Theopedia

Henotheism

Definition

Henotheism is the belief or practice of worshiping one god while acknowledging, or at least not denying, that other gods exist. It differs from monotheism, which holds that only one God truly exists, and from polytheism, which holds that many gods exist and are properly worshiped. The term matters for biblical interpretation because the Old Testament itself speaks of plural ʾĕlōhîm (“gods”), raising the question of whether Israel’s own faith is better described as monotheism or as a form of henotheism.1

Biblical Basis

The Hebrew word ʾĕlōhîm is grammatically plural but can carry either a singular or plural sense depending on context, and Scripture applies it to a wide range of beings beyond Yahweh himself: members of God’s heavenly council (Ps. 82:1, 6-7; 89:5-7), the gods of other nations (1 Kings 11:33), demons (Deut. 32:17), and even the angel of the Lord (Ex. 3:4).2 Carter argues that the existence of these other ʾĕlōhîm does not itself contradict biblical monotheism, since they are not members of the same class as Yahweh and none of them is worthy of worship; what the Old Testament insists on is not that no other ʾĕlōhîm exist, but that Yahweh alone, as the transcendent Creator, is unique and alone worthy of worship (Deut. 6:4-5; Isa. 41-48).2

Carter distinguishes this from two other worship-views sometimes confused with it. Elective monolatry holds that many gods exist but that only one is to be worshiped by a particular group or tribe, each people worshiping its own god while granting the same right to others; Carter calls this “really a subset of polytheism,” common in the Roman Empire of the New Testament period.3 Ethical monolatry, by contrast, holds that many gods exist but that only one, Yahweh, may rightly be worshiped by anyone at all, a moral claim rather than a tribal one, and is, in Carter’s judgment, the actual view of the Old Testament writings and of the Jews of the New Testament period.3 Carter concludes that this ethical monolatry is compatible with, and in fact grounded in, Yahweh’s transcendent uniqueness as Creator, rather than being a watered-down substitute for monotheism.2

Historical Development

The question of henotheism has also figured in nineteenth- and twentieth-century theories that treat religion as evolving through successive stages, with monotheism appearing only late, after earlier polytheistic or henotheistic phases. Auguste Comte’s positivist “law of the three stages” held that human thought, including religious thought, developed from a theological state through a metaphysical state to a final positive (scientific) state. Charles Hodge answered this by arguing from Scripture, history, and tradition that the historical evidence runs the other way: “Monotheism was the earliest form of religion among men. To that succeeded nature-worship and pantheism, and to that polytheism. It is a historical fact that monotheism was not reached by a process of development.”4 On Hodge’s account, monotheism survived only where the Bible’s own revelation preserved it, principally among the Hebrews and later through Christianity, rather than emerging gradually out of polytheism or henotheism.4

Bavinck makes the same point specifically about Israel’s own history, against evolutionist reconstructions of the Old Testament: “Israel’s religion did not evolve from henotheism to ethical monotheism but is rooted in the divine call of Abraham/Israel and God’s initiative in establishing a covenant with Israel.”5 On this reading, Israel’s worship of Yahweh alone traces to God’s own revelation and covenant, not to a gradual religious development that happened to settle on one god among many.

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Craig A. Carter, “God as the One Who Alone Is to Be Worshiped (Isa. 41-48),” in Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), chap. 6. ↩

  2. Carter, chap. 6. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Carter, chap. 6: “Elective monolatry: This is the view that there are many gods but that only one God is to be worshiped by our group… It is really a subset of polytheism… Ethical monolatry: This is the view that there are many gods, but only one God is to be worshiped by anyone. This is the view of the Old Testament writings and of the Jews of the New Testament period.” ↩ ↩2

  4. Charles Hodge, “Chapter III. Anti-Theistic Theories,” in Systematic Theology, Volume I (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1871), 258-259. ↩ ↩2

  5. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: Abridged in One Volume, ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), chap. 7, “Knowing God.” ↩