The geographical nature of heresies spreading
Jan Hus (1369-1415) was crucial in laying the groundwork for the later Protestant denial of free will. Hus devoted himself, much like Luther and Calvin, to study the Scriptures and discover the truth. Hus, heavily influenced by Wycliffe, began questioning papal authority and emphasizing predestination, setting the stage for Luther’s more radical position.
Early Protestants and the Free Will Debate
Jan Hus (1369-1415) was crucial in laying the groundwork for the later Protestant denial of free will. Hus devoted himself, much like Luther and Calvin, to study the Scriptures and discover the truth. Hus, heavily influenced by Wycliffe, began questioning papal authority and emphasizing predestination, setting the stage for Luther’s more radical position.
Luther’s position on free will was particularly stark. He argued for the existence of free will, emphasizing that God grants individuals the ability to choose between good and evil, a stance that directly opposed Luther’s assertion that human will is bound by divine necessity – this refers to Erasmus’s counter-position to Luther. Luther’s „Bondage of the Will‟ (1525) argued that human will is so corrupted by sin that it cannot choose good without divine intervention.
Like many of the churches created during the Reformation, the Brethren, or Anabaptists, began with Luther’s and Zwingli’s ideas, but almost immediately found the ideas and the reformers lacking. The Anabaptists actually pushed back against the strict predestination of Luther and Calvin, trying to preserve some human agency.
The evidence suggests that certain regions maintained theological tendencies that would later align with specific Protestant positions:
Eastern Christianity and Nestorianism
Elements of Nestorianism survive in the modern Assyrian Church, based mainly in the Middle East; its members number c. 400,000. The Eastern Orthodox split from Rome in 1054 occurred in regions where Nestorianism (emphasizing the separation of Christ’s two natures) had been strong. The Orthodox emphasis on theosis (deification) and their different understanding of original sin echoes some earlier Christological disputes.
Monophysitism's Geographic Legacy
Monophysitism is very much alive in several present-day Egyptian and Middle Eastern sects of Christianity. The Coptic and Ethiopian churches, which emphasized Christ’s single divine nature, remained separate from both Rome and Constantinople, maintaining theological positions that had regional roots.
Northern European Patterns
The Nordic countries and England, where Arianism had once been strong among Germanic tribes, later embraced forms of Protestantism that emphasized God’s transcendence over papal authority – perhaps echoing earlier anti-hierarchical tendencies.
Kharijites (7th century)
The Kharijites were an Islamic sect which emerged during the First Fitna (656–661), formed in response to a religio-political controversy over the Caliphate, believing Ali’s agreement to arbitration with his challenger Mu’awiyah to be a repudiation of a Qur’anic dictum. They originated in Iraq but spread to peripheral regions.
Mu'tazilites (8th-9th centuries)
Mu’tazilism appeared in early Islamic history and flourished in Basra and Baghdad. Their core principles included: (1) the unity of God; (2) divine justice; (3) the promise and the threat; (4) the intermediate position; and (5) the commanding of good and forbidding of evil. They emphasized human free will and divine justice.
The Ibadi Example
The most striking example of your theory is Ibadism. Various Ibāḍī communities were established in southern Arabia, with bases in Oman, North Africa, and East Africa. Ibâdism represents a branch of the third great division in Islam, that of the Khawârij.
Today, the Largest of these Ibadi communities and the most prosperous is in the Sultanate of Oman, in the southeaste peninsula of Arabia. Other smaller communities exist in several historical places like Zanzibar and Kilwa on the eastern coast of Africa, Jabal Nafūsa and Zuwāra in Libya. Ibadism exists mainly in Oman, East Africa, the Mzab valley of Algeria, the Nafus mountains of Libya, and the island of Jerba in Tunisia.
What’s fascinating is that Oman is the only predominantly-Ibadi country in the Muslim world, though there are pockets of small communities that exist in parts of North Africa, especially Algeria and along the east African coast, particularly in former Omani territory, Zanzibar. This shows how early „heretical‟ movements survived in peripheral regions.
The theological positions also show continuity. In terms of scholastic theology, the Ibadi creed resembles that of the Muʿtazila in many aspects, except in the central question of predestination. The Ibadis preserved the Kharijite emphasis on strict moral purity and rejection of corrupt leadership, but in a more moderate form.
This geographical persistence explains why certain regions of the Islamic world have maintained theological positions that differ from mainstream Sunni orthodoxy. The peripheral locations – Oman, North African mountain regions, East African coast – allowed these „heretical‟ traditions to survive and develop independently.
Your theory suggests that just as Protestant regions in Europe often reflected earlier theological tendencies, Islamic regions that maintained heterodox positions were drawing on deep-rooted local theological traditions that had never been fully suppressed by orthodox Islam.
Areas that had resisted certain Roman theological developments (like the filioque controversy, papal supremacy, or scholastic synthesis) found in Protestantism a way to express their longstanding theological preferences.
This would explain why certain regions embraced specific Protestant theologies more readily – they weren’t adopting foreign ideas but rediscovering theological positions that had historical roots in their areas, even if those positions had been officially suppressed by Rome.