Religion (from the Latin Religio, meaning 'restraint’, or Relegere, according to Cicero, meaning 'to repeat, to read again’, or, most likely, Religionem, to show respect for what is sacred) is an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. There is no culture recorded in human history which has not practiced some form of religion.
In ancient times, religion was indistinguishable from what is known as `mythology' in the present day and consisted of regular rituals based on a belief in higher supernatural entities who created and continued to maintain the world and surrounding cosmos. Theses entities were anthropomorphic and behaved in ways which mirrored the values of the culture closely (as in Egypt) or sometimes engaged in acts antithetical to those values (as one sees with the gods of Greece). Religion, then and now, concerns itself with the spiritual aspect of the human condition, gods and goddesses (or a single personal god or goddess), the creation of the world, a human being’s place in the world, life after death, eternity, and how to escape from suffering in this world or in the next; and every nation has created its own god in its own image and resemblance. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-478 BCE) once wrote:
"Mortals suppose that the gods are born and have clothes and voices and shapes like their own. But if oxen, horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would paint horse-like images of gods and oxen oxen-like ones, and each would fashion bodies like their own. The Ethiopians consider the gods flat-nosed and black; the Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired."
Xenophanes believed there was "one god, among gods and men the greatest, not at all like mortals in body or mind" but he was in the minority. Monotheism did not make sense to the ancient people aside from the visionaries and prophets of Judaism. Most people, at least as far as can be discerned from the written and archaeological record, believed in many gods each of whom had a special sphere of influence. In one's personal life there is not just one other person who provides for one's needs; one interacts with many different kinds of people in order to achieve wholeness and maintain a living. In the course of one's life in the present day one will interact with one's parents, siblings, teachers, friends, lovers, employers, doctors, gas station attendants, plumbers, politicians, veterinarians and so on. No one single person can fill all these roles or supply all of an individual's needs - just as it was in ancient times. In this same way, the ancient people felt that no single god could possibly take care of all the needs of an individual. Just as one would not go to a plumber with one's sick dog, one would not go to a god of war with a problem concerning love. If one were suffering heart break, one went to the goddess of love; if one wanted to win at combat, only then would one consult the god of war.
The concept of the universe for the ancients consisted of three realms: the sky (the heavens); earth (humans); and the underworld (sometimes known as the netherworld or simply 'the land of the dead'). The sky was the domain of the gods and was crowded with a host of divinities understood in a gradient of powers. Many ancient civilizations had a dominant god, or a king of the gods, with other divinities being in charge of various aspects of life, serving as a court of advisers, or simply as messengers to humans below. Many of these powers could transcend (cross over) to the earth below in various manifestations. They could also travel to the underworld, and in those manifestations were known as chthonic (underworld powers). Some of the lesser deities, known as daemons, came to be perceived as evil over time (demons). These powers were believed to be able to possess people and functioned as an explanation for diseases and mental disorders.
The many gods of the religions of the ancient world fulfilled this function as specialists in their respective areas. In some cultures a certain god or goddess would become so popular that he or she would transcend the cultural understanding of multiplicity and assume a position so powerful and all-encompassing as almost transform a polytheistic culture into henotheism. While polytheism means the worship of many gods, henotheism means the worship of one god in many forms. This shift in understanding was extremely rare in the ancient world and the goddess Isis of Egypt is probably the only example of complete ascendancy of a deity from one-among-many to the supreme creator and sustainer of the universe.
In ancient times, religion was indistinguishable from what is known as `mythology' in the present day and consisted of regular rituals based on a belief in higher supernatural entities who created and continued to maintain the world and surrounding cosmos. Theses entities were anthropomorphic and behaved in ways which mirrored the values of the culture closely (as in Egypt) or sometimes engaged in acts antithetical to those values (as one sees with the gods of Greece). Religion, then and now, concerns itself with the spiritual aspect of the human condition, gods and goddesses (or a single personal god or goddess), the creation of the world, a human being’s place in the world, life after death, eternity, and how to escape from suffering in this world or in the next; and every nation has created its own god in its own image and resemblance. The Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-478 BCE) once wrote:
"Mortals suppose that the gods are born and have clothes and voices and shapes like their own. But if oxen, horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would paint horse-like images of gods and oxen oxen-like ones, and each would fashion bodies like their own. The Ethiopians consider the gods flat-nosed and black; the Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired."
