monotheism

—monotheist, n., adj. —monotheistic, monotheistical, adj. —monotheistically, adv.

/mon"euh thee iz'euhm/, n.

the doctrine or belief that there is only one God.

[1650-60; MONO- + (POLY)THEISM]

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Belief in the existence of one god.

It is distinguished from polytheism. The earliest known instance of monotheism dates to the reign of Akhenaton of Egypt in the 14th century BC. Monotheism is characteristic of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all of which view God as the creator of the world, who oversees and intervenes in human events, and as a beneficent and holy being, the source of the highest good. The monotheism that characterizes Judaism began in ancient Israel with the adoption of Yahweh as the single object of worship and the rejection of the gods of other tribes and nations without, initially, denying their existence. Islam is clear in confessing one, eternal, unbegotten, unequaled God, while Christianity holds that a single God is reflected in the three persons of the Holy Trinity.

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▪ theology

Introduction

      belief in the existence of one god, or in the oneness of God; as such, it is distinguished from polytheism, the belief in the existence of many gods, and from atheism, the belief that there is no god. Monotheism characterizes the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islām, and elements of the belief are discernible in numerous other religions.

      Monotheism and polytheism are often thought of in rather simple terms; e.g., as a merely numerical contrast between the one and the many. The history of religions, however, indicates many phenomena and concepts that should warn against oversimplification in this matter. There is no valid reason to assume, for example, that monotheism is a later development in the history of religions than polytheism. There exists no historical material to prove that one system of belief is older than the other, although many scholars hold that monotheism is a higher form of religion and, therefore, must be a later development, assuming that what is higher came later. Moreover, it is not the oneness of god that counts in monotheism but his uniqueness; one god is not affirmed as the logical opposite to many gods but as an expression of divine might and power.

      The choice of either monotheism, or polytheism, however, leads to problems, because neither can give a satisfactory answer to all questions that may reasonably be put. The weakness of polytheism is especially revealed in the realm of questions about the ultimate origin of things, whereas monotheism runs into difficulties in trying to answer the question concerning the origin of evil in a universe under the government of one god. There remains always an antithesis between the multiplicity of forms of the divine manifestations and the unity that can be thought or posited behind them. The one and the many form no static contradistinction: there is rather a polarity and a dialectic tension between them. The history of religions shows various efforts to combine unity and multiplicity in the conception of the divine. Because Christianity is a monotheistic religion, the monotheistic conception of the divine has assumed for Western culture the value of a self-evident axiom. This unquestioned assumption becomes clear when it is realized that for Western culture there is no longer an acceptable choice between monotheism and polytheism but only between monotheism and atheism.

The spectrum of views: monotheisms and quasi-monotheisms

The basic monotheistic view

      Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one god or, stated in other terms, that God is one. As such it is distinguished from polytheism, the belief in the existence of a number of gods, and atheism, the denial of the belief in any god or gods at all. The God of monotheism is the one real god that is believed to exist or, in any case, that is acknowledged as such. His essence and character are believed to be unique and fundamentally different from all other beings that can be considered more or less comparable; e.g., the gods of other religions. The religious term monotheism is not identical with the philosophical term monism, referring to the view that the universe has its origin (creation myth) in one basic principle (e.g., mind, matter) and that its structure is one unitary whole in accordance with this principle; that is, that there is only a single kind of reality, whereas, for monotheism, there are two basically different realities: God and the universe.

      God in monotheism is conceived of as the creator of the world and man; he has not abandoned his creation but continues to lead it through his power and wisdom; hence, viewed in this aspect, history (history, philosophy of) is a manifestation of the divine will. God has not only created the natural world and the order existing therein but also the ethical order to which man ought to conform and, implicit in the ethical order, the social order. Everything is in the hands of God. God is holy (sacred)—supreme and unique in being and worth, essentially other than man—and can be experienced as a mysterium tremendum (“a fearful mystery”) but at the same time as a mysterium fascinans, (“a fascinating mystery”), as a mystery approached by man with attitudes of both repulsion and attraction, of both fear and love. The God of monotheism, as exemplified by the great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islām—is a personal god. In this respect the one god of monotheism is contrasted with the conception of the divine in pantheism, which may also affirm one god or a divine unity. The god of pantheism, however, is impersonal, rather a divine fluid that permeates the whole world including man himself, so that Hinduism can say: tat tvam asi, literally “that is you,” where “that” refers to the single, supreme reality or principle.

