Henotheism

The term henotheism ( from Greek: heis, henos " a " and theos "god" ) was developed by the Indologist Friedrich Max Müller ( 1823-1900 ) introduced and referred to the belief in one supreme God, which, however, in contrast to the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions, the worship of other minor gods not in principle exclude. In addition to the concept of henotheism " monolatry " is used with the same meaning.

General interpretation

The henotheism is often regarded as a special form of polytheism, especially in Hinduism; at the same time he is considered the logical intermediate step between polytheism and monotheism - first you choose from the Pantheon a deity to which one enters into a special relationship, which will then soon be regarded as a mighty one, until eventually the other gods their divinity is denied.

Some scholars see the oldest parts of the Bible, in which the existence of other gods is not denied, as relics of an early henotheistic form of Yahweh worship. As henotheistisch can ( according to one of several hitherto equal theories of Egyptologists ) and perhaps also the aspirations of the Pharaoh Akhenaten apply to establish the sun god Aten as the supreme and all other gods superior God; similar trends also includes the late antique Roman sun cult, like him as emperor Aurelian introduced and Julian wanted to record again. See also Abrahamic religions.

After Friedrich Max Müller

Friedrich Max Müller described the henotheism in the context of Indian religion: When a person is hit by an overwhelming, transzendenzeröffnenden appearance, he worshiped them as God, as a single and supreme God. This worship is very situational: If loses the appearance, then also the corresponding religious nature loses its uniqueness. So the god has no constancy. This occurs after the Henotheism Müller evolutionarily on before polytheism.