Henotheism

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Under henotheism ( . Give a wiki εἷς + θεός heis (strain: Hen- ) "a" + theos "God") - as Summodeismus called - means the special worship of a deity who for a limited period of an ethnic pantheon was selected. In this respect, the worship of other subordinate gods, as in the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions, is not excluded in principle.

A similar term is monolatry : the worship of a tribal deity without a time limit.

The term henotheism was introduced by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and popularized and named by the Indologist Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900)

General interpretation

Henotheism is often viewed as a special form of polytheism , especially in Hinduism and in some ethnic religions ; At the same time, it is considered an intermediate step between polytheism and monotheism - first one selects a deity from the pantheon with whom one enters into a particularly close relationship, this is then soon seen as particularly powerful, until finally the other gods are denied their divinity.

The efforts of Pharaoh Akhenaten to establish the sun god Aton as supreme and superior to all other gods can also be regarded as henotheistic (according to one of several theories of the Egyptologists who have hitherto been equally valid ) . The late ancient Roman sun cult shows similar tendencies , as introduced by Emperor Aurelian and wanted to resume Julian . See also Abrahamic religions and mythical-theistic religions .

After Friedrich Max Müller

Friedrich Max Müller described henotheism in connection with the Indian religion: “When a person is struck by an overwhelming, transcendent apparition, then he worships it as God, namely as the only and highest God. This veneration is entirely situation-related: if the appearance is lost, then the corresponding religious being also loses its uniqueness. So God still has no constancy. "With this, Henotheism according to Müller occurs in evolutionary terms before polytheism."

literature

  • Friedrich Max Müller: Lectures on the origin and development of religion with special regard to the religions of ancient India. Trübner, Strassburg 1880, (2nd, unchanged edition, ibid. 1881, digitized ).
  • Hendrik S. Versnel : Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion. Volume 1: TER UNUS. Isis, Dionysus and Hermes. Three Studies in Henotheism (= Studies in Greek and Roman Religion. 6, 1). Brill, Leiden et al. 1990, ISBN 90-04-09266-8 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Henotheism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Bauks: Keyword: Monotheism (AT) , WiBiLex (Scientific Biblical Dictionary on the Internet), May 2007, accessed on July 27, 2020.
  2. ↑ Isa Breitmaier: Teaching and learning in the footsteps of the First Testament: exegetical studies on the 5th Book of Moses and the Proverbs from a religious-educational perspective. LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, p. 237
  3. ^ Michaela Bauks: Monotheism (AT). 1. Definition of terms: monotheism - henotheism - monolatry. Created May 2007; last change: June 2011 [1]
  4. ↑ Affirming a henotheism in Akhenaten: Akhenaten. In: Christoph Kunz (Ed.): Lexicon Ethics, Religion. Technical terms and people. Stark, Freising 2001, ISBN 3-89449-526-X .