Worship of many gods, each with a name, a domain, and a cult; beside it, henotheism's one god worshiped without denying the others, and monolatry's one god of this people.
Polytheism is the oldest organized shape of religion we can see whole, in Egypt, Sumer, Greece, and Rome, and a living shape still in much of Hindu practice. Its world is populous and negotiated: gods of storm and grain, city and household, each owed their rites. The neighboring positions shade toward unity, henotheism exalting one god for a season or a singer, monolatry binding one people to one god while granting that others have theirs.
Sources
Primary
- The Homeric Hymns.
Secondary
- Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985).
How this compares to Christianity
How does this branch relate to the historic Christian faith?
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- Does it consider itself Christian?
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- Did it arise from the Christian tradition?
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- Does it affirm the ecumenical creeds?
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- Is it recognized as Christian by the historic bodies?
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- the WCC / National Council of Churches: Not yet reviewed
- This site's assessment
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- Reviewer
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The comparative record for this entity, its points of convergence and divergence across the ten loci, has not yet been populated. It stands in the assessment queue on the criteria page.
What this assessment cannot settle
This assessment determines what this entity teaches and how that teaching relates to the historic Christian creeds. It does not determine whether any person is saved, whether God accepts their worship, whether they are sincere, or whether the criteria applied here are correct.
This assessment is made from the standpoint described in our editorial statement and our criteria page. It reports classifications; it does not rank sincerity, spiritual standing, or the eternal state of any person.