Xenophanes believed there was "one god, among gods and men the greatest, not at all like mortals in body or mind" but he was in the minority. Monotheism did not make sense to the ancient people aside from the visionaries and prophets of Judaism. Most people, at least as far as can be discerned from the written and archaeological record, believed in many gods each of whom had a special sphere of influence. In one's personal life there is not just one other person who provides for one's needs; one interacts with many different kinds of people in order to achieve wholeness and maintain a living. In the course of one's life in the present day one will interact with one's parents, siblings, teachers, friends, lovers, employers, doctors, gas station attendants, plumbers, politicians, veterinarians and so on. No one single person can fill all these roles or supply all of an individual's needs - just as it was in ancient times. In this same way, the ancient people felt that no single god could possibly take care of all the needs of an individual. Just as one would not go to a plumber with one's sick dog, one would not go to a god of war with a problem concerning love. If one were suffering heart break, one went to the goddess of love; if one wanted to win at combat, only then would one consult the god of war.
The concept of the universe for the ancients consisted of three realms: the sky (the heavens); earth (humans); and the underworld (sometimes known as the netherworld or simply 'the land of the dead'). The sky was the domain of the gods and was crowded with a host of divinities understood in a gradient of powers. Many ancient civilizations had a dominant god, or a king of the gods, with other divinities being in charge of various aspects of life, serving as a court of advisers, or simply as messengers to humans below. Many of these powers could transcend (cross over) to the earth below in various manifestations. They could also travel to the underworld, and in those manifestations were known as chthonic (underworld powers). Some of the lesser deities, known as daemons, came to be perceived as evil over time (demons). These powers were believed to be able to possess people and functioned as an explanation for diseases and mental disorders.
The many gods of the religions of the ancient world fulfilled this function as specialists in their respective areas. In some cultures a certain god or goddess would become so popular that he or she would transcend the cultural understanding of multiplicity and assume a position so powerful and all-encompassing as almost transform a polytheistic culture into henotheism. While polytheism means the worship of many gods, henotheism means the worship of one god in many forms. This shift in understanding was extremely rare in the ancient world and the goddess Isis of Egypt is probably the only example of complete ascendancy of a deity from one-among-many to the supreme creator and sustainer of the universe.
Ancient Roots of Monotheism
Egyptian
While the term monotheism itself is modern, scholars have attempted to uncover ancient roots of monotheistic beliefs in the ancient world. High on the list is the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 BCE), often referred to as the first monotheist. During the Amarna Period, Akhenaten promoted the worship of Aten, the symbol of the sun, as the highest form of worship, and eliminated the worship of Amon-Ra at Luxor, who was the dominant god at the time. However, the attempt to destroy the temples, images, and priesthood of Amon-Ra nevertheless would indicate a belief in this god’s existence (and influence). At the same time, there is no evidence that Akhenaten also persecuted or attempted to eliminate the other gods/goddesses of Egyptian religion, nor did he attempt to eliminate the numerous religious festivals or afterlife beliefs throughout Egypt.
Zoroastrianism
Another source for the roots of ancient monotheism can be found in Zoroastrianism which became the state cult of ancient Persia. Zoroaster was a prophet (with dates anywhere from 1000-600 BCE) who promoted the worship of one supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, who was the creator of everything in the universe. Nevertheless, Ahura Mazda emanated six primary Amesha Spentas (spiritual forces) as well as other Yazatas (abstract powers) who were in polar opposition to other forces (e.g. truth vs. evil thinking). The extreme opposite of Ahura Mazda was druj, or 'chaos,' personified as Angra Mainyu. As such, the existence of a power opposed to all creation eventually gave rise to later Jewish, Christian, and Islamic concepts of the 'Devil.' Despite the extremes of pure good vs. pure evil (or the concept known as dualism), modern Zoroastrians claim that they are the true originators of monotheism, as everything arose from 'the one.'
