This past Friday, Clarkson hosted the first liberal arts colloquium of the semester featuring Dr. Steven Stannish of SUNY Potsdam who presented his theory on religion and Egyptian culture.
Dr. Stannish spoke about monotheism versus polytheism. He noted that when asked, most people would respond that monotheism was the belief in a single god whereas polytheism was the belief in multiple gods. He noted that experts, even in his field, often had this conception. He went on to explain how the definition was problematic. The clearest representation of this was when he showed references to the polytheistic Gods of Ancient Greece with Zeus being the supreme ruler and Hera, Athena, and Hades surrounding him, and then flipped to a depiction of the Christian God with angels surrounding Him in a similar manner to the first picture.
At this point, Dr. Stannish redefined polytheism and monotheism without referencing the number of gods involved.
Instead, he reasoned, monotheism normally refers to the "desert faiths," namely Hebrew, Christianity, and Islam. He outlined three ways in which "desert faiths" were unique from those deemed monotheistic. Dr. Stannish claimed that monotheism really reflects a personal, responsive god, whom you could ask and thank for things.
See the above page for the full story.
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