Sociology / Unit 8 Soc 1340 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Classifying Religion by the Divine
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The idea
Religions are classified by what they hold divine: polytheism (multiple gods), monotheism (a single god), animism (divinity in nonhuman beings), totemism (a human-nature divine bond), and atheism (no deities).
In practice
Ancient Greek belief systems were polytheistic, Shinto is animist, and Judaism and Islam are monotheistic.
Where people slip
Some traditions resist a single box; the Christian Trinity is debated between monotheistic and near-polytheistic readings.
Your place on the trail
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Builds on
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