Religious syncretism

Overall, Hellenistic culture in the age that followed Alexander the Great itself showed syncretist features, essentially blending Mesopotamian, Persian, Anatolian, Egyptian, and (eventually) Etruscan–Roman elements within a Hellenic formula.

The Egyptian god Amun was developed into the Hellenized Zeus Ammon after Alexander the Great went into the desert to seek out his oracle at the Siwa Oasis.

[11] Sometimes old pagan gods—or at least their aspects and roles—were transferred to Christian saints, such as when Demetrius of Thessaloniki inherited the role of patron of agriculture from Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries after the latter's demise in the 4th century.

This idea was present in the early Church; the Second Apology of Justin Martyr states: "Whatever things were rightly said among all men, are the property of us Christians".

Apart from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ, the poet also describes Dharmic figures such as Brahma, Vishnu, Rama and Krishna.

Supposedly, they had their own Qur'an in the Berber language comprising 80 suras under the leadership of the second ruler of the dynasty Salih ibn Tarif who had taken part in the Maysara uprising.

Mevaizhi preaches the Oneness of essence message of all the previous major scriptures – particularly Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity – allowing membership regardless of creed.

Likewise, in Southeast Asia, the local variants of Buddhism have been adapted to accommodate folk beliefs, such as the veneration of nats in Myanmar and phi in Thailand.

Some Jesuit missionaries adapted local systems and images to teach Christianity, as did the Portuguese in China, the practice of which was opposed by the Dominicans, leading to the Chinese rites controversy.

[40]Catholicism in Central and South America has been integrated with a number of elements derived from indigenous and slave cultures in those areas (see the Caribbean and modern sections).

[43] The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod experienced controversy for disciplining pastors for unionism and syncretism when they participated in multi-faith services in response to the 9/11 attacks and to the shootings at Newtown, Connecticut, on the grounds that joint worship with other Christian denominations or other religious faiths implied that differences between religions are not important.

In the Latter Day Saint movement, doctrine from previous dispensations as recorded in the LDS canon are considered official, though it is accepted that ancient teachings can be warped, misunderstood, or lost as a result of apostasy.

As a result, South Korean Catholics continue to practice a modified form of ancestral rites and observe many Buddhist and Confucian customs and philosophies.

The sects of reformers based on a revolt from the orthodoxy of Varnashrama Dharma were obviously the outcome of the knowledge that a different religion could produce equally pious and right thinking men.

Caste distinction, one of the main objects of which would seem to be to prescribe the limits of the jus connubii, are to a certain extent as prevalent and as fully recognised among the Mohammedans of Bengal, as among Hindus.

As Buchanan pointed out sixty years ago, they not unfrequently meet at the same shrine, both invoking the same object of worship though perhaps under different names.

"In the Sundarbans (spread across Indian state of West Bengal and Bangladesh), it is noted that Bonbibi, a guardian spirit of the forests is venerated by Hindus and Muslim residents alike.

It almost looks as if the singular freedom from persecution which the old Hindu families have always enjoyed at the hands of their Musalman over-lords had given Islam greater scope to impart its subtle influence to their inward beliefs and outward practices.

Knowing no sacred books but the Sikh scriptures, and with priests (Brahmans though they may be) as ignorant of the Shastras as themselves, these benighted Hindus have allowed nearly all their rites and ceremonies to become coloured with an Islamic tinge.

But though the Bhatia of Las Bela punctiliously refer their advent to the year 708 A.D., and the Hindus of Lahri tell in all good faith of their journeyings from Aleppo with Chakar the Rind, the early history of these old Hindu families is hopelessly befogged.

Many of those are caste and tribes such as Agarwal, Arora, Brahman, Bhat, Bhatiara, Chamar, Chuhra, Dhobi, Dogra, Gorkha, Jat, Meo and the like.

[66]: 93–94 The Baháʼís follow Bahá'u'lláh, a prophet whom they consider a successor to Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Krishna and Abraham.

They regard beliefs held in common as evidence of truth, progressively revealed by God throughout human history, and culminating in (at present) the Baháʼí revelation.

The shared histories of the Caribbean islands include long periods of European Imperialism (mainly by Spain, France, and Great Britain) and the importation of African slaves (primarily from Central and Western Africa).

Another highly syncretic religion of the area, vodou, combines elements of Western African, native Caribbean, and Christian (especially Roman Catholic) beliefs.

Other traditions of syncretic folk religion in North America include Louisiana Voodoo as well as Pennsylvania Dutch Pow-wow, in which practitioners invoke power through the Christian God.

The Theosophical Society professes to go beyond being a syncretic movement that combines deities into an elaborate Spiritual Hierarchy, and assembles evidence that points to an underlying (or occult) reality of Being that is universal and interconnected, common to all spirit-matter dualities.

[77] In West-Central Africa, modern Bwiti incorporates animism, ancestor worship, ritual use of iboga, and Christianity into a syncretistic belief system.

[78] Thelema is a mixture of many different schools of belief and practice, including Hermeticism, Eastern Mysticism, Yoga, 19th century libertarian philosophies (i.e. Nietzsche), occultism, and the Kabbalah, as well as ancient Egyptian and Greek religion.

but separately, not mixed (this is called "dual religious practice" in French "double pratique religieuse") but it's not considered as syncretism The Unification Church, founded by religious leader Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954, has teachings based on the Bible, but includes new interpretations not found in mainstream Judaism and Christianity and incorporates East Asian traditions.