Concept
Henotheism
Overview
Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities that may be worshipped. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks.
Max Müller (1823–1900), a German-British philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his scholarship on the Indian religions, particularly Hinduism, whose scriptures mention and praise numerous deities as if they are one ultimate unitary divine essence. Müller made the term central to his criticism of Western theological and religious exceptionalism (relative to Eastern religions), focusing on a cultural dogma which held "monotheism" to be both fundamentally well-defined and inherently superior to differing concepts of God.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed Henotheism
Related ideas
- First Epistle to the Corinthians
- Hinduism
- Dualism in cosmology
- Indian religions
- Amesha Spenta
- Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
- Polytheism
- Monism
- Monotheism
- Historical Vedic religion
- Brahman
- Western world
- Neoplatonism
- Greek mythology
- Pantheism
- Panentheism
- Immanence
- Paul the Apostle
- Classical antiquity
- Second Temple Judaism
- Satan
- Roman mythology
- Theism
- Transcendence (religion)
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Outline of philosophy.
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