a religion as it was a philosophical movement. That and Buddhism are both compatible with many of the polytheistic folk religions of the ancient east. You'll find that Confucianism didn't displace Chinese folk religion; it became a part of it, for the most part. People practiced Confucian philosophy while still practicing god- and ancestor-worship.

I agree with you on this. But in Korea, the Neo-Confucian elite attempted to suppress Korean folk religion, meaning that there was a degree of opposition to polytheism. This sentiment seem to exist in varying degrees amongst the Confucian states, but it was the most prominent in the Joseon dynasty. Neo-Confucians were not only nontheistic, but some atheists. I believe this viewpoint led to erasure of Korean folk religion in the 20th century, and decline of Chinese folk religion. Japan had the exact opposite situation, with Shinto traditions becoming separated from buddhism and resurrected as a religion during Meiji restoration. This I believe was due lower influence of Neo-confucianism in japan arriving only in Edo period.
It seems that Chinese polytheism was coopted by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism and as such doesn't have its own textual canon. The Chinese textual canon included the Confucian classics, Mahayana Buddhist canon, and Taoist canon to absense of Chinese folk religion. I wonder if the rise of a Confucian elite during the Han dynasty prevented Chinese folk religion from developing into a cohesive doctrine. I'm extremely puzzled by this, since discussions of Chinese religion center around confucianism, taoism, and Buddhism with Folk religion being excluded from discussion.

The main thing to remember about paganism in ancient people is that wasn't something you did, it was something you were, and in general it was very syncretic, which basically means that pagan religions were generally compatible with one another and borrowed from one another. In a world without a dominant monotheistic, organised religion, there's no reason to think that any of the world's pagan traditions will suddenly morph into a monotheistic, proselytising faith. It didn't happen with Hinduism, or Japanese folk traditions.

The folk religion of East Asia survived, but was relegated to a subordinate status as compared to Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism. Buddhism largely coopted Shinto traditions until the Meiji period in the form of Shinbutso-shugo, and the same could be said of Chinese folk religions to a certain extent in regards to Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist religions. It seems these Nontheistic religions had largely coopted East and Southeast Asian folk traditions, and these belief systems never coalesced into a cohesive doctrine.

 

[Mr_Fanboy]

I don’t know whether the decline of polytheism is inevitable, but there’s arguably a case to be made that paganism in the way that it is commonly understood might inevitably be put in a tenuous position going into modernity. Pretty universally, once the densely populated and urbanized regions of the world reach a certain level of socioeconomic development, a literate, educated class arises and starts to seriously dwell on questions of ethics, philosophy and the like. Some of them attempt to develop complex philosophical systems that may or may not be explicitly religious in nature. Either way, by virtue of their appeal among the kind of smart and successful people who will inevitably end up disproportionately comprising the leadership and bureaucracy that run large empires, they tend to eventually take precedence over the traditional religions of the area. This category of belief system includes the Platonic and Neoplatonic thought of the Ancient Greek philosophers, the Buddhism of South Asia, the Confucianism and Taoism of China, and so on and so forth.

In our world, these philosophical systems indelibly influenced the younger, proselytizing Abrahamic faiths which swept aside the paganism of Western Eurasia and, eventually, the New World, Africa, and Oceania, but I don’t think that this was inevitable. Greco-Roman polytheism could easily have survived in the Mediterranean, but note that late-stage Hellenistic religion, as well as explicit attempts by those such as Julian the Apostate to codify the mythology in order to better withstand Christianity’s encroachment, were themselves heavily influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy.

 

[Byzantion]

It seems that the decline of Polytheism and its associated culture appears to be inevitable. Either it is a benign marginalization and cooption with Nontheistic religions such as Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, Confucianism/Taoism/Buddhism in East Asia; or complete displacement as with Monotheistic Christianity and Islam. A third option is partial displacement with as seen with Zoroastrianism's relationship with Iranian polytheism.
Duotheistic Manichaeans in contrast seem to have had a deliberate policy of cooption and coexistence, which allowed them to spread far and wide, but caused dissipation and their ultimate extinction.

