Monotheism it is the belief in only one god.
The three largest monotheistic religions in the world are Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Origin
The word monotheism comes from the addition of two Greek words. Mono means single, one; While Theo means god.
Monotheism, for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, has in common the same source, the Bible. They also recognize Abraham as the common father of them all. Hence, these religions are also called as Abrahamic or Book religions.
Abraham would have been born in Ur, in Chaldea, a region where the worship of various deities predominated. However, he intuited that there was only one god and was called by Him to lead his people to the promised land.
To Islam, Abraham is called Ibrahim, and from his son and concubine Hagar, Ishmael, Muslims are descended.
In this way, the Old Testament writings are fundamental to understand what are the characteristics of this unique god. Let's see:
- God is the source of all being and is not subject to any kingdom;
- he is free, strong and sovereign;
- it is eternal, it has no history, it has always existed;
- God is creator, but he is not in Nature;
- there is a clear boundary between humanity and God, which are not confused;
- to know Him, God sends prophets to reveal His will.
Monotheism in History
In addition to the religions mentioned above, there are examples of monotheism in some periods of history.
In Egypt, Pharaoh Akenaten, father of Tutankhamen, tried to establish the worship of a single god, during his reign.
The prophet Zarathustra, also known as Zoroaster, systematized monotheism in Persia (present-day Iran). It is a religion who defends the choices between Good and Evil, the existence of Paradise, of resurrection, in the coming of a messiah. There are still remnants of Zoroastrian communities in India.
During the Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine tried to appease Christians and pagans by instituting the worship of the Sun God, whose day of worship would be Sunday.
The Yazidís, who belong to Kurdish ethnicity, are a pre-Islamic community living in Iraq. They also worship a single god, whose representative on earth would be Melek Taus.
Statistics
According to statistics, monotheistic religions are those that concentrate the largest number of adherents.
Judaism has about 10 to 18 million people, Islam has 1.6 billion believers and, finally, Christianity has 2.2 billion believers.
Reviews
Despite being the majority belief in the world, currently, polytheistic religions experience a growth. Especially those that were in force before Christianity arrived.
So we have a number of organizations that promote neopagan cults reviving the Norse mythology in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom who seek to re-establish these ancient gods.
Atheist philosophers, scholars and scientists have also been occupying space in the media, propagating what has come to be called “new-atheism”. Some names in this movement are Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris.
Read more:
- Christianity
- Islam
- Judaism
- Zoroastrianism
