Ethical monotheism

Ethical monotheism is a form of exclusive monotheism in which God is believed to be the only god as well as the source for one's standards of morality, guiding humanity through ethical principles.^[1]

Definition

Ethical monotheism originated—pace any claims of priority on behalf of Zoroastrianism^[2]—within Judaism.^[1]^[3]^[4]^[5] The concept is present in various other monotheistic religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, Sikhism, and Islam. All of these monotheistic religions include the belief in one Supreme Being as the ultimate authority and creator of the universe.^[6] In Christianity, God is worshipped as the Trinity or according to Nontrinitarian conceptions of God.^[7] In monotheistic religions, other deities are variously considered to be false or demonic, and it is believed that any other gods cannot be compared to the one that they respectively regard as the only true God.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

References

^ ^a ^b "Jewish Concepts: God". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2021 [2014]. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
^ Hinnells, John R. (2005). "The Parsis of Karachi". The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN 9780191513503. Retrieved 16 February 2024. Dastur Maneckja N. Dhalla sought to contextualize Zoroastrians in the global history of religions. He presented Zoroastrianism as the peak of the evolutionary ladder, for he argued that Ahura Mazda revealed the world's first ethical monotheism to the prophet Zoroaster.
^ Weber Bederman, Diane (19 May 2014). "The True Meaning of Ethical Monotheism". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
^ "CORE ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF JUDAISM". ijs.org.au. Ian Lacey and Josie Lacey. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.
^ "Modern Jewish Views of God". My Jewish Learning. 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2021. Post-Enlightenment Jewish thinkers presented modified conceptions of God that attempted to reconcile modern philosophical trends with Jewish tradition. These figures tended to stress human liberty and the ethical aspects of God. Solomon Formstecher (1808-1889) conceived of God as the spirit of the world, a concept derived from Hegel. God is completely free, and as freedom is a precondition for moral activity, God is the perfect ethical being. Leo Baeck (1873-1956) presented Judaism as, essentially, ethical monotheism, suggesting that the belief in one God–Judaism's fundamental innovation–is equivalent to the belief in a single source of moral law.
Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) was also, originally, concerned with the ethical implications of God. In his early rationalistic thought, he presented God as the "idea" that guarantees morality. Cohen's later work, however, was more traditional from a Jewish point of view, and he became more concerned with the reality of God and less concerned with the "idea" of God. Cohen's students, Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1919) and Martin Buber (1878-1965), eschewed Cohen's reliance on reason and rooted their philosophies in the experiential.
^ Nikiprowetzky, V. (Spring 1975). "Ethical Monotheism". Daedalus. 104 (2). MIT Press for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 69–89. ISSN 1548-6192. JSTOR 20024331. OCLC 1565785.
^ Bremer, Thomas S. (2015). "Transcendentalism". Formed From This Soil: An Introduction to the Diverse History of Religion in America. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 235. ISBN 978-1-4051-8927-9. LCCN 2014030507. S2CID 127980793. Unitarian theology, which developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, included a critique of the traditional Christian theology of the Trinity, which regarded God as three distinct but unified beings – transcendent Creator God, human Savior God (i.e., Jesus Christ), and immanent Spiritual God (i.e., the Holy Spirit). Unitarians viewed this understanding of God as a later theological corruption, and they embraced a view of God as a singular, unified entity; in most Unitarian theological interpretations, Jesus Christ retains highest respect as a spiritual and moral teacher of unparalleled insight and sensitivity, but he is not regarded as divine, or at least his divine nature is not on the same level as the singular and unique Creator God.
^ Angelini, Anna (2021). "Les dieux des autres: entre «démons» et «idoles»". L'imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante: Une analyse comparée de la notion de "démon" dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (in French). Vol. 197. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 184–224. doi:10.1163/9789004468474_008. ISBN 978-90-04-46847-4.
^ Leone, Massimo (Spring 2016). Asif, Agha (ed.). "Smashing Idols: A Paradoxical Semiotics" (PDF). Signs and Society. 4 (1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Semiosis Research Center at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: 30–56. doi:10.1086/684586. eISSN 2326-4497. hdl:2318/1561609. ISSN 2326-4489. S2CID 53408911. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
^ Kohler, Kaufmann; Blau, Ludwig (1906). "Idol-Worship". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
^ Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch.; Schacht, J., eds. (1971). "Idol, Idolatry". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_DUM_1900. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.

