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I have imagined a universalising polytheistic religion of around 5 million adherents.

The pantheon is composed of 120 deities.

A strange thing about this religion is that everyone is considered a priest.

So, I wonder how would rituals be done.

Note: everyone can marry and reproduce in this religion.

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    $\begingroup$ "A strange thing about this religion is that everyone is considered a priest": Yes, I have always considered Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, Methodists and so on to be very strange indeed; and Jews and Muslims, of course. (Because saying that "everybody is a priest" is equivalent to saying that "there are no priests".) On the other hand, what major religions do you know where they have a distinction between priests and laity, except the Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican Christians? $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jun 2 at 0:12
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexP Also Episcopalians but that is just the American branch of the Anglican Church. So, you are basically right. We just consider ourselves separate because of the whole situation over bishops after the Revolutionary War. We got them in the end from Scotland(the entire reason why the Scottish flag is on our crest). $\endgroup$
    – Martamo
    Jun 2 at 0:29
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    $\begingroup$ "How would rituals be done?" is asking us to write your story. "How would the worldwide growth of the number of adherence be fast?" is a separate question which is a) asking us to write your story; and b) depends on a vast number of factors not specified, especially as we don't even know in what period or location/s the starting (?) 5 million adherents are, whether they are proselytizing actively, attitude of governments towards them etc. (That's assuming this is an alternate history Earth, based on the species of sacred organisms specified.) $\endgroup$ Jun 2 at 2:22
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    $\begingroup$ When everyone is a priest... no one is. $\endgroup$ Jun 2 at 2:22
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    $\begingroup$ @AlexP Well, we are. But being American and all, we like to see ourselves as separate on a local level. $\endgroup$
    – Martamo
    Jun 2 at 3:03

5 Answers 5

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Look at Protestantism

As AlexP has alluded to, an important doctrine that Protestant Christians hold to is called the Priesthood of All Believers

A priesthood is a selected group that has full access to a god that is not enjoyed by others.

The basic premise of the Priesthood of All Believers is that the Old Testament Jewish priesthood, like most other OT features, were a foreshadowing of Jesus; once Jesus was crucified and resurrected, all his followers became priests as they have the right of full and direct access to God in all respects, with no intermediary priesthood needed. Repent and believe in Jesus? You're a believer, so you're a priest.

A minister or pastor is merely there to facilitate worship / organise other believers; spiritually, they're no different to anyone else. This is in contrast with Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy and to some extent, Anglicanism, which as in many other matters are more like Catholics than other Protestants.

It's an internal eye roll moment for many Protestants when we (I am one) are accused of being some sort of religion for the benefit of powerful clergy; we've had P.O.A.B as a core doctrine for 500 years, and departure from it is sufficient to be considered fringe and very likely heretical. But what's 500 years and probably 90% adherence to the principle compared to a headline about a tyrannical and corrupt pastor? Very little, in the secular Anglophone media, as a rule.

The thing that holds Protestants together doctrinally, insofar as we are all together is scripture; rituals/sacraments are minimal and with the exception of Communion and Baptism, are agreed to be unimportant and non mandatory.

Re: growth, despite the current decline of Christianity in the USA and Europe, 30 or 40% of all Sub Saharan Africans have become Christians since 1960; that's hundreds of millions of people. The Reformation and Great Awakenings were little slower. So in a word, yes, fast. There's a huge amount of 'Just do it' missionary efforts of every description.

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    $\begingroup$ @elemtilas I understand (and disagree with) the Catholic doctrine, where the common priesthood needs the actions of the ministerial priesthood (particularly the mass and communion) for full access to God. I don't think you actually disagree with the sentence that mentions the RCC and EO churches, though, right? And outside of discussions of the POAB, I assume you use the normal priest/layman parlance that everyone else does, for convenience. Fair? $\endgroup$
    – user86462
    Jun 2 at 5:04
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    $\begingroup$ "A priesthood is a selected group that has full access to a god that is not enjoyed by others" does not match the common meaning of the word "priest" and I suspect it does not match Mammifere's definition either. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Jun 2 at 9:41
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    $\begingroup$ @Daron The first definition Google throws up for me was from MW: "Someone who is authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion especially as a mediatory agent between humans and God". Pretty darned close. And, from reason rather than authority: What good is a priest if they have no special access to God that someone else does not have? Why would the job exist in the first place? $\endgroup$
    – user86462
    Jun 2 at 10:46
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    $\begingroup$ @Daron Like it or not, that mediator part is there. One can't complain that someone isn't using a normal definition but then dispute the dictionary. In Judaism and Christianity, at the least, the mediator role was spelled out at length (in both OT and NT). Specialisation would not explain why most priesthoods require initiation, etc, and have a monopolistic model. You can't just declare yourself a priest doing the priest work at most temples. You need to be made sacred. $\endgroup$
    – user86462
    Jun 2 at 11:08
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    $\begingroup$ @AncientGiantPottedPlant I mean the asker mammifereviolet4694 $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Jun 2 at 11:25
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Gods watch over every worshipper of them

