Monotheism is the belief in only one deity, or God.
Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. It is distinguished from henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity, and from monolatry, the recognition of the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity.Frank E. Eakin, Jr. The Religion and Culture of Israel (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1971), 70.
Monotheistic traditions differ in how strictly they understand the singularity of God. Exclusive monotheism holds that God is a singular existence, whereas inclusive and pluriform monotheism recognize multiple gods or divine forms while postulating each as an extension of the same God. A related spectrum runs from narrow monotheism, which acknowledges the existence of only one deity, to wide monotheism, which characterizes one deity as supreme while permitting lesser deities. Elements of wide monotheistic thought are found in early religions such as ancient Chinese religion, Tengrism, and Yahwism.References:
Zoroastrian Studies: The Iranian Religion and Various Monographs, 1928 – Page 31, A. V. Williams Jackson – 2003 Global Institutions of Religion: Ancient Movers, Modern Shakers – Page 88, Katherine Marshall – 2013 Ethnic Groups of South Asia and the Pacific: An Encyclopedia – Page 348, James B. Minahan – 2012 Introduction To Sikhism – Page 15, Gobind Singh Mansukhani – 1993 The Popular Encyclopedia of World Religions – Page 95, Richard Wolff – 2007 Focus: Arrogance and Greed, America's Cancer – Page 102, Jim Gray – 2012
Monotheism characterizes the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity,Christianity's status as monotheistic is affirmed in, among other sources, the Catholic Encyclopedia (article "Monotheism "); William F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity; H. Richard Niebuhr; About.com, Monotheistic Religion resources ; Kirsch, God Against the Gods; Woodhead, An Introduction to Christianity; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Monotheism ; The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, monotheism; New Dictionary of Theology, Paul, pp. 496–499; Meconi. "Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity". pp. 111ff. and Islam, together with their early offshoots, including Samaritanism and the Druze faith. Other traditions of antiquity described as monotheistic include the Atenism of ancient Egypt, the Platonic and Neoplatonic belief in the Monad, Mandaeism, Manichaeism, Waaqeffanna, and Zoroastrianism.
Monotheistic traditions of the post-classical and early modern periods, shaped to varying degrees by Abrahamic monotheism, include Deism, Yazidism, and Sikhism. Many new religious movements, such as Bábism, the Baháʼí Faith, Seicho-No-Ie, and Tenrikyo, are also monotheistic.
Etymology, origin, and usage The word monotheism is a combination of the Greek (monos)Monos , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, at Perseus meaning "single" and (theos)Theos , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, at Perseus meaning "god".The compound is current only in Modern Greek. There is a single attestation of in a Byzantine hymn (Canones Junii 20.6.43; A. Acconcia Longo and G. Schirò, Analecta hymnica graeca, vol. 11 e codicibus eruta Italiae inferioris. Rome: Istituto di Studi Bizantini e Neoellenici. Università di Roma, 1978)
'Monotheism' was coined by Henry More in 1660; it was not a term used in the Greco-Roman period. More's usage of the concept was not particularly rigorous by later standards, with it more serving as a marker of "good" religion against bad. For example, More condemned Islam as having "hypocritical" monotheism with Muslims "still truly Pagans", and thought that pantheists did not count as monotheists either, because "to make the World God is to make no God at all". Other writers in the 17th and 18th centuries were similarly lax; Ralph Cudworth wrote that Greek Platonism was monotheistic, seemingly out of admiration for Platonism.
Monotheism is a complex and nuanced concept. The biblical authors had various ways of understanding God and the divine, shaped by their historical and cultural contexts. The notion of monotheism that is used today was developed much later, influenced by the Enlightenment and Christian views. Many definitions of monotheism are inherently modern and Christian-centered, and do not map easily to the diversity and complexity of the ancient sources. Outside of Christan sources, many Jewish and Muslim sources ranging from scholars and founders (including Maimonides of Judiasm and the hadiths of Islam) often dispute that Christianity is considered monotheistic alltogether or some speculate that historic and or currently existing Unitarian Christianity sects to be monotheistic but cast doubt that the majority Trinitarian Christian practices are monotheism.
The term "monotheism" is often contrasted with "polytheism", but many scholars prefer other terms such as monolatry, henotheism, or one-god discourse.
History
Quasi-monotheistic claims of the existence of a universal deity date to the Late Bronze Age, with Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten from the 14th century BCE.
In the Iron-Age South Asian Vedic period, a possible inclination towards monotheism emerged. The Rigveda exhibits notions of monism of the Brahman, particularly in the comparatively late tenth book, which is dated to the early Iron Age, in the Nasadiya Sukta. Later, ancient Hindu texts appear to be monist, but were not strictly monotheistic in worship, because it still maintained the existence of many gods, who were envisioned as aspects of one supreme God, Brahman.
