Monotheism

Review of the previous post

The previous post, post number 21 of 22 discusses the disappearance of Yahwism.

Preview of this post

This post, post number 22 of 22, is the final post in this series and presents a summary and conclusion for this series.

Summary and Conclusion

Was this transformation divinely inspired or was it simply the genius of one man or men (in the manner of one man suddenly discovering zero and changing the entire science system of a civilization)? However it was inspired, it was a stroke of genius and altered world history^[1].

Monolatry was transformed to a belief that the god of the Jews was more powerful than all other gods and, indeed, was so powerful that He could actually use the other gods to His benefit and ends. The acceptance that other people may believe in other gods but one of our choosing (monolatry) was transformed into a belief that there was only one god and no others (monotheism) to meet the needs of the time so that the god of the Jews could still be viewed by the Jews as dominant (and hence able to help, protect and guide them) even though the kingdom was about to be overrun by a people who worshiped many gods and did not recognize the god of the Jews. The fact that it is reported in the Bible that David united the kingdoms and conquered other countries proved the point of view that the god of the Jews was more powerful than the god or gods of the conquered peoples. This view of monotheism was thus of the type that could be, and was, reinforced during and after the exile in Babylon and used to discourage assimilation during and after exile. At least as importantly, this view of monotheism was used to transform Judaism into a religion which could be practiced by people scattered around the world and who had no homeland and kept the Jewish religion alive during such scattering when other religions disappeared as soon as the people were scattered from a homeland^[2].

Observation

Based on the above discussion of the origins of the Yahweh-only religion, one might be tempted to believe that the concept of God has been challenged. One more thought regarding this idea:

There has to be a creator of the universe who stands above all the religions that we ourselves created to go in our lives.

Gene Cernan

Apollo 17 Astronaut on seeing the planet Earth

while he stood on the Moon as the

last man to walk on the moon

^[1] Abraham Geiger, the intellectual founder of the reform movement in Judaism contended that monotheism was the religious genius of Judaism.

^[2] See the essay “Judaism and Nationalism”.