      In monotheistic religions the belief system, the value system, and the action system are all three determined in a significant way by the conception of God as one unique and personal being. Negatively considered, the monotheistic conviction results in the rejection of all other belief systems as false religions, and this rejection partly explains the exceptionally aggressive or intolerant stance of the monotheistic religions in the history of the world. The conception of all other religions as “ idolatry” (i.e., as rendering absolute devotion or trust to what is less than divine) has often served to justify the destructive and fanatical action of the religion that is considered to be the only true one.

      The symbolic language of the monotheistic belief system has no proper terms of its own in speaking of God that cannot be found elsewhere also. God as Creator, Lord, King, Father, and other descriptive names are expressions found in many religions to characterize the various divine beings; the names do not exclusively belong to the religious language of monotheism. This common language is understandable because the monotheistic conception of God differs essentially only in one respect from that of other religions: in the belief that God is one and absolutely unique. Then, consequently, God is regarded as the one and only Creator, Lord, King, or Father. The conception of a divine Word is also to be found in a large number of religions, in accordance with the widespread belief that creation takes place through the word, or speech, of a god.

The extreme positions

      The above is the basic monotheistic view. There is, however, a wide range of positions between exclusive monotheism at one extreme and unlimited polytheism at the other. A survey of the various positions may serve to provide a more adequate picture of the complex reality involved in the monotheisms and quasi-monotheisms.

Exclusive monotheism

      For exclusive monotheism only one god exists; other gods either simply do not exist at all, or, at most, they are false gods or demons; i.e., beings that are acknowledged to exist but that cannot be compared in power or any other way with the one and only true God. This position is in the main that of Judaism, Christianity, and Islām. While in the Old Testament the other gods in most cases were still characterized as false gods, in later Judaism and in Christianity as it developed theologically and philosophically the conception emerged of God as the one and only, and other gods were considered not to exist at all.

      There are two types of exclusive monotheism: ethical monotheism and intellectual monotheism. In ethical monotheism man chooses one god, because that is the god whom he needs and whom he can adore, and that god becomes for him the one and only god. In intellectual monotheism the one god is nothing but the logical result of questions concerning the origin of the world. In many African religions the one god postulated behind the many gods that are active in the world and in the life of man is little more than the prime mover of the universe. He is the intellectual apex necessitated by the system. In Christian theology, heavily influenced as it is by Greek philosophy, both conceptions can be found, usually together.

Unlimited polytheism

      On the other hand, there is the extreme position of unlimited polytheism as, for instance, in the classical religions of Greece (Greek religion) and Rome (Roman religion): each god has his own name and his own shape, and these are unalienably his and cannot be exchanged with those of any other god (not counting, of course, those cases in which gods are practically each other's duplicate and only bear a different name). The number of divinities is large and in principle unlimited. There are differences of status and power among the gods, of function and sphere of influence, but they are all equally divine. There is, in fact, an ordered pantheon. In unlimited polytheism, the number of gods that are actually worshipped seldom exceeds a few hundred within one religion, but in theory, as in India, millions and millions of gods may be thought to exist (see polytheism).

The middle positions

      Between the extremes of exclusive monotheism and unlimited polytheism are the middle positions of inclusive monotheism and henotheism.

Inclusive monotheism

      Inclusive monotheism accepts the existence of a great number of gods but holds that all gods are essentially one and the same, so that it makes little or no difference under which name or according to which rite a god or goddess is invoked. Such conceptions characterized the ancient Hellenistic religions (Hellenistic religion). A well-known example is that of the goddess Isis in the Greco-Roman mystery religion that is called after her. In The Golden Ass of Apuleius, the goddess herself speaks: “My name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world, in divers manners, in variable customs, and by many names.” Then there follows a number of divine names, and this enumeration ends: “And the Egyptians, which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustomed to worship me, do call me by my true name, Queen Isis.”

