ARE YOU A HENOTHEIST? I CERTAINLY AM, SAID THE JEW

Originally from the Before the Cure archive

It took me a while to get used to the erudite writing style of the South Asian-American scholar, Anu Garg. I am passionate about my language, I am not sure how and when it happened but take great pleasure in reading, writing and speaking it. I also have pleasure in sharing it as it has become the most popular language on earth.
Also it is a pleasure to learn an absolutely new word that you have never heard before, one such is today’s word: HENOTHEISM.

A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

henotheism

PRONUNCIATION:

(HEN-uh-thee-iz-uhm)

MEANING:

noun: Belief in or worship of one god without denying the possibility of others.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek heno- (one) + -theism (belief in god). Earliest documented use: 1860.

USAGE:

“Of course, it is certainly easier and more economical to please a few gods rather than many, so henotheism slowly superseded polytheism, from which monotheism was a small, albeit logical step.”
Frank Luger; Lebenswert; Lulu; 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Silence will save me from being wrong (and foolish), but it will also deprive me of the possibility of being right. -Igor Stravinsky, composer (17 Jun 1882-1971)

Now the question that would trouble of Jews living in Israel and the West would be, can you be a Jewish Henotheistic Atheist ? Knowing the intricacies of Jewish Ethno-religious identity, I am sure you can!

Jewish Identity is not a STRICT religious identity. It is ethnic, culural and if you wish, religious identity you can share with people. It is not exclusive but at the same time, entails a responsibility to the people called the Hebrews or Israel or Jews, it is not a propagative or evangelistic but much more practising than believing way of life.
I am reminded of what Buddha said :
When I am sitting I know I am sitting, When I am eating I know I am eating, when I am talking, I know I am eating..

When I am Jewish, I know I am a Jew.

Jewish atheism refers to the atheism of people who are ethnically and (at least to some extent) culturally Jewish. Because Jewish identity is ethnoreligious (i.e., it encompasses ethnic as well as religious components), the term “Jewish atheism” does not inherently entail a contradiction.

Based on Jewish law‘s emphasis on matrilineal descent, even religiously conservative Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as fully Jewish.[1] A 2011 study found that half of all American Jews have doubts about the existence of God, compared to 10–15% of other American religious groups. from wikipedia

Jews are the least religious of any group identifying as an entity.

close to 80 per cent of Jews hardly or very seldom attend a place of worship.

Original Blogger URL: https://medicoanthropologist.blogspot.com/2020/06/are-you-henotheist-i-certainly-am-said.html

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