Primitive monotheism

Urmonotheismus (German for " monotheism") or primitive monotheism is the hypothesis of a monotheistic Urreligion, from which non-monotheistic religions degenerated. This is diametrically opposed to the evolutionary view of religion, another hypothesis which holds that religion progressed from simple forms to complex: first preanimism, then animism, totemism, polytheism and finally monotheism (see Anthropology of religion).

Scottish anthropologist Andrew Lang concluded in 1898 that the idea of a high god or 'All Father' existed among some of the simplest of contemporary tribes, prior to Western contact.

It was first defended by Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954), in his Der Ursprung der Gottesidee appearing from 1912, opposing the "Revolutionary Monotheism" approach that traces the emergence of monotheistic thought as a gradual process spanning the Bronze and Iron Age Religions of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity.

Alleged traces of primitive monotheism were located in the deities Assyrian Ashur and Marduk, and Hebrew YHWH. Monotheism in Schmidt's view is the "natural" form of theism, which was later overlaid and "degraded" by polytheism.

Schmidt's hypothesis was controversially discussed during much of the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, Schmidt adduced evidence from Native American mythology, Australian aborigines and other primitive civilizations in support of his views. He also responded to his critics. For instance, he rejected Rafael Pettazoni's claim that the sky gods were merely a dim personification or embodiment of the physical sky, saying in "The Origin and Growth of Religion," "The outlines of the Supreme Being become dim only among later peoples." He adds that "a being who lives in the sky, who stands behind the celestial phenomena, who must 'centralize' in himself the various manifestations [of thunder, rain, etc.] is not a personification of the sky at all." According to Ernest Brandewie in "Wilhelm Schmidt and the Origin of the Idea of God," Schmidt also claims that Pettazoni fails to study Schmidt's work seriously and often relies on incorrect translations of Schmidt's German. Brandewie also says Pettazoni's definition of primitive ethical monotheism is an "arbitrary" straw man argument, but he says Schmidt went too far when he claimed that such ethical monotheism was the earliest religious idea.

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