Henotheism

Henotheism is the devotion to a single supreme god while accepting that other deities may also exist and be worshipped. It sits between full polytheism (many gods) and exclusive monotheism (only one god exists). **Etymology and coinage.** The term combines the Greek *hén* ("one") and *theós* ("god"). The German form *Henotheismus* was coined by the philosopher Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854), and the classicist Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used a related idea to describe a "primitive monotheism" among the ancient Greeks. The concept was popularized in scholarship by the German-British philologist Max Müller (1823–1900), especially in his work on Indian religion, partly as a critique of Western assumptions that treated monotheism as uniquely advanced. **Distinctions.** Henotheism is closely related to monolatry, the worship of one god while acknowledging others; monolatry is sometimes treated as a stricter form that focuses on exclusive worship rather than on one god's supremacy. A related term, *kathenotheism*, describes worshipping "one god at a time." **Examples.** In Vedic Hinduism, the *Rigveda* praises many deities in turn, each as if it were the supreme expression of a single divine essence. Scholars also describe stages of ancient Israelite religion (roughly the 9th–8th centuries BCE) as henotheistic before the development of strict monotheism, and Hellenistic religion increasingly treated Zeus or Jupiter as supreme among many gods. See also Monolatry and Monotheism.