In China, Confucianism marginalized Chinese polytheism as the dominant guiding force of Chinese civilization beginning with the Han dynasty, with Buddhism and Taoism following soon after. However in this case, Chinese folk religion still remains popular though no longer the guiding force of the Chinese civilization, having been overtaken by nontheistic doctrines such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.
Even Shintoism was largely fused with Buddhism, and it fared better than Korean folk religion because of less Confucian influence in Japan. In contrast, Neo-Confucianism in Korea led to heavy decline of Korean folk religion.

Theravada Buddhism, which is Nontheistic became the dominant religion of mainland SE Asia, but the native religions still exist to a large degree. In Burma, they worship Nat spirits, and similar traditions exist in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. But again, Buddhism is king and is the guiding force of their traditional cultures.

Zoroastrianism displaced the Iranian polytheism during the Sasanid period, with the exception of the Goddess Anahita and the God Mithra.

In the Greco-Roman world, Christianity became the dominant religion, a monotheism displacing all of the polytheisms there, from Mesopotamia to Iceland.

Islam displaced Arabian, Berber, and Iranian polytheisms, and Hinduism from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia. It also displaced African traditional religion in Sahel and Horn of Africa.
Similar fates were also attested for the Mesoamericans, Andeans, African traditionalists, Oceanians by European Christianity.

Hinduism somehow managed to avoid marginalization and cooption by Nontheistic Buddhism and Jainism, and complete displacement by Monotheistic Islam and Christianity.

Is Polytheism doomed to be erased by the Winds of Change and does history belong to Nontheism, Duotheism and Monotheism?
@Emperor-of-New-Zealand @herkles @CountPeter

Maybe have Neoplatonism being a thing.

 

[Jan Olbracht]

As "gods live atop of mountain" yes, that is going to fade away. Not that it must be replaced by monotheism, but it would be, otherwise, syncretised with non-theistic philisophy, like Buddhism.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

It seems that Chinese polytheism was coopted by Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism and as such doesn't have its own textual canon. The Chinese textual canon included the Confucian classics, Mahayana Buddhist canon, and Taoist canon to absense of Chinese folk religion. I wonder if the rise of a Confucian elite during the Han dynasty prevented Chinese folk religion from developing into a cohesive doctrine. I'm extremely puzzled by this, since discussions of Chinese religion center around confucianism, taoism, and Buddhism with Folk religion being excluded from discussion.

The folk religion of East Asia survived, but was relegated to a subordinate status as compared to Buddhism, Taoism or Confucianism. Buddhism largely coopted Shinto traditions until the Meiji period in the form of Shinbutso-shugo, and the same could be said of Chinese folk religions to a certain extent in regards to Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist religions. It seems these Nontheistic religions had largely coopted East and Southeast Asian folk traditions, and these belief systems never coalesced into a cohesive d

I don't totally agree with either of these stances. Folk religion in China persisted even under Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian philosophical positions. The elites might have changed tack to a significant degree but in China especially the rural population was immense in comparison. In Japan Buddhism and Shinto were wholly syncretised - the famous quote is "Shinto for Life, Buddhist for Death".

I can't speak for Korea as I honestly don't know a lot about it.

In any case, what happens in East Asia is rarely indicative of what could happen in Europe, which is where I tend to place my ideas (since the decline of African and American traditional religions is directly tied to Europe). If you can strange Christianity in its cradle, I see no reason that European paganism wouldn't persist until the modern era. Inevitably it would transform as new ideas arise, and literacy increases, and access to global information becomes more readily available (this was already happening in the Viking Age for example), but the polytheistic elements could still remain. Thor, for example, is often considered only the "God of Thunder" or a battle-god, but there is plenty of evidence to suggest he was the "god of the everyman" and a fertility god as well. Odin was the god of wisdom, but also the god of inspiration, and a death-god. Freyja was associated with female sexuality and fertility, but also magic, war, death, and healing.

My overall point being that many ancient traditions can still have relevance to people's lives in a modern setting.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

As "gods live atop of mountain" yes, that is going to fade away. Not that it must be replaced by monotheism, but it would be, otherwise, syncretised with non-theistic philisophy, like Buddhism.