Henotheism, or kathenotheism

      Henotheism (from Greek heis theos, “one god”)—a belief in worship of one god, though the existence of other gods is granted—also called kathenotheism (Greek kath hena theon, “one god at a time”)—which literally implies worship of various gods one at a time—has gone out of fashion as a term. It was introduced by the eminent 19th-century philologist and scholar in comparative mythology and religion Max Müller (Müller, Max) (1823–1900). Many later authors prefer the term monolatry—which is the worship of one god, whether or not the existence of other deities is posited—to the term henotheism. Both terms mean that one god has a central and dominating position in such a way that it is possible to address this god as if he were the one and only god, without, however, abandoning the principle of polytheism by denying or in any other way belittling the real existence of the other gods, as the above-mentioned forms of monotheism do. Henotheism as a religious concept is at home in cultures with a highly centralized monarchical government. It was especially prevalent in some periods in the history of Babylonia and Egypt.

Alternate positions

Pluriform monotheism

      The complicated relations that exist between monotheism and polytheism become clear when pluriform monotheism is considered, in which the various gods of the pantheon, without losing their independence, are at the same time considered to be manifestations of one and the same divine substance. Pluriform monotheism is one of the efforts to solve the problem of the coexistence of divine unity and divine pluriformity (multiplicity of forms), which was not recognized by an older generation of scholars, although part of the material was already available. It seems, indeed, that in many parts of the world and in many times religious thinkers have struggled with the perplexing problem of the unity and the pluriformity of the divine.

      The Nuer, a Nilotic pastoral people of the eastern Sudan, venerate a being called Kwoth, the Nuer term for “spirit” (also translated as “God”). He is considered to be the spirit in or of the sky. Like all spirits Kwoth is invisible and omnipresent, but he manifests himself in a number of forms. Each of these manifestations (theophany) bears a name of its own, but though they are addressed and treated as separate entities, they are essentially nothing but manifestations of the one spiritual being Kwoth and are themselves considered spirits and called kwoth. A sacrifice offered to one of these manifestations—e.g., a spirit of air, totem, or place—is not at the same time an offering to another; but all sacrifices, to whatever spirit they are offered, are sacrifices to the supreme Kwoth, or God. Nuer religion is certainly no clear monotheism as it is understood in the Bible and in the Qurʿān (the sacred book of Islām), but neither is it polytheism in the popular sense of the word.

      The case of the Nuer is not unique. The related Shilluk people have similar conceptions, and here again the idea of a kind of divine substance that manifests itself in various shapes and under different names is encountered. To give one instance, Macardit is God, but this pronouncement cannot be turned the other way round—it is not permissible to say that God is Macardit. The divine being Macardit represents the dire and fatal aspect of the divinity who orders everything; that is to say, who also sends misfortune and death. In Macardit the contradiction between the creative and constructive and the destructive forces of the divinity is resolved. The positive function of this representation of God lies in the fact that, without diminishing either the power or the justice of the total divinity, it enables man to find an answer for the vexing question of theodicy—the problem of affirming divine justice and goodness in the face of physical and moral evil. That this question is a difficult one, indeed, becomes clear when the reactions of the tribes of Patagonia in a case of death are compared. These tribes believe in a high god, a supreme being, who rules everything and is also responsible for misfortune and death. When someone dies they accuse their god of murder.

      Many other instances of pluriform monotheism could be mentioned, and many more presumably still await detection. An interesting pluriform system is that of the Oglala Sioux of the United States, who venerate 16 gods divided into four groups of four. Each group of four forms one god. Thus there are four gods, but these four gods again are one god, Wakan Tanka—the Great Spirit or the Great Mystery.