Judaism
Ancient Judaism continues to receive the most attention as creating the origins of monotheism in the Western tradition. More recently some scholars are applying the term 'monolatry,' a system that recognizes the existence of other gods, but chooses to worship only one. Like their neighbors, ancient Jews conceived of a hierarchy of powers in heaven: “sons of god” (Genesis 6), angels, archangels (the messengers from God who communicate God’s will to humans), cherubim and seraphim. Jews also recognized the existence of demons with many examples in the ministry of Jesus in the gospels in his role as an exorcist.
The foundational story for the idea that Jews were monotheistic is when Moses receives the commandments of God on Mt. Sinai: "I am the Lord your God . . . You shall have no other gods before me." The Hebrew could actually be translated as "no other gods beside me." This does not indicate that other gods do not exist; it is a commandment that the Jews were not to worship any other gods. Worship in the ancient world always meant sacrifices. Jews could pray to angels and other powers in heaven, but they were only to offer sacrifices to the god of Israel.
Christianity
Our earliest evidence for Christian communities, the letters of Paul (c. 50-60 CE), demonstrate the same Jewish recognition in the powers of the universe. Many manifestations of the divine were accepted in the same gradients of power, but only the god of Israel was to be worshiped: "Even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many lords—yet for us there is one god, the Father" (1 Corinthians 8:5). Paul often railed against the others' gods who impeded his mission (2 Corinthians 4:4). Their existence was real.
However, early Christianity became complicated in relation to the concept of one god when a new concept was introduced. From the very beginning (in the post-Easter experiences of the Apostles), Christians began to claim that along with Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, he had also been "exalted" to heaven and given a seat "at the right hand of god" (Acts 7:56). 1 Peter 3:21-22 states that: "It [baptism] saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of god, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him."
Islam
In the 6th century CE, a prophet arose in Saudi Arabia, Mohammad, who became the founder of Islam. He was essentially a reformer, claiming that both Judaism and Christianity had become corrupted by false teaching. Utilizing the Jewish Scriptures, he emphasized the oneness of God (Allah); combining Allah with any other power is considered 'shirk,' equivalent to idolatry. Nevertheless, Islam does recognize gradients of powers.
God created three intelligent types of beings: angels, jinn (the equivalent of demons), and humans. Angels did not have free will (they are pure reason) and therefore cannot sin, but jinn and humans can choose between good and evil. When God created Adam, he ordered all the angels to bow down to him. One angel, Iblis (Shaytan, the Devil), refused to do so and was cast down to Hell. He was given permission by God to tempt humans, but his authority would ultimately be destroyed on the Day of Judgment.
God created three intelligent types of beings: angels, jinn (the equivalent of demons), and humans. Angels did not have free will (they are pure reason) and therefore cannot sin, but jinn and humans can choose between good and evil. When God created Adam, he ordered all the angels to bow down to him. One angel, Iblis (Shaytan, the Devil), refused to do so and was cast down to Hell. He was given permission by God to tempt humans, but his authority would ultimately be destroyed on the Day of Judgment.
Questions:
1. What is mythology?
2. How did deities act anthropomorphically?
3. Why did ancient people believe and practice polytheism?
4. What were the three realms of the universe conceived by ancient people?
5. What is henotheism?
6. Who was the first Egyptian to practice monotheism?
7. Why can Zoroastrianism not be thought of as strictly monotheistic?
8. In what ways was Judaism both monotheistic and polytheistic?
9. Why is the concept of monotheism complicated in Christianity?
10. According to Islam what were the three types of intelligent beings?
2. How did deities act anthropomorphically?
3. Why did ancient people believe and practice polytheism?
4. What were the three realms of the universe conceived by ancient people?
5. What is henotheism?
6. Who was the first Egyptian to practice monotheism?
7. Why can Zoroastrianism not be thought of as strictly monotheistic?
8. In what ways was Judaism both monotheistic and polytheistic?
9. Why is the concept of monotheism complicated in Christianity?
10. According to Islam what were the three types of intelligent beings?