Theology has been traditionally regarded as the purview of the monotheistic religions of the world. Polytheistic faiths have mythology and ritual, but only the religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have made a science of explaining the nature of their deity and his relationship with humanity. Jordan Paper asserts that the reason for this situation is that proponents of monotheism have had to constantly argue their case against the natural polytheism of humankind. Further, the schisms within Christianity made theology central to Church politics. Christians assume that theology is essential to religion and that a lack of interest in theology on the part of a culture’s intellectual elite betokens atheism or agnosticism among the members of that elite. Paper cites the attitude of Western Humanist sinologists, who projected their indifference to religion onto the Chinese elite, believing somewhat irrationally that the ruling classes spent time and energy sacrificing to deities in which they held no actual belief. Paper could also have cited Western Classicists who taught that Roman and Hellenic intellectuals pursued philosophy, giving lip service to the Olympian gods only as a sop to the superstitions of the populace.
This paper explains the lack of polytheistic theological works in these words:“What few Westerners seem to realize is the possibility that polytheism fits the human mind and experience so comfortably that there is no need for confessional theology per se in polytheistic traditions, especially before they were relatively recently challenge by the Christian West” (4)
Having claimed that theology is, by nature confessional, Paper outlines his own spiritual journey from the post Holocaust Judaism of his youth, through self taught Buddhism, graduate work in Far Eastern Studies, field work in Taiwan, and marriage into a Chinese family who still practiced their traditional religion. This introduction to Eastern religion was complimented by a fascination with nature fostered by a Boy Scout troop leader at summer camp and private forays into the wilderness during college years. While teaching at York University, he was introduced to Anishnabe religion by Native Americans who were students in his classes. These encounters sparked a long term involvement in Native American communities who were returning to their spiritual roots. When Paper realized that one of the spirits he encountered in a vision quest was female he began a study of female spirituality worldwide, including reevaluation of the role of women in Chinese religion. He defines his religious understanding as based on Buddho-Daoist metaphysics and Native North American awareness of spirits, and his scholarship as Western with an overlay of Chinese pragmatism.
Paper begins his exposition with two major statements about polytheism. First, polytheism is experiential, based on interaction with the numinous, not on adherence to creeds. Second, relationships are reciprocal, based on benefits given and received. Deities do not force obligations on humans, but expect obligations, once accepted, to be fulfilled.
The greater part of the work describes the various types of deities and the kinds of cultures in which they are worshiped. The first category consists of cosmic deities such as moon, sun, earth, sky, the directions, storms, etc. According to Paper, most cultures worship a cosmic couple of earth and sky, sun and moon or sky and sea as the creators of the material world. Paper gives examples of activities dedicated to such deities. These range from the intimate and intense ritual of the “sweat lodge,” in which the participants are immured in mother earth while exposed to the heated rocks representing the power of sun, to the elaborate sacrificial rites conducted by the Chinese and Inca imperial couples in which the participants both represent and appeal to their divine counterparts.
A second category includes the animal, plant and mineral spirits on which humanity has been dependent since earliest times, and the shamanist techniques used to contact them. Paper emphasizes that in most foraging cultures spirit contacts are available to all members, specialists are those who have stronger connections, not exclusive connections, with the spirit world. He also asserts that spirit possession is a separate phenomenon and disagrees with anthropologists who lump possession into shamanism.
The transition to agriculture let to more settled communities. With families remaining near their dead the spirits of the deceased could become a source of spiritual support. Mediumship became a means for communication between the living and dead members of the community. In some cultures the dead are buried in the dwelling. In others they are represented by death masks, name tablets or valued possessions. Daily meals are also offerings to the ancestors as food is placed on or near the altar before being served to the living family. Paper describes Chinese traditional religion as a primary example of this type of worship.
Paper also emphasizes Chinese examples in his explanation of the transition from animal or plant deities to anthropomorphic ones. Since such deities probably constitute the largest proportion of the entities that most students of religion would designate as gods and goddesses Paper’s emphasis on China, while interesting in its details, is somewhat disappointing within the larger context of worldwide polytheism.
Yet another form of deity or semideity is the “culture hero” or “trickster.” Paper observes that such entities are seldom the object of ritual. Tales told about Hare, Coyote, Spider and other “tricksters” illustrate how the world came to be and provide lessons about proper conduct. Paper theorizes that village elders incorporated scatological details in order to appeal to the fascination that such material holds for children. Children are unlikely to disregard or forget a tale featuring talking turds. Westerners have difficulty accepting humorous, tricky or less than all-powerful entities as gods, yet Paper points out that Satan in the book of Job fulfills such a role, gambling with Jehovah over the faithfulness of His servant. The category of “culture hero” includes figures of legend who are believed to have introduced such major aspects of culture as writing, metallurgy, or agriculture. Even officially monotheistic or atheist cultures may offer more than ordinary respect to certain figures. Paper describes Washington and Lincoln as culture heroes of Americanism, celebrated with national holidays, images and dedicated memorials.
In his final two chapters Paper takes on the larger issues of polytheism vs. monotheism. Polytheism has been condemned by Judaism, Christianity and Islam and is routinely portrayed as intellectually and morally inferior. Polytheistic Native Americans could be cleared off their land as mere vermin or forced to accept conversion; polytheistic Africans could be enslaved both by Christian Europeans and Islamic Arabs. Ironically, these attitudes led to a deliberate misunderstanding of certain polytheistic traditions by those who sympathized with and admired their cultures. Thus, Jesuit missionaries who admired Chinese culture would insist that the Chinese worshiped a Master of Heaven who could be seen as a prototype of the Christian god. Similar assertions were made about a Great Spirit of Native Americans and a master deity of African religions.
Paper particularly criticizes two concepts in accounts of polytheistic cultures by monotheists. One is the attribution of a sole male creator to cultures that parallel the cosmos with human biology. Second is the concept of a master deity in egalitarian cultures that have no concept of a king or other permanent leader. He notes that even native informants may not reliable when asserting such concepts, as many were influenced by European culture before their views of their own culture were recorded. Black Elk, for instance was a Catholic catechist before being interviewed for Black Elk Speaks.
Paper ends with a polytheist critique of monotheism, noting its links to extreme patriarchy and misogyny, intolerance and dualism. He concludes that “Polytheism at best is a very positive human experience and is never less than benign. We do not find the angst, let alone the doubts, that many experience with regard to their relationship with the divine in the monotheist traditions” (142).
Joseph Paper is also the author of Through the Earth Darkly: Female Spirituality in a Comparative Perspective; Offering Smoke: the Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion; The Spirits are Drunk: Comparative Approaches to Chinese Religion and The Mystic Experience: A Descriptive and Comparative Analysis. He is Professor Emeritus of Humanities (Religious Studies) at York University, Associate Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society and Adjunct Professor in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria.
