henotheism

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The Word of the Day for May 19 is:

henotheism   \HEN-uh-thee-iz-um\   noun 
     : the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods

Example sentence:
     During certain periods of Egyptian history, the pharaohs and their 
subjects practiced henotheism.

Did you know?
     "Henotheism" comes to us from the German word "Henotheismus," which in 
turn is derived from Greek "hen-" ("one") and "theos" ("god"). Someone who 
engages in henotheism worships one god but does not deny that there are others. 
Max Muller, a respected 19th-century scholar, is credited with promoting the 
word "henotheism" as a counterpart to "polytheism" ("belief in or worship of 
more than one god") and "monotheism" ("the doctrine or belief that there is but 
one God"). Muller also used the related word "kathenotheism," from Greek "kath' 
hena" ("one at a time"), for the worship of several gods successively.





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