Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330656 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 155 pages

Customer Reviews

An interesting discussion of polytheism
I think there ought to be more books on polytheism, so I tend to be generous in rating them. And Jordan Paper makes some good points about polytheism and the ways in which it is superior to monotheism.

The author begins by explaining what he means by "theology." Theology to him can mean "to theorize from within a particular tradition." But that does not suffice to define the term to me.

We find out that the Goddesses and Gods are fairly diverse. My favorites are the perfections of attributes (such as strength, honesty, wisdom, cooperation, adventure, and so on). But others are simply representatives of non-humans (such as trees, earth, sky, or the entire planet). And some are specific to given locales, so that your Goddess may have no jurisdiction over the valley on the other side of the mountain where your neighbors live.

The author discusses many of the North American and Chinese Deities and explains their natures as well as how they are hailed. There are sections on ancestral spirits, and divine ghosts.

Paper explains that polytheism is natural to humans. And that the Gods and Goddesses tend to be hailed or adored, not feared. While the term "worshipper" may be appropriate for many monotheists, the more common term for polytheists is "devotee." Paper explains that the polytheistic deities "tend to be more companionable than a single, absolute, monarchial deity."

The author explains that for polytheists, there is no concept of "heresy." There simply is no single religious dogma to be denied. That's not true for monotheists, who often confuse their dogmas with empirical truths. And that can lead to a very destructive fanaticism among monotheists. In addition, we can see that the major monotheistic religions tend to favor Men over Women, and can favor one race over another as well.

In my opinion, we humans are varied and fickle and thus need to worship a big bunch of Goddesses and Gods. And Paper seems to imply this as well: he points out that if our prayers to one deity are not answered, it is normal to consider switching to some other deity.

One obvious aspect of modern monotheism is its stultifying authoritarianism. And Paper does explain that polytheism is useful, enjoyable, and exhilarating. Still, I would have appreciated more of a discussion about the lack of authoritarianism in some forms of polytheism.

Since Paper does discuss the problems of monotheism in leading us humans into conflict, I was hoping he would draw some conclusions about the future of polytheism. One possibility is that the future will be much like the past: the polytheistic religions that correspond to the human spirit will be defeated by a few monotheists at gunpoint. But I think it is more likely that such impositions of the religions of others will eventually be rejected by society, that we'll return to the Gods and Goddesses, and that They will return to us.

An excellent book
The author writes as a scholar in a clear style. Writing from personal experience and research. As a polytheist, it is a joy to read a theological explanation and defense of my belief systems. But I would recommend to any one of any belief system, it is not proselytizing, instead a scholarly exploration of ideals.