lhenothéisme

Henotheism, also spelled hénothéisme in French, is a religious concept in which a practitioner worships one god as supreme while acknowledging the existence or possible existence of other gods, whom they do not worship exclusively. The term derives from Greek hen, “one,” and theos, “god.” Unlike monotheism, which asserts the existence of a single god to the exclusion of others, and polytheism, which venerates multiple gods, henotheism maintains a hierarchical structure in which a single deity is the focus of devotion while other deities remain part of the belief system.

Henotheism has been used to describe certain phases of ancient religions and some contemporary practices. In the Vedic tradition, individual hymns sometimes lend primacy to a particular deity, while other gods are accepted within the same framework. In the study of ancient Israelite religion, scholars have described early worship as celestially centered on YHWH with recognition of other deities in some texts. In Hinduism, various bhakti traditions emphasize devotion to a chosen deity (for example, Vishnu or Shiva) as the supreme form of the divine, without denying the existence of other gods.

Scholars distinguish henotheism from monolatry, the exclusive worship of one god without explicit belief in others, and from monotheism, which denies the reality of other gods. The category is primarily used as a historical-analytic tool to describe devotional patterns within polytheistic or henotheistic contexts, rather than a prescriptive doctrine for living faiths.

See also: Monotheism, Polytheism, Monolatry, Hinduism, Vedic religion.