Beyond monotheism? Some remarks and questions on conceptualising ‘monotheism’ in Biblical Studies

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Beyond monotheism? Some remarks and questions on conceptualising ‘monotheism’ in Biblical Studies
 
Creator Frevel, Christian
 
Subject Old Testament Studies; Religious studies; Old Testament Theology Monotheisms; Polytheism; Monolatry
Description In the first part of this article I outline serious objections against the concept of monotheism. I will ask whether the ambiguity and the problem discredit the concept of monotheism as inappropriate for Biblical Studies, or whether it calls for differentiation. In the argument following thereupon, the concept is found to be more useful to describe certain stages of the conceptual and linguistic development of Israelite religion. The term and concept of monotheism in Biblical Studies is necessary, but not sufficient, if we want to reconstruct the religious history of Israel, Judah, Yehûd and Early Judaism or Judaisms. In this article I propose categories such as implicit monotheism, intolerant monolatry, implicit exclusion, explicit uniqueness, monotheism as implication et cetera, which are especially useful if we want an accurate description of the statements. This makes the category of monotheism useful as heuristic and relational category.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2013-09-20
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Discourse
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v34i2.810
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 34, No 2 (2013); 7 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/810/1840 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/810/1842 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/810/1843 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/810/1839
 
Coverage Southern Levant; Mediterranean Persian Period; Antiquity; 19th century Terms, concepts; conceptualisations
Rights Copyright (c) 2013 Christian Frevel https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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