AHC/WI: Henotheist Abrahamic Religion

Im sure it could happen, but coming up with a specific example might be difficult. Lets give it a try though.

Say around 900 AD the vikings are colonizing Iceland and they encounter the Papar monks. If their meetings go well it might be the start of long term cooperation. Now, the Papar are part of Celtic Christianity and are monastery based, less beholden to a central authority. This might lead some of the monks to record the bible in Viking Runes to help convert the locals, or at least prevent anyone from stoping them. The monks might be asked in turn to make copies of the Eddas. Since its something to trade they may accept.

At this point all it might take is some young monk, perhaps a recently, but not fully, christianized icelander to be copying these texts and start to interpret similarities. Might think to himself "Hmmm, the angle Michel and the aesir Thor are pretty similar, maybe they are just different names for the some being."

Let this sort of thinking take hold and the Eddas become a sort of supplementary material, like the Hadiths in Islam. Stories of the adventures of the angles could be quite popular.

This even has some parallels to how the spanish canonized all the Incan ancestors. Co-opting the local beliefs and claiming that they anticipated Christianity all along.

Thats the best I can think of right now.
 

Jasen777

Donor
Well Henotheism describes where you worship one god but accept that other exist. And it is widely thought that early Judaism is an example of such.

Having "other deities seen as aspects of God" is different I think. And more difficult to have happen.
 
If we're taking henotheism as "aspects of God" then the easiest thing would be preventing Judaism from abandoning the Elohim in favour of strict monotheism. Also, there's bits in the Old Testament where Baal and Asherah, etc. do help people out - the Commandment is "Worship no other gods before/but me" which implies that other gods exist and function as deities, but aren't as good as YHWH - or at least, YHWH is more "jealous" than the others.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
I thought early judaism was henotheist, so some PoD back in ancient time should be what's needed. Why did Judaism become strictly monotheistic anyways?
 
Splitting the triune god is a way.

We have one god who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They're all aspects or persons of the same god, they're all part of the same thing. Separate these things into actual, separated and subordinated deities, maybe add Mary as a fourth subordinate subject, and you have an henotheist Christianity. If it can still be called Christianity, but eh.

We can also make henotheist Judaism and Islam. Judaism WAS henotheist. What made it become purely monotheistic, I don't remember, presumably the return of some Jews from Babylon. Prevent this, and you have Jews who remained in Palestine still worshipping one god while recognizing the existance of others.
You could also have the Assyrians who settled in Palestine (those who would give birth to Samaritanism) undergo a similar process: they'd recognize the god of the Jews as the most important, putting in secondary importance but without fully renouncing to, the other pagan gods.

For Islam, there's talks of so-called Satanic Verses in the Quran. Satan would whisper to Muhammad that Allah has three daughters (the Meccan triad) but then he would purge these verses. Make sure Muhammad keeps these verses, and you have an henotheistic Islam. Islam. Kinda.
 
Could Abrahamic religion have developed along a henotheist path, with other deities seen as aspects of God?

With a POD in Abraham's time (roughly 1500 BCE)? Interesting!

Yes, entirely possible. However, the monotheistic model, I presume, was chosen specifically because it was radical. Not unprecedented (cults to particular gods were proto-monotheist), but indeed radical. Henotheism was not, I don't think, really a thing in that general region until the Greeks began to develop their concepts of god.
 
As evidence for a henotheistic Judaism, see Second Kings 3:26-27.

"When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom; but they could not. Then he took his firstborn son who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, so they withdrew from him and returned to their own land."
 
You could promote the idea that saints take on an aspect of godhood and can be worshipped in their own right (eg. promote St Christopher from patron of travellers to "demigod of travel"), then you'd get something along those lines.
 
There was kind of a similar Christian heresy that saw the latter two members of the trinity simply as aspects of one God. Not sure what that was called.
 
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