Why would it fade away?

Olympus is a mountain, yes, but considering how accessible it was I sincerely doubt the Greeks believed the gods were literally living at the top of Mt Olympus. It's no more fantastical than Heaven and the Christian version of Hell.

 

[Lalli]

As "gods live atop of mountain" yes, that is going to fade away. Not that it must be replaced by monotheism, but it would be, otherwise, syncretised with non-theistic philisophy, like Buddhism.

Surviving polytheims has probably much of deal with scientic findings but probably can survive from that. Modern religions too managed to deal with science so ancient ones hardly have too difficult either.

 

[Arkenfolm]

As "gods live atop of mountain" yes, that is going to fade away. Not that it must be replaced by monotheism, but it would be, otherwise, syncretised with non-theistic philisophy, like Buddhism.

That wouldn't be much different than things like "Noah's Ark is literally still on top of Mount Ararat" like some creationists believe. I'd argue the majority of people who believe that are very similar in mindset to the typical superstitious peasant of Antiquity who believed the gods lived atop Mount Olympus, or the people alive today in the Himalayas who hold similar beliefs about certain mountains and have thus banned mountaineering there. Aside from creation scientists (and similar groups--Hinduism seems to have many like that), they don't really subject it to any criticism or explain the hows and whys or try and find proof, they just KNOW it's there because why wouldn't it be there?

More particularly, India has many distinct local traditions, many of which are still observed. African traditional superstitions have not gone away despite Christianity and Islam dominating the continent. There's always going to be distinct superstitions and beliefs that will not vanish in a significant number of people who otherwise nominally adhere to a more "organised" faith.

 

[Theodoric]

I wouldn't say so. There are arguments that any sort of monism is philosophically easier to argue (Neoplatonism has been brought up). But you can have 'monist' philosophical theory with polytheistic worship and practices. There are Hindu schools that are monist, for example, and Stoic beliefs in Europe were also compatible with multiple deities being worshipped. Plus, any sort of monotheistic faith has to deal with the problem of evil, a something or dualist faiths (like Manichaeism) don't have, or can deal with more easily.

It's really interesting to note Zoroastrianism here. From what we can tell of its long history it's been interpreted, by both its adherents and outsides, as mono-theistic, dualistic and polytheistic, and all of these doctrines are defensible on the basis of the Gathas. There are Zoroastrian yazata's that were obviously imported from earlier Persian beliefs, but also lesser deities created purely from Zarathustra's mind as abstract emanations from Ahura Mazda (or Spenta Mainyu, the original opponent of Angra Mainyu). The Sassanid doctrine of Zurvanism was definitely both an innovation, as well as a retreat to earlier monist conceptions.
even within Zoroastrian's core beliefs there was still room for interpretation, and those interpretations did change over the years even if religious practices (worship of Anahita etc.) didn't necessarily change.

Zoroastrianism displaced the Iranian polytheism during the Sasanid period, with the exception of the Goddess Anahita and the God Mithra.

Most likely Zoroastrian's 'replacement' of prior 'polytheism' was very gradual, and it's important to note that Anahita and Mithra were far from the only imports back into Zoroastrianism, if 'replacement' is even the best way to describe it (Bahram/Verethragna is a huge one ). Zarathustra was definitely a reformer with his own systematic theology (and more importantly, system of ethics) but in the centuries after his death a synthesis took place where deities and practices from both prior religion and Gathic innovations were fused into what we now call Zoroastrianism, even if that did end up creating a few inconsistencies (the Gathas opposed the consumption of Haoma, even). It's a much messier affair than a straight replacement. There's even a few deities that were created much later from earlier abstract concepts, in the same reification-deification process that Zarathustra used to 'create' his abstract deities like Ameretat. Sraosha moved from basically the abstraction of 'Obedience' into a popular deity into the Islamic angel Surush.

Theological monism and polytheistic practice are, not necessarily incompatible. And looking at the history of Judaism, the opposite (theological pluralism but henotheistic worship) is also possible. This question has interested me for a long time and it's important to note the importance of definitions here as they can get very fuzzy. 'Polytheism' can mean a lot of things, and not all deities are necessarily equal or all-powerful (not all gods are 'Gods'). Even some nominally monotheistic faiths have lesser divinities (saints and angels in the Abrahamic faiths, for a start).