Bibliography

Benor, Ehud (2018). Ethical Monotheism: A Philosophy of Judaism. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780367892159.
Grossman, Maxine; Sommer, Benjamin D. (2011). "GOD". In Berlin, Adele (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion (2nd ed.). Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 294–297. doi:10.1093/acref/9780199730049.001.0001. ISBN 9780199759279. LCCN 2010035774.
Tzvi Langermann, Y., ed. (2011). Monotheism & Ethics: Historical and Contemporary Intersections among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Studies on the Children of Abraham. Vol. 2. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-19429-8.

[JVL-1] "Jewish Concepts: God". Jewish Virtual Library. American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). 2021 [2014]. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2021.

[2] Hinnells, John R. (2005). "The Parsis of Karachi". The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN 9780191513503. Retrieved 16 February 2024. Dastur Maneckja N. Dhalla sought to contextualize Zoroastrians in the global history of religions. He presented Zoroastrianism as the peak of the evolutionary ladder, for he argued that Ahura Mazda revealed the world's first ethical monotheism to the prophet Zoroaster.

[HuffingtonPost-3] Weber Bederman, Diane (19 May 2014). "The True Meaning of Ethical Monotheism". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 29 November 2020.

[IJS-4] "CORE ETHICAL TEACHINGS OF JUDAISM". ijs.org.au. Ian Lacey and Josie Lacey. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2014.

[5] "Modern Jewish Views of God". My Jewish Learning. 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2021. Post-Enlightenment Jewish thinkers presented modified conceptions of God that attempted to reconcile modern philosophical trends with Jewish tradition. These figures tended to stress human liberty and the ethical aspects of God. Solomon Formstecher (1808-1889) conceived of God as the spirit of the world, a concept derived from Hegel. God is completely free, and as freedom is a precondition for moral activity, God is the perfect ethical being. Leo Baeck (1873-1956) presented Judaism as, essentially, ethical monotheism, suggesting that the belief in one God–Judaism's fundamental innovation–is equivalent to the belief in a single source of moral law.
Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) was also, originally, concerned with the ethical implications of God. In his early rationalistic thought, he presented God as the "idea" that guarantees morality. Cohen's later work, however, was more traditional from a Jewish point of view, and he became more concerned with the reality of God and less concerned with the "idea" of God. Cohen's students, Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1919) and Martin Buber (1878-1965), eschewed Cohen's reliance on reason and rooted their philosophies in the experiential.

[Daedalus_1975-6] Nikiprowetzky, V. (Spring 1975). "Ethical Monotheism". Daedalus. 104 (2). MIT Press for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 69–89. ISSN 1548-6192. JSTOR 20024331. OCLC 1565785.

[Bremer_2015-7] Bremer, Thomas S. (2015). "Transcendentalism". Formed From This Soil: An Introduction to the Diverse History of Religion in America. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 235. ISBN 978-1-4051-8927-9. LCCN 2014030507. S2CID 127980793. Unitarian theology, which developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, included a critique of the traditional Christian theology of the Trinity, which regarded God as three distinct but unified beings – transcendent Creator God, human Savior God (i.e., Jesus Christ), and immanent Spiritual God (i.e., the Holy Spirit). Unitarians viewed this understanding of God as a later theological corruption, and they embraced a view of God as a singular, unified entity; in most Unitarian theological interpretations, Jesus Christ retains highest respect as a spiritual and moral teacher of unparalleled insight and sensitivity, but he is not regarded as divine, or at least his divine nature is not on the same level as the singular and unique Creator God.

[Angelini_2021-8] Angelini, Anna (2021). "Les dieux des autres: entre «démons» et «idoles»". L'imaginaire du démoniaque dans la Septante: Une analyse comparée de la notion de "démon" dans la Septante et dans la Bible Hébraïque. Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (in French). Vol. 197. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 184–224. doi:10.1163/9789004468474_008. ISBN 978-90-04-46847-4.

[Leone_2016-9] Leone, Massimo (Spring 2016). Asif, Agha (ed.). "Smashing Idols: A Paradoxical Semiotics" (PDF). Signs and Society. 4 (1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Semiosis Research Center at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies: 30–56. doi:10.1086/684586. eISSN 2326-4497. hdl:2318/1561609. ISSN 2326-4489. S2CID 53408911. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2017. Retrieved 28 July 2021.

[JE-10] Kohler, Kaufmann; Blau, Ludwig (1906). "Idol-Worship". Jewish Encyclopedia. Kopelman Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 May 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2021.

[EI-11] Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P.; Lewis, B.; Pellat, Ch.; Schacht, J., eds. (1971). "Idol, Idolatry". Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_DUM_1900. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.

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Definition

See also

References

Bibliography