Western Civilization Monotheism and Polytheism

Western Civilization

Monotheism And Polytheism

According to Rita Nosotro, monotheism is the belief in a single, all-powerful god and is derived from the Greek words theos (god) and monos (one). One of the main characteristics of monotheism is that practitioners "believe that God created all reality and is totally self-sufficient" while denying the existence of all other gods. In western culture, there are three main religious systems which practice monotheism, being Christianity, Islam and Judaism. All other religious denominations in western culture sprang from these three religious systems and are still practiced today by billions of people worldwide. In contrast to monotheism, polytheism "is the belief in many gods and goddesses," such as found in the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt and Mesopotamia or the "cradle of Western civilization." Also, monotheism is generally based upon the beliefs and tenets of a particular religious work, such as the Holy Bible, the Holy Quran and the Jewish Talmud, while polytheism is generally based on myth, such as found in ancient Greece and Rome ("Monotheism and Polytheism," Internet).

The religious practice of polytheism is undoubtedly much older than monotheism and has a very long history going back more than 5,000 years and originated in what is now the geographical area of Iraq and Iran, formerly known as the Persian Empire. This place was called Mesopotamia and was dominated by the Sumerians and Babylonians, both of which practiced polytheism. In all Mesopotamian city-states, religion dominated everyday life and determined the various forms of society. The Mesopotamian city-state was under the protection of the god of the city and the king represented this god on earth and served as the steward of his earthly treasures.

One of these Mesopotamian gods was known as Enlil who was the god of the city of Nippur of the Sumerian civilization. Also, all Mesopotamian gods had temples dedicated to them in which the citizens of cities like Babylon and Ur worshipped what is called a pantheon of gods and goddesses which protected the land and its people.

Of course, one of the most famous western civilizations of the past which practiced polytheism is ancient Greece with its pantheon of gods and goddesses, such as Zeus, the king of the gods on Mount Olympus, Hera, his wife, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the protector of the great city-state of Athens, Dionysus, the god of wine, and Poseidon, the god of the seas. For the ancient Greeks, polytheistic religion provided the context for almost all social activity and war was conducted according to the signs of the divine gods which were worshipped by the sacrifice of animals in Greek religious rituals. The basis of all polytheistic Greek religion was myth, coined from the Greek word mythos meaning "story" or "tale," an example being the labors and tribulations of Hercules.

And then there was ancient Rome which borrowed many of the myths from the ancient Greeks and introduced them into its own culture and society. Like the Greeks, the Romans also had a great pantheon of gods and goddesses based upon gods from an earlier civilization known as the Etruscans which was also influenced by Greek polytheism. Most of these gods and goddesses were worshipped in temples, much like the Greeks, and were given Romanized names like Jupiter for Zeus, Juno, his wife for Hera, and Minerva for Athena. As Rome's power increased in the 1st century B.C.E., it quickly adopted the polytheistic gods and heroes of the ancient Greeks and were worshipped in temples within the great city of Rome. Some of these polytheistic gods included Diana, the Roman equivalent of Artemis, Mercury for the Greek god Hermes, Neptune for the Greek god Poseidon and Venus for the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite.

As compared to polytheism, monotheism which is practiced by Christians, Muslims, Jews and other monotheistic religious denominations, has virtually taken over as the primary religious belief system in today's modern world. For Muslims who practice Islam, the only god is Allah which is comparable with the biblical Jehovah, but for all those who practice some form of monotheism, there is only one true God which forms the foundation and creates the inspiration of all monotheistic world religions.

For most of western civilization, the Holy Bible serves as the foundation for modern monotheistic Christianity and for some portions of Islam. Biblically speaking, God/Jehovah is the source of all life and is pure spirit, meaning that He is without physical form or presence. Thus, the biblical God is transcendent or unlimited related to time and space; he is eternal, timeless, ever-present, all-knowing and all-powerful, similar in some ways to the ancient Greek god of Zeus except for the fact that Zeus was considered as a real living and breathing human being rather than as a spiritual entity.

Also, according to some believers, a monotheistic God is a personal God who is rational, self-conscious and self-determining or in other words, an intelligent moral being. God's biblical names are expressions of his personal characteristics or attributes, manifested in specific human situations. For example, in the Old Testament, God is often referred to as Lord or Yahweh,

Elohim and Jehovah, all of which symbolize his all-powerful and all-knowing presence in the lives of believers. Much like the ancient Greek image of Zeus, the monotheistic God also makes his own plans and carries them out in his own time and in his own way. Basically, this God is sovereign which indicates that everything created by man will always be over-ruled in order to serve God's eternal purposes and plans, something which sounds quite similar to most of the Greek/Roman gods who could become angry and violent if not respected by earthbound mortals.