/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.15947033]

Polytheism, Henotheism, and Monotheism, are categories that don't really apply to anything. At best monolatry does within polytheism, but these are more like ancient pleb edginess (like some soldier solely praising Mars) rather than "the religion" as a whole; or some heretical cult like early Atenism, as opposed to full-fledged "monotheist" Atenism.
All Polytheism was soft-Monotheism, and all Monotheism is hard-Monolatry, and all Henotheism is soft. (Not counting mere individual brainletism or tiny cults of no importance.)
The Hebrew bible's use of Elohim for Angels is the most obvious example.
The problem with all of this is the confusion of Polytheism with Hard-Polytheism, the latter of which is so rare that even the examples of its supposed existence are not even that.
You can call far eastern religions hard-polytheistic only if you what you call 'a god' as necessarily being any Subject with 'superhuman power', to whatever degree: here then "the Absolute" in for example Taoism is Impersonal and thus not a God with this bad definition. But God simpliciter includes any power that acts as logos (conductor) over men and nature, whether ""personal"" or not; thus the Absolute and/or 'First Cause' that exist in ALL historic beliefs disproves hard-polytheism. And shows that the only difference between Poly- and Monotheism is whether it's OK to venerate/worship the non-absolute powers in addition to the Absolute (and in trinitarian trilogy only the Father is true First Cause). But they (Poly- and Monotheism) say nothing about the actual nature of all the Beings, aka Gods, that both systems have (which are practically identical). If there truly are any faith where multiple principles exists Prima in absolute terms (they exist utterly transcendent from all and EACH OTHER) please inform me.
All faiths are all pyramids of hierarchical power. And are Hierarchies of One over Many, is a Hierarchy of One over Many, is a Hierarchy of One over Many.
See Pic Related, and if you can find 'One God Or Many?: Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World', you'll have found theological Gold.

[Anonymous No.15947391]

Zurvanism doesn't fully escape your strict criteria, but it does give good and evil an equality, independence and matched power. Two principles governing life.

[Anonymous No.15947434]

>Jan Assman

[Anonymous No.15947822]

>>15947391
the two opposites in dualism "dance" with each-other through all that is in-between them, and thus form an impersonal higher "synthesis" of them