Something like what you requested is depicted in Dragonlance, where any worshipper had the right to directly call upwards and receive a blessing or something else, depending on their relation to the god they contact. There was a pantheon of 3x7, so your 120 deities could also be fitting, yet they should be more than imaginary to expand such a religion, especially should your world be industrial age or higher.

About details - there could be literally any chaos, especially if those deities would have some conflicts "in the heavens" by their nature or character, as an example, look at Ancient Greek pantheon. So the religion, if not supported by the divine intervention, would be free-for-all, in or out, and in a modern world it would quickly split by "who is existing and who is not", and dissolve.

In a modern world with no visible gods (or a dominant monotheistic religion with something supporting it for this long) your religion would not be able to actively expand their follower base, and even if it would, a hundred gods call for Occam's razor somewhere, and should it be applied, the religion would fall apart. In a medieval or earlier world people won't be "all priests" because they would lack education to understand what is needed of them as priests, so that religion would at least change somehow, developing priests out of whole set of believers sooner or later.

A monotheistic religion with everyone as priest does exist, as explained in the answer by AncientGiantPottedPlant, yet it should be noted that it grew out from Christianity that had priests distinctly separated from the rest of believers, at least for educational reasons, as not everyone back then could properly explain what's going on in the Bible or Gospels. Protestantism (Calvinism in particular) was not possible until widespread education as a means to transfer aggregated knowledge to everyone with brains, not to select few to rule the peasantry.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'd dispute the history there, personally. The NT appears to very much depict pretty uneducated people becoming leaders overnight and a very participatory model of church gathering, as well as a repeated theme of God's wisdom in the lowly beating the wisdom of the wise and educated. Still upvoted. $\endgroup$
    – user86462
    Jun 2 at 11:03
  • $\begingroup$ @AncientGiantPottedPlant well NT does just that, but by God's grace and not by other means. Anyway, priests had to be developed as local churces grew and apostles ran out of time to control the mundane part of church's operation (cf Acts 6). Eventually a lower layer of priests formed (not enough data on how), deacons, still they are counted as priests. Thanks anyway. $\endgroup$
    – Vesper
    Jun 5 at 16:38
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When everyone is a priest, then nobody is a priest.

Perhaps there is some theological theory that says that contrary to other religions every adherent of the religion is also technically a priest, but in everyday practice that would be rather meaningless. A leader who doesn't lead anyone isn't a leader.

So either you have a caste of religious leaders above priests who provide religious guidance to the regular adherents of the religion and perform certain rituals (call them "bishops" or "high priests" if you want), or the whole faith is an unorganized religion with no hierarchy at all and everyone worships the gods and performs the rituals on their own.

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    $\begingroup$ Or they act as priest for their family. Or they trade off doing priest work. Or each person is a priest of a different part of the community religion and have different roles and different things to do in the community festivals. $\endgroup$
    – David R
    Jun 2 at 14:32
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how would rituals be done

-- what are they asking of their gods? The polytheistic religions tend to have a very businesslike approach to rituals: you give god(s) something they want, in return for them giving you something you want.

(Which also means that everybody being a priest isn't a strange thing at all. Everybody is a priest in this system; it's just that some gods have a price beyond any individual's means, so you can only strike a deal with them if you pool your resources and send out a representative to negotiate on your behalf.)

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Just Because Everyone Can Doesn't Mean Everyone Does

There will always be people who are more interested in some subject and those who are less interested. How these people interact with the subject will similarly vary.

For example, in the real world everyone is an musician. There is no special group who are the only ones allowed to write or perform or comission music. Despite this, people still go out their way to find a good DJ for their wedding.

Some people are skilled and devote their lives to their practice. Some of these people become incredibly influential whilst others wallow in obscurity.

Other people are not practioners themselves but spend large amounts of resources to experience excellence. Their tastes and preferences vary wildly, even across an individuals lifetime.

Some take a critical view and try to influence what people produce and experience, whether through writing or tutoring.

Some people don't care and just go with whatever everyone else is doing.

Is a record label executive all that different to a cardinal in deciding what the masses receive? Is a local holy man filling a similar role to a village band? People genuinely believe good music makes life better and people believe good religious practice will too. Exactly how they try to achieve this depends on who you're talking to.

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