Catholic Word of the Day: HENOTHEISM, 12-13-13

CCDictionary ^ | 12-13-13 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

Featured Term (selected at random:

HENOTHEISM

 

Worship of one god in preference to others, while not denying a plurality of gods. In practice it means that one god is worshipped by an individual clan or nation to the exclusion of other deities belonging to other peoples. It is a form of polytheism in that even this one preferred deity is not recognized as the only true God.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

 

[Salvation]

It is a form of polytheism in that even this one preferred deity is not recognized as the only true God.

[mountainlion]

I wonder what the base and origin of the word is.

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day Ping!

Sabellianism	Lamentabili Sane Exitu	Gallican Rite
Fidejussor	Nature and Grace	Tempting God
Gospel Harmony	Wheat and Grapes	False Conscience
Knights of Columbus	Baruch	Red Mass
Quinguagesima	Oblations	Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum
Campo Santo	Natural Precepts	Gelasian Sacramentary
Gift of Counsel	Sacraments of the Living	Edification
Panegyric	Kenosis	Geneva Bible
De Profundis	Genazzano	Hagiography
Viaticum	Transcendence	Henotheism

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[aMorePerfectUnion]

Current example of henotheism is Mormonism.

Mormonic teaching is that there are an unlimited number of mormon gods (4 Earth Gods alone), but mormons are instructed to worship just one. Male Mormons are also taught that if they obey the extensive rules of mormonism, they can also become a mormonic god that has their own worshippers.

Henotheism is not Christianity.

[Mad Dawg]

hen = the one
Theos = God

Greek.

[chajin]

Pre-exilic Judaism was more likely henotheistic rather than monotheistic. For example, in Psalm 18 David describes YHWH as someone who battles the other gods and is victorious, in terms similar to the way a sports writer might describe the undefeated Florida State Seminoles to FSU students: there may be many football teams, but our team is the one to root for, because it conquers all the other teams.

The idea that there is only one Supreme Being, and that all other "gods" are either non-existent frauds or expressions of the demonic, seems to take hold in Judaism during the Babylonian exile. To be sure, there is a difference between reality and perception: the ancient Hebrews may have been henotheistic, but that doesn't mean that the truth of God was henotheistic, only that the perception of God was henotheistic at the time.

[Salvation]

theism — of God

Maybe heno means “not”

[zot]

The word “Henotheism” was coined about 1860 by Max Muller from the Greek hen (one) + theos (god) to denote the religion of people who worshiped only one god but did not deny the fact that other people worshiped other gods. For example: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Ba’al-ze’bub, the god of Ekron?” [2 Kings 1:3]

[mountainlion]

Atheism would not be henothism then as they do not believe in any god but are they a religion?