Henotheism (Greek ἑνας θεός henas theos “one god”) is the belief in and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities. The term was originally coined by Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854), and used by Friedrich Welcker to depict primordial monotheism among ancient Greeks.
Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage, in his scholarship on the Indian religions. 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 conceptions of God.
Friedrich Schelling coined the term henotheism, from heis which literally means “single, one”. The term refers to a form of theism focused on a single god. Related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism. The latter term is an extension of “henotheism,” from καθ’ ἕνα θεόν (kath’ hena theon) — “one god at a time”. Henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology wherein different deities are viewed to be of a unitary, equivalent divine essence. Another term related to henotheism is “equitheism,” referring to the belief that all gods are equal. Further, the term henotheism does not exclude monism, nondualism or dualism.
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Author: Wikipedia
Keywords: Henotheism, Monotheism, Mormons, Mormonism, Latter Day Saints, Church of Latter Day Saints
Bible reference(s): 1Sa 4:7-8, 1Ki 20:28, 2Ch 32:14-15, Act 17:23, Act 19:24-27, Act 19:34-37
Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Henotheism,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
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