Monotheism

We explain what monotheism is, its characteristics and examples of monotheistic religions. Also, what is polytheism.

What is monotheism?

Monotheism is the religious doctrine that maintains that there is only one Godthat is, a single supreme deity responsible for all creation. The word “monotheism” comes from the Greek monkeys (“one” or “single”) and theos (“God”). It is the opposite of polytheism, which believes in the existence of several gods.

The first testimonies of monotheism come from Antiquity, such as Judaism (which developed in the 6th century BC from the Israelite religion that had emerged a few centuries before) or Zoroastrianism (which has been documented since the 6th century B.C. but it may have arisen in the second millennium B.C.). However, there is much debate among historians as to which doctrine emerged first and to what extent different religions influenced each other.

Of the Judaism two other monotheistic religions emerged, Christianity and Islamwho share with each other the biblical tradition that dates back to the prophet Abraham. These three religions are known as the “religions of the book,” because they focus on their sacred texts: the Tanakh (or Hebrew Bible) for Jews, the Bible (Old and New Testament) for Christians, and the Koran for Muslims.

In monotheistic religions, God is understood as a supreme entity whose nature is unique, eternal and universal.which gives him the gifts of ubiquity (being everywhere), omniscience (knowing everything) and omnipotence (powering everything). According to monotheistic doctrines, there are only two essential realities: God (transcendent and immutable) and the rest of things (i.e., the universe and changing nature).

This belief in the divine tends to produce religions more or less organized around a dogma, in which a distinction is made between what is considered the revealed truth (that is, transmitted to human beings by God himself through their prophets) and the beliefs of other religions that are considered false or wrong.

This means that Monotheistic thought is, in principle, exclusive with any other type of belief that is not one's own.and therefore promotes proselytism and evangelization, or in extreme cases the forced conversion and persecution of those who profess other religions. Hence, some authors attribute the origin of religious violence to the emergence of monotheism.

However, this does not mean that monotheistic religions are homogeneous and monolithic. Within the same monotheistic religion there can be many different cults and ritesdifferent interpretations of sacred doctrine, and even the veneration of multiple figures with supernatural attributes, such as the angels of the Abrahamic religions and the saints of the Catholic religion.

Examples of monotheistic religions

The main monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity and Islamwhich currently make up the three modern Abrahamic religions. Each of them believes in the same and unique God, who is identified with the one who spoke to the prophet Abraham in the biblical tradition. However, they differ in their doctrines, religious texts, theological interpretations, exemplary characters and moral commandments or precepts.

• Judaism. It is the first Abrahamic religion, from which Christianity and Islam later emerged. It preserves ancient traditions such as the celebration of Passover (Jewish Passover) and other festivities, as well as the reading of a sacred book: the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible. Judaism is based on the belief in a covenant established between God (originally called Yahweh) and the people of Israel.
• Christianity. It is the largest religion in the world, followed by Islam. This fact is perhaps explained because the belief in a single God considered true prompted both religions to expand into distant territories to convince and convert as many people and cultures as possible. Christianity's holy book is the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament), and its belief system is based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Its main currents are Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism.
• Islam. It is the religion founded in the 7th century by the prophet Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsula. It considers the biblical patriarchs of Judaism and the Jesus of the Christian New Testament as Islamic prophets, but its most important prophet is Muhammad, to whom God (called Allah) is believed to have dictated the Quran, the holy book of Islam. Its main doctrinal currents are Sunnism and Shiism.

Other examples of monotheism are:

• Zoroastrianism. It is an ancient religion that emerged among the Indo-Aryan peoples that worships the god Hormuz (or Ahura Mazda) and whose sacred text is the Avesta. It is also characterized as a dualistic religion, because it believes in the existence of two opposing principles: the creative principle, represented by the unique god Hormuz (or Ahura Mazda), and the destructive or evil principle, represented by the spirit Angra Mainyu.
• Sikhism. It is a religion that was born in the 15th and 16th centuries in the context of tensions between Hinduism and Islam in Punjab and has a sacred book: the Guru Granth Sahib. It promotes equality among the faithful, against the caste system of Hinduism, and recognizes Guru Nanak as its founder, who promoted the cult of a single God.

Monotheism and polytheism

Unlike monotheism, Polytheism is a type of religious doctrine that maintains that there are many gods. In some cases, deities are organized into pantheons or lineages, and in others they are simply considered to be entities that inhabit nature.

polytheism usually attributes to their gods the dominion of specific regions of the natural or spiritual worldand the control of certain phenomena of nature and culture. They are also usually recognized as having a personality, a genealogy and a history of interactions with other gods and with human beings that are usually part of cosmogonies (mythical stories about the origin of the universe) and other mythologies.

polytheistic religions They tend to be less structured and more heterodox than monotheistic ones.as is the case of Hinduism today, or as was the case of numerous ancient religions, such as that practiced in Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome.

References

• Baaren, T. P. van (2024). Monotheism. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Blatt, R. (2016). Bible, Koran, Tanakh. Three readings about the same God. Turner.
• Filoramo, G., Massenzio, M., Raveri, M., & Scarpi, P. (2000). History of religions. Criticism.
• Morris, B. (2009). Religion and anthropology. A critical introduction. Akal.
• Wainwright, W. (2021). Monotheism. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/