What are Henotheism and Monolatry?
Believing in One God, but Not Exclusively
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Henotheism is based upon the Greek roots heis or henos, which means one and theos which means god. This makes it sound like it should be a synonym for monotheism, but it's not, even though it has the same etymological meaning. Coined by F. Max MŸller, the term henotheism refers to the worship in a single god which does not exclude the possibility of other gods who may be worthy of worship.
The word monolatry is based upon the Greek roots monos, which means one and latreia, which means service or religious worship. It seems to have been first used by Julius Wellhausen to described a type of polytheism in which only one god is worshipped even though the existence of other gods is accepted. The reason for the difference in treatment is the premise that only one of the many gods actually deserves to be worshipped - often this may be due to a special relationship the god has with the people in question.
Both henotheism and monolatry can be regarded as types of polytheism when that concept is understood as the belief in the existence of multiple gods rather than more narrowly the worship of multiple gods. Sometimes the two concepts are treated as intermediaries between polytheism and monotheism, perhaps as stages in a culture that is moving from explicit polytheistic faith and worship to a monotheistic religious system.
Because the principle issue that differentiates the two is the fact that henotheism normally doesn't exclude the existence of other gods who might be worthy of worship while monolatry openly acknowledges their existence but denies them worship, the two terms have not always been used consistently in academic literature.
Sometimes they are both used to refer to the same religious system, with henotheism describing the form of belief while monolatry is used to describe the form of worship and religious activity. It must be remembered that while religions in the West typically combine belief in a god and worship of a god, the two are nevertheless logically distinct. Not every person who believes in the existence of a god necessarily worships that god.
Sometimes, in henotheistic belief systems, the identity of the "supreme" god changes - in essence, all of the gods take their turn as the focus of worship while the others recede into the background for a while. In this sense, "supreme" should not be read too literally - it may not be so much a matter of having greater power relative to others gods as simply being the individual god who deserves the most attention at some particular moment. This type of henotheism is often referred to as kathenotheism, another term coined by the philologist Max MŸller and originally used to describe a type of worship found in the Vedas where someone worships one deity at a time, depending on locality or the time.
One thing that can make henotheistic belief systems unique is that the god believed in is sometimes a "personified national spirit" - thus it is a national god rather than a universal god. When a plurality of gods is actively believed in, one of them can be elevated in rank to not only rule over the others but also to represent the nation as a whole. Examples of such nationalistic or tribal gods could be Zeus among the Greeks and Yahweh among the Israelites (before they moved to strict monotheism).
Such religious systems are not necessarily henotheistic, however. As long as those other gods are actively worshipped to the same general degree, we are dealing with traditional polytheism. If other gods are accepted as existing but are ignored as irrelevant or inferior, we are dealing with monolatry. Henotheism is the most appropriate label when the other gods are accepted as being worthy of worship, but the person's worship is nevertheless directed principally towards just one god. Edward F. Wente defined henotheism thus:
...a writer, speaker, or devotee selects a god as his or her own single almighty deity, without, however, denying the existence of other gods and goddesses, any of whom might be seen by someone else as the principle deity.
Wente differentiates this henotheism from monotheism in the context of Egyptian religion by pointing out that the ancient Egyptians did not impose upon others the existence of a single, universal god - at least, not until the reign of Akhenaten.
Wente also differentiates henotheism from summodeism, which he defined as the worship of a supreme deity who sits at the head of a pantheon of other deities who exist solely or primarily as manifestations of this high god. Thus, in a summodeistic system, the existence of multiple gods only occurs because a single, high god is able to transform itself into many different gods.
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