Deities are Many (Book Review Sample)

Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Deities are Many, by Jordan Paper (Review)
The Deities are many by Jordan paper, is a theological inquiry into the often misunderstood idea of polytheistic beliefs. The author, who is a renowned expert on comparative religious studies and polytheistic faiths, tries to provide a personal insight into polytheistic religions deities using his own personal experience Using various examples drawn from diverse global polytheistic religions, Paper tries to analyze the commonalities in the ideological foundations of non-Western religious faiths. The book focuses on various polytheistic religions including the Native American and Polynesian religious groupings, as well as the Hindu, Chinese and Circumpolar religions to illustrate the theology of polytheistic religious traditions. In the course of the book, Paper tries to debunk common monotheistic misperceptions towards polytheistic faiths by showing that polytheistic faiths have as much legitimacy as their monotheistic counterparts when the influences of Western domination are eliminated. Paper argues that conventional theology is a creation of Western Monotheism which provides a certain bias to individuals with religious viewpoints beyond that realm (Paper 5).
In the book, Paper adopts a participant-observer approach towards comparative religious study. The book tries to present a polytheistic perspective viewpoint on the meaning of life when “deities are many”. He argues that a true understanding of religious culture involves participation in the cultural practices of cultures alien to an individual’s own culture with the assumption that the subsequent learnt experiences are real and valid. The greater part of the book dwells on the description of deity worship across various polytheistic cultures. Paper provides two broad generalizations of deity worship namely the worship of cosmic bodies such as the sun and the earth and also plant, animal and mineral spirit worship. Paper tries to show that Eurocentric theological views led to the dismissal of non Western religious ideologies by many scholars. The author maintains that monotheism, unlike polytheism is a relatively contemporary phenomenon (2). He further argues that polytheism has been a fundamental part of human nature and has been existence in the natural world since time immemorial. Paper also analyzes the relationship between theology and monotheism arguing that theology became a pivotal part of monotheism due to repeated religious schisms in early monotheistic religions.
Paper dedicates the last two chapters of the book to tackle the inherent conflicts between monotheism and polytheism. Paper describes how polytheism has been disparaged and deemed intellectually inferior by various monotheistic religions including Judaism, Islam and Christianity. He outlines various examples which demonstrate the lack of cohesion between these two theisms and how the inherent exclusion of polytheism from early theological studies led to unfavorable outcomes when Westerners came into contact with polytheistic religions. Polytheistic Natives in America were forcefully converted to Christianity or displaced from their lands while polytheistic Africans were routinely enslaved by Westerners. Paper argues that in time, the European monotheistic cultures gradually adopted biased views towards various polytheistic traditions and were unsympathetic to these cultures. Paper’s critique of monotheistic religions centers around two main misconceptions monotheistic religions have towards polytheistic religions. First, he faults the egalitarian concept of the master deity in cultures which have an absence of central and permanent leadership. Secondly, he also criticizes the inherent acknowledgment of a lone male creator in cultures which relate the composition of the universe with human biology.
The foundation of the book is based on Paper’s wide experiences with diverse polytheistic faiths which lend a certain degree of legitimacy to the book. His theological conclusions are also reliant on arguments grounded on personal experience with the author’s admission that all theological works are largely confessional. Paper argues from a Buddhist-Daoist viewpoint and admits that his diverse religious background helps him in keeping an open mind and also in accommodating multiple points of view...