Before talking about monotheism as a phenomenon in world culture and human history, one should understand the direct meaning of this term. Etymologically, the word goes back to the Greek language. Its first stem - monos - means "unity". The second - theos - has its roots in Latin. It translates as "God". Thus, monotheism is literally translated "monotheism".
If there is mono, there must be poly
Obviously, in essence, belief in a single God is an opposition to the opposite realities. If we turn to history, we can see that the ancient Greeks had a whole pantheon of gods. Slavic beliefs suggest the simultaneous existence of Dazhdbog, Mokosh, Veles and many other deities. The same situation is observed among the Romans, who at one time borrowed a system of beliefs from Greek culture.
If monotheism is a belief in a single god, then polytheism can be characterized by the worship of many higher beings, the presence of the idea of two or more equal gods.
Is this phenomenon primary
Some philosophers and specialists in world religions say that monotheism, the definition of which is quite obvious from thenames, existed in the history of mankind long before paganism - polytheism. This hypothesis can hardly be called legitimate, since the nature of monotheism itself contradicts the laws of human development.
If you trace the evolution of people's views on a higher power, you can see that initially various natural phenomena acted in its role: wind, thunderstorm, sun, and so on. It is quite natural that a person who could not resist the power of the surrounding world deified him. Thus, Yarilo, Perun and many others appeared in Slavic culture. The Greeks thus arose Zeus, Hera, Demeter and others. With this in mind, it can be argued that monotheism - a religion more deliberate and anthropocentric - simply could not have arisen before polytheism.
Types of monotheistic religions
If you examine the most common types of beliefs, you will notice that predominantly humanity is characterized by adherence to monotheism. Even in the list of world religions, the main places are assigned to monotheistic ones. The first is, of course, Christianity. Skeptics may not agree, because at least three subjects appear in this ideology: father, son and holy spirit. If we turn to the text of Scripture, all these are three hypostases of the one God. Islam is also a monotheistic religion, like Sikhism, Judaism and many others.
Monotheism is a rather aggressive type of belief, and for a modern person it is much more logical than polytheism. ATFirst of all, this is connected with the very organization of society, its management. In modern society, there is only one supreme authority above people: the director, the president, or the representative of the royal family. By the way, the first step towards the establishment of monotheism was taken, oddly enough, by the Egyptians, who recognized the pharaoh as a god on earth.
Philosophy point of view
In fact, every philosophical doctrine, every thinker one way or another comes to the question of religion. Since antiquity, the problem of the existence of the divine principle has occupied one of the key positions of the works. If we consider directly monotheism, in philosophy it began to appear especially actively in the Middle Ages, since this period was for humanity the time of maximum planting of religion.
As for specific opinions, Pierre Abelard, for example, argued that everything is built to God, including philosophy. It is noteworthy that the word "god" in this case is used in the singular. In his teachings, Benedict Spinoza also appealed to a single god (abstract), who argued that the whole world exists due to the influence of some essence.
Even Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of the famous statement about the death of God, already asserted a monotheistic point of view by the fact of his formulation.
Monotheism in the context of world religions
Despite the noticeable differences in world teachings, it should be noted that they also have a lot of common features. Even monotheism itself is a key similarity between different models of worship. Allah, JesusYahweh - all of them, if you do some research, are similar to each other. Even in Sikhism, where it would seem that there are two gods at once - Nirgun and Sargun, everything ultimately comes down to a monotheistic model. The fact is that the god of the Sikhs, embodied in every person, is the same Absolute that rules the world.
Monotheism, the philosophy of which is as simple as possible on the one hand and incredibly complex on the other, is perhaps the only acceptable model for a modern person. This is due to the peculiarity of today: humanity has defeated the elements, it no longer needs to deify it, respectively, there is no need for polytheism anymore.