Religious dualism

      Some religions are in the main dualistic; they view the universe as comprising two basic and usually opposed principles, such as good and evil or spirit and matter. Insofar as the conception of a god and antigod rather than that of two gods is encountered, this kind of religion can be considered as another variation of monotheism. In some Gnostic systems (ancient heresies based on esoteric knowledge and the dualism of matter and spirit), Christianity came near to this idea: the demiurge who created the world and man is considered as an evil being and contrasted to the good god. The most important instance of a dualistic religion is the Persian religion Zoroastrianism as founded by Zoroaster (7th–6th century BC) in which Ormazd (the good god) and Ahriman (the evil god) are each other's opposite and implacable enemies. dualism, the existence of two contrary and, as a rule, mutually inimical principles, must not be confused with the notion of polarity, in which both principles are mutually dependent so that the one cannot exist without the other. Within the religion of Zoroaster, this notion is also found. In the Zoroastrian variation known as Zurvanism, as it is called after the god Zurvān Akarana (Limitless Time), good and evil proceed from one and the same source and in the end they come together again (see dualism).

pantheism and panentheism

      Pantheism and panentheism are not necessarily connected with the notion of either monotheism or polytheism. In both cases the conception of the god or gods is impersonal, which tends, of course, to the conception of one god, of one divine substance, like Spinoza's deus sive natura, “god or nature.” In pantheism god is immanent, in monotheism god is mostly transcendent, but in polytheism the gods may be either. Pantheism, however, is in most cases more a philosophical than a religious category. Sometimes the term panentheism is used to distinguish between the view that all is in God and that god is in all.

Primitive monotheism

      In connection with monotheism it is necessary to mention the so-called high gods—the remote gods, usually sky gods, found in many primitive and archaic cultures—because this type of divine being has given rise to the theory of primitive (prehistoric religion) monotheism (Urmonotheismus). After the Scottish scholar Andrew Lang (Lang, Andrew) (1844–1912) had drawn attention to these gods, the Austrian scholar Wilhelm Schmidt (Schmidt, Wilhelm) (1868–1954) based on their existence in primitive culture and beliefs the theory that the oldest religion of mankind had been monotheistic and that polytheism as well as magic were later degenerations in the course of the history of a pure primeval religion. This theory, defended with great skill and an enormous mass of ethnological material by Schmidt and his collaborators, has long since been proved unsound and was abandoned even by his own students. The connection postulated between the high gods and monotheism has in most respects obscured rather than illuminated the situation. It is true that in many cultures the particular high god is considered as the creator, the founder of the order of the world, and also in some cultures as the reigning god according to whose will everything now happens, but such a god is rarely considered to be the one and only god that counts. Exclusive monotheism is not to be found in either primitive or archaic religions, according to present knowledge. The high god, however, can become a god of exclusive monotheism when circumstances are favourable, at least if he belongs to the active type of high god and not to the intellectual type, which serves mainly as an idea to answer the questions concerning the ultimate origin of things. (See the distinction above between ethical and intellectual monotheism.) This transformation probably occurred in the case of the Islāmic god Allāh. It seems to be more common, however, even for the active type of high god gradually to disappear behind a host of other, often minor, deities who are more concerned with the daily affairs of mankind.

      The Deism of the 17th and 18th centuries is often compared to the conception of high gods as dei otiosi, “inactive gods,” who have created the world and put it into order but after their work was done retreated from the world and left it to run in accordance with the order installed at the creation. Not all high gods, however, are inactive.

