Monotheism
Monotheism (from Greek μόνος, monos, "single", and θεός, theos, "god") is the belief in the existence of a single god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Judaism, Islam, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.
While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still include plural concepts of the divine. For example, the Christian Trinity, in which God is a triune spirit of three eternal persons - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Catholics and Eastern Orthodox venerate the saints, as human beings who had remarkable qualities, lived their faith in God to the extreme; however, Catholics do not worship them as gods.
T
he
concept of monotheism in Islam and Judaism rejects this distinction.
Other forms of monotheism include
unitarianism
and
deism.
It is difficult to delineate monotheism from beliefs such as
pantheism
and
monism
as
in the Advaita
traditions
of
Hinduism.
Some scholars such as
Wilhelm
Schmidt
argued
for
primeval
monotheism: a monotheistic
Urreligion,
from which polytheistic religions developed.
Monotheism is the belief in a Singular God, in contrast to polytheism, the belief in several deities. The distinction between monotheism and polytheism isn't clear-cut or objective. Henotheism involves devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of other gods.
Monotheism can involve a variety of Conceptions of God:
Deism posits the existence of a single god, the Designer of the designs in Nature. Some Deists believe in an impersonal god that does not intervene in the world, while other Deists believe in intervention through Providence.
Monism is the type of monotheism found in Hinduism, encompassing pantheism and panentheism, and at the same time the concept of a personal god.
Pantheism holds that the universe itself is God. The existence of a transcendent being extraneous to nature is denied.
Panentheism is a form of monistic monotheism which holds that God is all of existence, containing, but not identical to, the Universe. The one God is omnipotent and all-pervading, the universe is part of God, and God is both immanent and transcendent.
Main point of monotheism, found in some indigenous African religions, holds that many gods are different forms of a single underlying substance.
Trinitarian monotheism is the Christian doctrine of belief in one God who is three distinct persons; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.