Whence Monotheism

8 Comments

Here are some preliminary thoughts on the origins of monotheism, recorded on a very hot and humid day!

Stay tuned for more developments, including further posts on various gods in the non-monotheistic world.

8 thoughts on “Whence Monotheism”

  1. Mark Goodacre

    Hi Steve. Good to hear you podcasting! I’d love to add a link to the new NT Gateway page on podcasts (http://NTGateway.com/podcasts) but I can’t see a way of isolating the podcast posts from the other posts. Could you perhaps add a podcast tag (cf. the way that Phil Harland has on Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean). Best wishes, Mark

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  6. Pingback: On Monotheism and Other Gods in the Hebrew Bible « Daniel O. McClellan

  7. Ahmed Fasih

    This lecture is still electrifying! I revisit this thought regularly—how a fringe crackpot idea (e.g., there’s only one god, not the multiplicity of gods like everyone else thinks) might virally sweep through a population so thoroughly that the original idea that it replaced seems totally alien and foreign. If there’s any reading you can recommend along these lines—the development of monotheism by Israel as a response to a series of traumatic political events, I’d love to delve into this line of reasoning more. (Forgive me if I’ve asked you this before!)

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    • Steve Wiggins

      There are quite a few books on this topic, Ahmed. Many of them are pretty academic and I have to admit that I’ve failed to keep up on more recent treatments. A good place to test the waters is with Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Monotheism. I would recommend some of the more recent treatments, but I haven’t had time to read them all myself! Thanks for your kind words about my thoughts.

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