Religion News Service
April 20, 2004: Religious differences fuel many of the world’s violent conflicts, detractors and supporters of organized faith often lament in unison, says this article. Author Jonathan Kirsch narrows this charge. He blames the leading monotheistic religions–Judaism, Christianity and Islam–for much of history’s bloodshed. The reason, he maintains, is their brand of monotheism with its traditional claim to exclusive possession of absolute truth. Too bad Julian the Apostate, the Roman Empire’s last pagan emperor, died young in battle, says Kirsch, author of the newly published “God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism.” Had Julian lived longer, he might have succeeded in reinstating classical Greco-Roman polytheism, which was marginalized when Emperor Constantine the Great institutionalized Christianity’s ascendancy–and world history might have turned out more benign. “Julian is one of the great ‘what ifs?’ of history,” said Kirsch. Julian–who came to full power in 360, following Constantine’s death–was a pagan counterrevolutionary who restored religious legitimacy to classical Greco-Roman polytheism. However, Kirsch emphasizes, Julian did not try to eradicate monotheism as Rome’s Christian rulers had sought for polytheism. Julian instead sought to place polytheism and Christianity on equal footing.
Polytheism’s core value, Kirsch writes, is theological pluralism, a stark contrast to traditional monotheism’s penchant for insisting that the “One God” demands theological conformity. And religious freedom, Kirsch said in a telephone interview, paves the way for public differences of opinion on other topics as well. What is most appealing about polytheism is its openness to accommodating the faiths of others, believes Kirsch. He recounts a Buddhist aphorism to sum up his religious beliefs: “One moon, many pools. Many pools, one moon.” The point, he explains, is that light from a single source can be reflected in many ways.