Editing Henotheism (section)

==Hinduism==
{{further|Hinduism|Hindu views on monotheism|History of Hinduism}}
{{Quote box
 |quote  = '''To what is One'''
<poem>
They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni,
and he is heavenly-winged Garutman.
To what is One, sages give many a title.
</poem>
 |source = — ''[[Rigveda]] 1.164.46''<br />Transl: [[Klaus Klostermaier]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Klaus K. Klostermaier|title=A Survey of Hinduism: Third Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CVviRghVtIC |year=2010|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8011-3|pages=103 with footnote 10 on page 529}}</ref><ref>See also, Griffith's Rigveda translation: [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_1/Hymn_164 Wikisource] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506235352/https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Rig_Veda/Mandala_1/Hymn_164 |date=2019-05-06 }}</ref>
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Henotheism was the term used by scholars such as [[Max Müller]] to describe the theology of [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic religion]].<ref name = "max">Sugirtharajah, Sharada, ''Imagining Hinduism: A Postcolonial Perspective'', Routledge, 2004, p.44;</ref><ref name=taliaferro78/> Müller noted that the hymns of the ''[[Rigveda]]'', the oldest scripture of Hinduism, mention many deities, but praises them successively as the "one ultimate, supreme God", alternatively as "one supreme Goddess",<ref>{{cite book|author=William A. Graham |title=Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XzYX0T-ZqTcC |year=1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-44820-8 |pages=70–71 }}</ref> thereby asserting that the essence of the deities was unitary (''[[ekam]]''), and the deities were nothing but pluralistic manifestations of the same concept of the divine (God).<ref name=taliaferro78/><ref name=alonp370/><ref name=fahlbusch524/>

The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind and of the phenomenal universe.<ref name=jeaneanefowler43/> The Vedic hymns treat it as "limitless, indescribable, absolute principle", thus the Vedic divine is something of a [[panentheism]] rather than simple henotheism.<ref name=jeaneanefowler43/> In late Vedic era, around the start of Upanishadic age (~800 BCE), theosophical speculations emerge that develop concepts which scholars variously call [[Nonduality (spirituality)|nondualism]] or [[monism]], as well as forms of non-theism and [[pantheism]].<ref name=jeaneanefowler43>{{cite book |author=Jeaneane D. Fowler |title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C |year=2002 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-898723-93-6 |pages=43–44 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James L. Ford |title=The Divine Quest, East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tk14CwAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-6055-0 |pages=308–309 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ninian Smart|title=The Yogi and the Devotee (Routledge Revivals): The Interplay Between the Upanishads and Catholic Theology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yHE2aL8735AC |year=2013|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-62933-4 |pages=46–47, 117 }}</ref> An example of the questioning of the concept of God, in addition to henotheistic hymns found therein, are in later portions of the ''Rigveda'', such as the [[Nasadiya Sukta]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Jessica Frazier |editor=Russell Re Manning|title= The Oxford Handbook of Natural Theology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eFGYYtfBGFYC |year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-161171-1 |pages=172–173 }}</ref> [[Hinduism]] calls the metaphysical absolute concept as [[Brahman]], incorporating within it the [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] and [[immanence|immanent]] reality.<ref>PT Raju (2006), Idealistic Thought of India, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-1406732627}}, page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey Brodd|title=World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hPiv0w6BDSQC|year=2003|publisher=Saint Mary's Press|isbn=978-0-88489-725-5|pages=43–45}}</ref><ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, page 91</ref> Different schools of thought interpret Brahman as either [[Personal god|personal]], impersonal or transpersonal. Ishwar Chandra Sharma describes it as "Absolute Reality, beyond all dualities of existence and non-existence, light and darkness, and of time, space and cause."<ref>Ishwar Chandra Sharma, ''Ethical Philosophies of India'', Harper & Row, 1970, p.75.</ref>