Western Civilization Monotheism and Polytheism Thesis

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.

Lastly, a monotheistic God is almost always considered by believers as being the Father of the universe and the father of all mankind, i.e., man and nature's creator. From a biblical perspective, God is a creational Father, i.e., the creator of mankind; he is a theocratic Father, the founder of Israel and its eternal protector; he is the Father of Jesus Christ, being God's earthly son, and he is an adoptive Father, being the adoptive "parent" of all mankind whom God sees as his children.

In conclusion, there appears to be more similarities than differences between polytheism and monotheism. For instance, all of the ancient Greek polytheistic gods were immortal, meaning that they lived forever and could not die, a situation very close to that of the single monotheistic God of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Also, the gods of the ancient Greeks lived outside of man's physical world but could at times enter man's world in order to influence his behavior. This is also true of the monotheistic God, an example being his influence in the life of Moses. Overall, polytheism and monotheism are simply extensions of each other, meaning that polytheism came first in man's world but was then overthrown by monotheism when man realized that the polytheistic gods were false.

Bibliography

Nosotro, Rita. "Monotheism and Polytheism." 2008. Internet. Retrieved October 15, 2008 from http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w03monopolytheism.htm.

Wiesner, Merry E., Julius Ruff and William B. Wheeler. Discovering the Western Past.

New York: Houghton-Mifflin School Publishing, 1989.