idk, i think for political issues that syncretization didnt seem to happen. you had gnostics but they were a flash in the pan.

also, paganism was on the down turn at the time of early christianity, most upper class people were becoming fedoras essentially

paganism wasnt taken seriously as a religion. it was something you gave lip service to for civic reasons, and the lower classes had their superstitions.

generally the countries enforced the faith and wiped out heretics, but there was never really strong, long term control in africa, asia or south america

yup, even the romans didnt believe it

you just did it because it was the culture

the Spaniards did a really good job stomping out paganism

they went to the new world shortly after removing islam from spain

@HotGore the upper classes especially were very philosophically inclined, the strongest beliefs at the time for very educated people was neoplatonism

nifty

well neoplatonism was 3rd century, probably at the time of christ it was just platonism

neoplatonism was sort of monotheistic

I read a lot of stoicism from the romans, the upper classes don't seem to have a strong faith, except in the idea of logos

gnosticism was a sort of bastardized neoplatonism with jewish and christian stuff mixed in

new age basically

there also seemed to be a lot of atheism in rome as well before christ

augustine was a neoplatonist before he converted to christianity

originally he was manichean

so those ideas had some influence on the church, not necessarily in a bad way

yeah very true

christians identified the Monad as YHVH

augustine showed that truth from non catholics can still be truth, from a theological standpoint

so it wasnt too difficult for neoplatonists to convert

because in terms of the actual identity of the One was not really expounded on

then Christians come around and they are the only real monotheists

@HotGore exactly

surprisingly that is a big deal in terms of religions

islam stalled because they never could accept that idea

once you can accept that truth can come outside of faith, then you can respect the humanity of nonbelievers

if you want to shit on unironic Gnostics, which I have had to deal with, quote Plotinus to them

they are the most annoying faggots, worse than Fedoras, super antichristian and think they are woke

Plotinus and Irenus shit on gnostics

yeah and their "lost gospels" are just rewritten pagan legends

Plotinus himself was a neoplatonist and not christian

yeah

seriously, required reading for any christian https://www.amazon.ca/Bearing-False-Witness-Debunking-Anti-Catholic/dp/1599474999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527447892&sr=8-1&keywords=bearing+false+witness

the only response gnostics ever have is "boo hoo the church suppressed us"

it was the fact that people left them because it was so obviously full of shit

even if the inquisition did kill a bunch of heretics and jews, it was a good thing

modern day love for the gnostics is just to subvert christianity

the dark ages being an era of stagnation because of the church is also total nonsense, just worthless anti-christian bullshit