Monotheism in the world religions

Classical monotheism

Religion of Israel and Judaism

      There may be some reason to speak of the Old Testament (Bible) conception of God as monolatry rather than as monotheism, because the existence of other gods is seldom explicitly denied and many times even acknowledged. The passionate importance given to the proclamation of Yahweh as the one god who counts for Israel and the equally passionate rejection of other gods, however, make it truer to speak of the monotheism of Israel; as in what became the Judaic (Judaism) affirmation of faith, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, one Lord” (from New English Bible) (Deut. 6:4). The eminent Dutch Old Testament scholar Theodorus C. Vriezen writes: “It is striking how the whole life of the people is seen as dominated by Yahweh and by Yahweh alone. Even if one cannot speak of a strictly maintained monotheistic way of thinking, it is yet clear that faith in Yahweh is the foundation of life for the Israelite.” Monotheism is not a matter of mathematics—of opting for the number one as against other numbers—but the conscious choice of a person or group committing himself or themselves to one god rather than to any other ones and putting their faith in that one god; Joshua proclaims: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15). In Israel the ethical aspect was as important as the exclusiveness of their one god; the prophets stressed the ethical elements of an essentially exclusive God. The God of Israel was a jealous god who forbade his believers to worship other gods. In this respect he differed from other gods in the ancient Near Eastern religions who, as a rule, did not put such exclusive obligation on their adherents.

      In later times—beginning in the 6th century BC and continuing into the early centuries of the Christian Era—Judaic monotheism developed in the same direction as did Christianity and also later Islām under the influence of Greek philosophy and became monotheistic in the strict sense of the word, affirming the one God for all men everywhere.

Christianity

      Among the three great monotheistic religions, Christianity has a place apart, because of the trinitarian creed of this religion in its classic forms, in contradistinction to the unitarian creed of Judaism and Islām. The Christian Bible, including the New Testament, has no trinitarian statements or speculations concerning a trinitary (Trinity) deity, only triadic liturgical formulas invoking God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is true that Christianity also has had its Unitarians, such as the 16th-century Italian theologian Faustus Socinus, but this religion in its three classic forms of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism acknowledges one God in three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. According to Christian theology, this acknowledgment is not a recognition of three gods but that these three persons are essentially one, or as the dogmatic formulation, coined by the early Church Father Tertullian (c. 160–after 220), has it: three Persons and one substance. This conception was not accepted without contradiction as is proved by theological disputes of the 3rd and 4th century. It is evident that trinitarian speculation greatly resembles the way of thinking of pluriform monotheism. It is, of course, unlikely that there are any historical connections between these phenomena; both, however, try to solve what is more or less the same problem in more or less the same manner. The main distinction is that Christianity as a monotheistic religion restricts itself to three Persons, though primitive religions have no reason to restrict the number of possible forms of the one divine substance. Like other religions that cover a large territory and have a long history, Christianity appears in a multitude of variations: there is Christian pantheism, Deism, and even, paradoxically, Christian atheism, as exemplified in the mid-20th-century Death of God theologies.

Islām

      No religion has interpreted monotheism in a more consequential and literal way than Islām. According to Islāmic doctrine the Christian dogma of a trinitarian god is a form of tritheism—of a three-god belief. There is no issue upon which this religion is so intransigent as the one of monotheism. The profession of faith, the first of the so-called Five Pillars of Islām (the basic requirements for the faithful Muslim), states clearly and unambiguously that “there is no God but Allāh,” and in accordance with this principle the religion knows no greater sin than shirk (“partnership”), the attribution of partners to Allāh; that is to say, polytheism, or anything that may look like it—e.g., the notion of a divine trinity. The Qurʾān declares: “Say: He, Allāh, is one. Allāh, the eternal. Neither has he begotten, nor is he begotten. And no one is his equal” (112). This profession of faith in Allāh as the one god is encountered in a more popular form, for example, in the stories of The Thousand and One Nights: “There is no god except Allāh alone, he has no companions, to him belongs the power and he is to be praised, he gives life and death and he is mighty over all things.” In only one respect has the uncompromising monotheism of Islām shown itself to be vulnerable; i.e., in the doctrine of the Qurʾān as uncreated and coeval with Allāh himself.

Monotheistic elements in ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean religions

Egyptian religion

 Egyptian religion is of special interest with regard to the various topics treated in this article, for in it are found polytheism, henotheism, pluriform monotheism, trinitary speculations, and even a kind of monotheism. Especially in the time of the New Kingdom (16th–11th century BC) and later, there arose theological speculations about many gods and the one god, involving concepts that belong to the realm of pluriform monotheism. These ideas are especially interesting when related to trinitarian conceptions, as they sometimes are. In a New Kingdom hymn to Amon are the words: “Three are all gods: Amon, Re and Ptah . . . he who hides himself for them [mankind] as Amon, he is Re to be seen, his body is Ptah.” As Amon he is the “hidden god” (deus absconditus); in Re, the god of the sun, he becomes visible; as Ptah (see photograph—>), one of the gods of the earth, he is immanent in this world.