In China, the orthodox faith system held by most dynasties since at least the Shang dynasty (1766 BCE) until the modern period centered on the worship of Shangdi (literally "Above Sovereign", generally translated as "God") or Heaven as an omnipotent force.Homer H. Dubs, "Theism and Naturalism in Ancient Chinese Philosophy", Philosophy of East and West, Vol. 9, No. 3/4, 1959 However, this faith system was not truly monotheistic since other lesser gods and spirits, which varied with locality, were also worshipped along with Shangdi. Still, later variants such as Mohism (470 BCE–c.391 BCE) and/or Confucianism (200 BCE - 130 BCE) approached true monotheism, teaching that the function of lesser gods and ancestral spirits is merely to carry out the will of Shangdi, akin to the angels in Abrahamic religions which in turn counts as only one god.
Since the sixth century BCE, Zoroastrians have believed in the supremacy of one God above all: Ahura Mazda as the "Maker of All"Yasna, XLIV.7 and the first being before all others."First and last for all Eternity, as the Father of the Good Mind, the true Creator of Truth and Lord over the actions of life." (Yasna 31.8)"Vispanam Datarem", Creator of All (Yasna 44.7)"Data Angheush", Creator of Life (Yasna 50.11) The prophet Zoroaster is credited with the founding of the first monotheistic religion in history sometime as early as the middle of the second millennium BCE, leaving a lasting influence on other belief systems such as Second Temple Judaism and, through it, on later monotheistic religions. Scholars are conflicted whether Zoroastrianism is best characterized as monotheistic, polytheistic, or henotheistic religion due to the centrality of Ahriman as a component or opposite force of Ahura Mazda.
Post-exilic Judaism, after the late 6th century BCE, was the first religion to conceive the notion of a personal monotheistic God within a monist context. The concept of ethical monotheism, which holds that morality stems from God alone and that its laws are unchanging, first occurred in Judaism, but is now a core tenet of most modern monotheistic religions, including Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baháʼí Faith.Nikiprowetzky, V. (1975). Ethical monotheism. (2 ed., Vol. 104, pp. 69-89). New York: The MIT Press Article Stable.
Also from the 6th century BCE, Thales (followed by other Monists, such as Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides) proposed that nature can be explained by reference to a single unitary principle that pervades everything. Numerous ancient Greek philosophers, including Xenophanes of Colophon and Antisthenes, believed in a similar polytheistic monism that bore some similarities to monotheism. The first known reference to a unitary God is Plato's Demiurge (divine Craftsman), followed by Aristotle's unmoved mover, both of which would profoundly influence Jewish and Christian theology.
According to contemporary Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, monotheism was the original religion of humanity; this original religion is sometimes referred to as "the Adamic religion", or, in the terms of Andrew Lang, the "Urreligion". Scholars of religion largely abandoned that view in the 19th and 20th centuries in favour of an evolutionary progression from animism via polytheism to monotheism. More recently, Karen Armstrong and other authors have returned to the idea of an evolutionary progression beginning with animism, which developed into polytheism, which developed into henotheism, which developed into monolatry, which developed into true monotheism.Compare: This order was reversed by Austrian anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt, who had postulated an Urmonotheismus, "original" or "primitive monotheism" in the 1910s. The evolution of monotheism is bound with universal monarchies.Pines, Yuri & Biran, Michal & Rüpke, Jörg (2011). The Limits of Universal Rule: Eurasian Empires Compared. (New York: Cambridge University Press), p 23, https://books.google.com/books?id=eyoNEAAAQBAJGraham, Mark W. (2006). News and Frontier Consciousness in the Late Roman Empire. (University of Michigan Press), p 156, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv3znzhj.14.pdf?refreqid=fastly-default%3A7f9ed6a094a97626e53e6647846e4a3c&ab_segments=&initiator=&acceptTC=1Fowden, Garth (1993). Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press), p 6.
Narrow and wide monotheism "Narrow monotheism" is a religion that believes in only one deity, disallowing the possibility of there being other deities. "Wide monotheism" is a religion that believes in only one supreme deity, allowing the possibility of there being other lesser deities. A narrow monotheistic religion will often regard other monotheistic religions as worshipping its own specific deity under a different name or form (hence the Abrahamic religions believe they worship the same one God). A wide monotheistic religion will often regard other monotheistic religions as worshipping deities lesser than its own specific deity (hence Atenism believes Yahweh to be a lesser deity to Aten). Examples of narrow monotheist religions includes: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Baháʼí Faith. Examples of wide monotheism include: Atenism, Native American worship of the Great Spirit, Hinduism, Chinese religions, Tengrism, Mandaeism, Rastafari, Yazidism, Zoroastrianism, Proto-Indo-European religion, Hellenistic religion, and Andaman Islands religion.Darnell, J. C., & Manassa, C. (2007). Tutankhamun's Armies: Battle and conquest during ancient Egypt's Late Eighteenth Dynasty. John Wiley & Sons.Ostler, Jeffry. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. Cambridge University Press, Jul 5, 2004. , pg 26.
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