rdfs:comment
| - Ancient Semitic religion spans the polytheistic religions of the Semitic speaking peoples of the Ancient Near East. Its origins are intertwined with earlier (Sumerian) Mesopotamian mythology. As Semitic itself is a rough, categorical term, the definitive bounds of the term "Ancient Semitic religion" are likewise only approximate. These traditions, and their pantheons, fall into regional categories: Canaanite religions of the Levant, Assyro-Babylonian religion strongly influenced by Sumerian tradition, and Pre-Islamic Arabian polytheism.
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abstract
| - Ancient Semitic religion spans the polytheistic religions of the Semitic speaking peoples of the Ancient Near East. Its origins are intertwined with earlier (Sumerian) Mesopotamian mythology. As Semitic itself is a rough, categorical term, the definitive bounds of the term "Ancient Semitic religion" are likewise only approximate. These traditions, and their pantheons, fall into regional categories: Canaanite religions of the Levant, Assyro-Babylonian religion strongly influenced by Sumerian tradition, and Pre-Islamic Arabian polytheism. A topic of particular interest is the transition of Semitic polytheism into our contemporary understanding of Abrahamic monotheism by way of the god El, a name of the god of Judaism and cognate to Islam's Allah. Scholars have speculated that the "transition" from polytheism to monotheism was likely a form of theological supremacy — by which the theology of a supreme deity, the "One God," naturally grew from the supremacy of a particular culture toward which that "One God" was favorable. (See covenant.) Thus, as the culture and people expanded, their monotheistic beliefs and specific God were carried with them. (See also henotheism.)
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