Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Belief in the supremacy of one god without denying the existence of others.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name given to an asserted characteristic of the oldest Hindu religion (of the Vedas), as ascribing supreme power to different gods in turn: hence also sometimes applied to similar phases of other polytheistic religions.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare Primitive religion in which each of several divinities is regarded as independent, and is worshiped without reference to the rest.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Belief in or worship of one deity without denying the existence of other deities.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek heno- (from heis, hen-, one; see sem- in Indo-European roots) + Greek theos, god; see dhēs- in Indo-European roots + –ism.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German Henotheismus, coined 19th century by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, from Ancient Greek ἕν (hen) (stem of εἷς (heis, "one")) + Theismus

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Examples

  • Recently, while browsing through the dictionary, I came across the word henotheism, defined as "the worship of one of a group of gods, in contrast with monotheism, which teaches that only one god exists."

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVII No 4 1991

  • Monolatry is not the same thing as henotheism, which is the belief in and worship of one god without at the same time denying that other persons of different nations on this earth can with equal truth worship different gods.

    Shan Wells: The Reasons for the Season Shan Wells 2010

  • Monolatry is not the same thing as henotheism, which is the belief in and worship of one god without at the same time denying that other persons of different nations on this earth can with equal truth worship different gods.

    Shan Wells: The Reasons for the Season Shan Wells 2010

  • Monolatry is not the same thing as henotheism, which is the belief in and worship of one god without at the same time denying that other persons of different nations on this earth can with equal truth worship different gods.

    Shan Wells: The Reasons for the Season Shan Wells 2010

  • From this polytheistic position the people took a step forward to a state of mind which Professor Max Muller calls henotheism; that is, they believed in the real existence of many gods, but that they were under allegiance to only one, their national Deity, and that him only they must serve.

    Our Unitarian Gospel 1879

  • There is no longer any such 'henotheism' as that of the Rig Veda.

    The Religions of India Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume 1, Edited by Morris Jastrow Edward Washburn Hopkins 1894

  • Nor must it be supposed that this monotheism was unconscious; that it was, for example, a form of "henotheism," where the devotion of the adorer filled his soul, merely to the forgetfulness of other deities; or that it was simply the logical law of unity asserting itself, as was the case with many of the apparently monotheistic utterances of the Greek and Roman writers.

    American Hero-Myths A Study in the Native Religions of the Western Continent Daniel Garrison Brinton 1868

  • The concept of "henotheism" (in which any one of various deities may be singled out for worship as the Supreme Being) has been proposed to describe Hinduism.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The concept of "henotheism" (in which any one of various deities may be singled out for worship as the Supreme Being) has been proposed to describe Hinduism.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The concept of "henotheism" (in which any one of various deities may be singled out for worship as the Supreme Being) has been proposed to describe Hinduism.

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

Comments

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  • Worship of one god, without denying the existence of others.

    May 12, 2008

  • Aka hedgingyourbetsism.

    May 12, 2008

  • The dogmatists may think it odd

    But others find much to applaud:

    There's nary a schism

    In henotheism.

    A doubter can pick a new god.

    March 23, 2015

  • And while there were plenty of henotheist pagans (that is, people who worshiped one god while not denying the validity of others), Christianity went far beyond henotheism’s hesitant claim upon ultimate truth. It was an exclusivist faith that foreclosed — was designed to foreclose — devotion to all other deities.
    Tom Bissell, Why Did Christianity Prevail?, N.Y. Times Book Review, Feb. 18, 2018 (print title: When Pagans Became Christians)

    February 18, 2018