      Much attention has been given to the reform of Egyptian religion as effected by the pharaoh Akhenaton (Amenophis IV) in the 14th century BC. This reform has been judged in many ways, favourably and unfavourably; it is, however, clear that Akhenaton's theology, if not fully monotheistic, in any case strongly tends toward monotheism. It is even possible to follow the gradual development of his ideas in this direction. At first he only singled out Aton, one of the forms of the sun god, for particular worship, but gradually this kind of henotheism developed in the direction of exclusive monotheism and even took on the intolerance peculiar to this religious concept. The names of the other gods were to be deleted. This un-Egyptian intolerance was probably the main reason for the speedy decline of this creed.

Babylonian religion

      As far as is known, monotheism was largely absent from Babylonian religion. There henotheism seems to have been very important, since a person could choose one god for particular worship as if he were the only god.

Greco-Roman religions

      The classic religions of Greece and Rome were in the main purely polytheistic, but in later times tendencies arose, partly stimulated by philosophy and later also by Judaism and Christianity, toward inclusive monotheism. The hymn to Zeus by the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes (c. 330–c. 230 BC) is the best known document of this process. It praises Zeus as the essence of divinity in all gods, creator and ruler of the cosmos, omnipotent, the giver of every gift, and the father of mankind. In the mystery religions of the Greco-Roman world and in the religious philosophies of later antiquity, such as Neoplatonism, Neopythagoreanism, and others, inclusive monotheism was more or less the rule.

Monotheistic elements in Indian and Chinese religions

      The religions of India and China show an astonishing multiplicity of form, but exclusive monotheism, unless imported or stimulated by foreign influences, seems to be absent. All other phenomena treated in this survey of monotheism, however, are to be found in their religions. Inclusive monotheism and pantheism fit very well with the Indian notions of religion, particularly in Hinduism, as is witnessed by the reflections on Brahman, the self of the world, and Ātman, the self of individual man. As the Upaniṣads say: “Truly, in the beginning existed this Brahman, that only knew itself, saying: I am Brahman.” Although in many cases one god, such as Śiva (Shiva) or Vishnu, receives nearly all the attention of the faithful, this emphasis never leads to a negation of other gods as such. Jainism does not differ in this respect. Only the religion of the Sikhs, heavily influenced by Islām, can be said to teach a kind of exclusive monotheism.

      Buddhism teaches in essence that there are no gods in the full sense of the world. Gods are higher beings, but they belong to the cosmos and are as much in need of salvation as man is.

      The ancient Chinese religion of the heaven (Shang Ti T'ien) is comparable to the religions that proclaim a high god as creator and ruler of the world, but monotheism has not resulted from this conception. Neither has Taoism led to monotheism.

Theodorus P. van Baaren

Additional Reading

General works on monotheism include Josiah Royce, “Monotheism,” in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. 8 (1928); “Monotheismus und Polytheismus,” in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 4 (1913); T.P. van Baaren, Doolhof der goden (1960); G. van der Leeuw, Phänomenologie der Religion (1933; Eng. trans., Religion in Essence and Manifestation, 2 vol., 1963); and R. Otto, Das Heilige (1917; Eng. trans., The Idea of the Holy, 2nd ed., 1950). For primitive religions, see T.P. van Baaren, Menschen wie wir (1964); and P. Radin, Monotheism Among Primitive Peoples (1954); on the high gods, see H. Zwicker, Das Höchste Wesen (1970); and E.O. James, The Concept of Deity (1950), the only general systematic study of a later date treating the problems of monotheism. H.R. Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960), is a modern, incisive Protestant theological presentation of absolute monotheism.

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