 

[Workable Goblin]

It didn't happen with Hinduism, or Japanese folk traditions.

It absolutely did happen with Hinduism. Not so much the "suddenly monotheistic" part, even if there were philosophical strains that tended towards that (but, then, that existed in Greco-Roman paganism as well), but certainly the "proselytizing" part. How else do you explain the spread of Hinduism into regions of Southeast Asia where it was definitely not the native religion? Or even its spread within India itself, when it clearly originated in the northwest and then spread across the entire region? Hinduism might not seem on its face like a proselytizing religion, but even if it doesn't necessarily take the same approach as Christianity or Islam it resembles them in its ability to persuade people outside of its original cultural context to adopt its practices and beliefs much more closely than it resembles other ethnic religions like Shintoism.

 

[wiwerse]

In the Greco-Roman world, Christianity became the dominant religion, a monotheism displacing all of the polytheisms there, from Mesopotamia to Iceland.

Harari argues, and I would agree, that catholicism is little different from polytheism, in that saints take up the place of lesser gods. It's hardly unusual for polytheistic faiths to have a stronger god than the rest.

 

[PsyloSurgeon]

Harari argues, and I would agree, that catholicism is little different from polytheism, in that saints take up the place of lesser gods.

Ehhhh....
Being an adherent of a polytheistic religion(Hinduism), I disagree with this point.

It's hardly unusual for polytheistic faiths to have a stronger god than the rest.

This is a feature of most polytheisms.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Harari argues, and I would agree, that catholicism is little different from polytheism, in that saints take up the place of lesser gods. It's hardly unusual for polytheistic faiths to have a stronger god than the rest.

Many of the Catholic saints were pagan gods. Brigid being the best example.

 

[Emperor-of-New-Zealand]

Not so much the "suddenly monotheistic" part

That is more what I'm talking about.

 

[fraa Jad]

It didn't happen with Hinduism, or Japanese folk traditions.

Well it did, in Japan. Current Shinto is very much influenced by contact with Europe. Modern Shinto is post-European (re-)contact and influenced by European superstitions. The older layer of Shinto is different.

EDIT: And as others have mentioned upthread with Hinduism, but I don't need or want to comment on that.

@Theodoric "'Polytheism' can mean a lot of things" yeah, Japanese "polytheism" changed as a result of reestablishing contact with the European powers, fundamentally, but remained what _they_ would describe as a "polytheism". It's fundamentally a question of definition.

 

[aben]

I've never bought into the idea that monotheism is the least bit inevitable; it's an idea that comes from a largely Christocentric viewpoint. Judaism on its own would never have become as dominant in an ATL as Christianity did in OTL, and Islam would never have arisen at all without Christianity,

I'm not so sure about that, Judaism around the time of Jesus was spreading quickly in the Empire, especially amongst women. A reformed Judaism that didn't require adult men to circumcise could have done very well.

 

[EMT]

I think you can argue that polytheism has a harder time than monotheism in sticking around once a monotheistic faith gets introduced to a polytheistic culture from a position of dominance(bar recent history when other modern-day divisions between people arose such as nationalism and the globalization of Western-style discrimination). Monotheism's exclusivity (and in the context of Christianity and Islam the extremely strong pressures against conversion) should mean that once an individual converts, the dye is more or less cast and that's one more individual that on paper should have little tolerance for polytheism, thus putting more pressure on other polytheists to convert. This is more or less what we see repeated throughout human history ever since the advent of the Abrahamic faiths. Conversely, whenever a polytheistic culture rules over monotheists(say, the Mongols) there's generally a greater level of tolerance than there is between monotheists and polytheists than when the monotheists are in a position of power. What's more, I can't think of many(if any) examples where the polytheists either didn't eventually collapse without leaving a lasting impact on the monotheistic culture or converted themselves given enough time. I'm thinking of examples such as the Romans with the Jews/Christians, the Mongols -> Golden Horde, etc.