Comparison and Contrast Essay

Monotheism and Polytheism


Throughout the ancient time there were plenty of beliefs in gods. Two major categories of the beliefs in gods are ‘monotheism’ and ‘polytheism’. The former is an idea of believing in only one god which contrasts to latter that has gods and goddesses. As the number of deities among these two groups differs, the powers of each god also differ. On the other hand the ancient people were somewhat sharing the similar way of worship.

The word monotheism is derived from Greek in which ‘mono’ means single and ‘theos’ means god while the word ‘poly’ means many translated by Rit Nosotro (2010) on hyperhistory.net. Monotheists’ god was totally self-sufficient so he intolerated his people to believe in other gods. For example Israelites, Yahweh was a jealous god who would not permit his people to make idols or follow gods of other nation; in exchange he would take care of them against all other gods. The polytheism was open-minded and easy going approach to a religion belief and practice (Kirsch, 2010). The polytheists could control themselves to follow of believe in as many gods and goddesses as they prefer without and punishment or sin. The Sumerian is one of the groups which believed polytheism, according to their ancient statue of many different gods with different postures living in a peaceful way. The different way the deities of these two groups treated the people, the different beliefs between their believers.

Since there is only one god in monotheism, the god must be able to do or be anything for his people. For example, the Trinity in Christianity in which god is one being in the three eternal persons; the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit (Monotheism, 2010). With one god having all powers in his hand, the monotheists didn’t have to respect others, they believed in a single Powerful God (Nosotro, 2010). The polytheists’ idea was totally in the opposite way. According to Polytheism (redirected from polytheist) (13 September 2010) on encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com, each deity is distinguished by special functions and they could play only their own role. For example, the ancient Persian’s deities: Ahura Mazda was the god of wisdom; Airyaman was the god of friendship and healing; Ahurani the water goddess; etc from tripod.com (n.d.). Thus, there is great difference in the deities’ powers between the monotheism and the polytheism.

Despite the differences there is something in common. Both monotheism and polytheism were worshipping their gods. Every deity was worshipped by unique ways due to his power. According to Alain Danielou (n.d.) on etymonline.com, in the polytheistic religion each individual worshiper chose deity and didn’t usually worship other gods in the same way as his own, as the one he felt nearer to himself, one at a time like monotheists who had only one god. Since they had god to worship and either group had their own gods, they had to worship him in their own way. This paragraph is showing the similarity of monotheism and polytheism in compare.

In conclusion, monotheism and polytheism shared differences and a similarity practice in religions, belief in powers of the deities, and the worship. Since the people experienced all kinds of civilizations, wars and failures. The religions people beliefs are still derived from both types. Also the differences and similarities between two groups are strongly influence the civilization and recession.



Work Cited


Danielou, A. (n.d.). MONOTHEISM and POLYTHEISM . Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://www.etymonline.com/columns/polytheism.htm

Kirsch, J. (2010). Monotheism and Polytheism. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from enotalone: http://www.enotalone.com/article/6760.html

Monotheism. (2010, September 13). Retrieved September 14, 2010, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotheism

Monotheism and Polytheism . (2010, May 14). Retrieved September 16, 2010, from historyforkids: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/religion/monotheism.htm

Monotheism and Polytheism. (2010). Retrieved Septembet 15, 2010, from hyperhistory.net: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w03monopolytheism.htm

Nosotro, R. (2010). Monotheism and Polytheism . Retrieved September 15, 2010, from hyperhistory.net: http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/cot/t0w03monopolytheism.htm

Persian Goddesses. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2010, from amanda61483: http://amanda61483.tripod.com/id20.html

Persian Gods. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2010, from amanda61483: http://amanda61483.tripod.com/id13.html

Polytheism . (2010). Retrieved September 16, 2010, from encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary: http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/polytheist

Polytheism. (2010, September 13). Retrieved September 14, 2010, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytheism



Written by: Natnicha Manomaikul (Nat) G.10M