Monotheism
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
![This page Monotheism is part of the Christianity series.Illustration: Triumph of Christianity (detail) by Tommaso Laureti (1530-1602.)](/images/thumb/200px-Tommaso.Laureti.Triumph.of.Christianity.jpg)
Illustration: Triumph of Christianity (detail) by Tommaso Laureti (1530-1602.)
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Monotheism has been defined as the belief in the existence of only one god or in the oneness of God. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church gives a more restricted definition: "belief in one personal and transcendent God", as opposed to polytheism and pantheism. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform (panentheistic) monotheism which, while recognising many distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity.
Monotheism is distinguished from henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity, and monolatrism, the recognition of the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity.
While all adherents of the Abrahamic religions consider themselves to be monotheists, Judaism does not consider Christianity to be monotheistic, recognizing only Islam as monotheistic. Islam likewise does not recognize modern-day Christianity as monotheistic, primarily due to the Christian doctrine of Trinity, which Islam argues was not a part of the original monotheistic Christianity as preached by Jesus.
See also
- Abrahamic religion
- Atheism
- Deconstruction-and-religion
- Demiurg
- Dharma
- Bitheism
- Heliocentrism
- Henotheism
- Zoroastrianism
- Pantheism
- Polytheism
- Post-monotheism
- Psychology of religion
- Religion
- Spiritism