Premodern religions are identical in how they were chiefly organized around obtaining spiritual power and avoiding the wrath of unpredictable deities. This is the case with how a guy in 1300 AD understands Christ and how a guy in 600 BC understands Zeus. The main way in which modern people, including Neopagans and E-Christians, differ from their ancestors is that they either don't take these threats so seriously or not to such an extent. Premodern people literally attributed divine power to everything, whether their own diseases, blessing crops for a good harvest, or their weapons to better kill others.

>>17861958 (OP)
Premodern people also had similar theodicies when trying to cope with the apparent absence of God (or the gods or a specific god). Everything was because of a mysterious test and/or it was because of your own fault making you unworthy of any help in the first place. The main thing monotheism did was compress all of this into a single god but just read and compare religious apologetics from ancient Greek authors and medieval authors.

First do your preliminary reading then come back to this board. Start with:

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (1997). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed.). Libreria Editrice Vaticana. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM
Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic theology: An introduction to biblical doctrine. Zondervan.
Hick, J. (1982). God has many names. Westminster John Knox Press.
Kushner, H. S. (1993). To life!: A celebration of Jewish being and thinking. Anchor Books.
Lossky, V. (1997). The mystical theology of the Eastern Church. St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.
MacArthur, J. (1995). The gospel according to Rome: Comparing Catholic tradition and the Word of God. Moody Publishers.
Pascal, B. (1669). Pensées (Section 233).
Pew Research Center. (2015). The future of world religions: Population growth projections, 2010–2050. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/
Sproul, R. C. (2017). Are Roman Catholics saved? Ligonier Ministries. https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/are-roman-catholics-saved
Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2013). Why are religious people happy? The effect of the social norm of religiosity across countries. Social Science Research, 42(1), 90–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.07.002
The Augsburg Confession. (1530). In The Book of Concord (T. G. Tappert, Trans., 1959). Fortress Press.
The Gospel Coalition. (2012). The Gospel Coalition Confessional Statement. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/about/foundation-documents/confessional/
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. (2001). Crossway Bibles.
Leviticus 18:22; 20:13.


The Holy Qur’an. (n.d.). Translations may vary.
Notable references: 2:62; 2:284; 3:3; 3:84; 3:85; 4:48; 5:46; 5:69; 5:72; 39:53.


Ware, K. (1993). The Orthodox way. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
World Christian Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). (2019). Edinburgh University Press.