Why is monotheism prevalent in Religions that started in the Middle East? (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, etc...)

by TheWrathofChrist
SirVentricle

Aside from the fact that Zoroastrianism is dualistic rather than monotheistic, the Abrahamic religions are actually the odd ones out. Virtually all Near Eastern religions were polytheistic: from old Egyptian to literally all Mesopotamian religions (though Babylonian religion bordered on being monolatrous with their Marduk obsession) and up to pre-Islamic paganism among Arab groups, monotheism just doesn't show up. Judaism provides the monotheistic paradigm for Christianity in the first century AD, and Islam adopts the same idea in a more complicated cultural exchange a couple centuries later.

Edit for some sources:

  • Stroumsa, G., The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press (2015)

  • Gnuse, R., No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel, Sheffield Academic Press (1997)

  • Smith, M., The Early History of God, Eerdmans (2002)