a system of religious beliefs based on the idea of the existence of only one god, in contrast to polytheism, the belief in many gods. In theological literature monotheistic religions include Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. However, the concept of monotheism is relative, since no religion is consistently monotheistic.
Monotheism appears very late in the historical development of religion. During the period of the dissolution of tribal-clan social structure and the formation of the early states, the gods of different tribes became joined in a single “pantheon,” in which the god of the strongest tribe usually occupied the leading place. In some instances, the priests of this god strove to make him the only or supreme god (Babylonian Marduk, for example); in other cases, kings attempted to counterpose the cult of one god to the traditional priestly cults (the religious reform of Amenhotep IV in Egypt).
Relatively strict monotheism first arose and gained predominance among the Hebrews in the middle and second half of the first millennium B.C., when priests of the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem established their religious monopoly. The strict monotheism introduced in Arabia in the seventh century A.D. formed the basic dogma of the Muslim religion. Thus, the evidence of modern science refutes the assertion of theologians (including the school of Pater W. Schmidt) that monotheism is the original age-old religion of humanity (the theory of protomonotheism) and that other forms of belief are only divergences from the original “true” religion.