I have been coming to suspect that Christianity is a closeted polytheistic religion.

Constantine with a Standard Depicting the Holy Trinity. 

After our lecture on polytheism I have gone away and drafted a post but I wasn’t too sure where to go with it, however something happened today that has given me a bit of direction and has got me thinking further on polytheistic religions. I was at waiting a bus stop wasting time, by looking at the map of the area and a couple of places caught my eye. In Putney there happens to be a school called ‘Our Lady of Victories Primary School’ and a church called ‘Our Lady of Pity and St. Simon Stock’ and I know that there’s also a school in Staines called ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’ and Notre Dame Cathedral  in Paris means ‘Our Lady’ too and after asking my Mother, a relapsed Catholic, she confirmed that these are all names for the Virgin Mary and it just struck me how similar it is to the different epithets and aspects various deities had within ancient Greek religion.

The Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of monotheism is “The doctrine or belief that there is only one God (as opposed to many, as in polytheism).” So I suppose that on the basis that Mary and the saints are mortal and not seen as Gods then the statement that Christianity is polytheistic is categorically wrong, but I was struck with how similar the Virgin Mary, with her different aspects and epithets, is to the multi-faceted personalities of goddesses like Athena.

When I googled ‘Is Christianity a Polythesistic religion?’ I find I am not the only one who has thought of this before. However the main problem the people of the internet have come up against is how the Holy Trinity, made up of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, can be one and three at the same time and STILL be monotheistic which was something I hadn’t even thought of since my route in was Mary. Some of the answers are given are pretty standard for the internet with no real thought behind them other than ‘my view is right and everyone else’s is wrong’ but others do have clearer reasoning.

While I understand the basic thought is that Christians only worship one being and Mary or the saints aren’t being worshipped in the same way, therefore they are not gods and therefore the religion is not polytheistic, I still feel that the properties of Mary are very similar to Athena. At face value they are both virgin goddesses but also mothers: through Erechthonious and Jesus Christ and they are both linked to the spirit of the Father: Athena through being born out of hers and Mary through her immaculate conception.

Parker says that the epithet system doesn’t make the god a different being from the god with the single name “Athena Hippia, of horses, is one aspect of Athena seen in close-up, not the expression of a different conception of the deity.” (Parker 2007:67) So in the same way Mary with her many epithets is still the same person, even though she is in so many places around the world due to her appearances to different Saints.

While I understand that for reasons of its own Christianity clings on to its monotheistic status, but even ignoring the Holy Trinity conundrum, other aspects of the faith are very close to aspects of Greek Religion. But if it wants to stay in the closet for a little while longer we won’t say anything. It will be our little secret.

Bibliography

•          Oxford University Press, (2013). Monotheism. Available: http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/monotheism?q=monotheism  Last accessed 25^th March 2013.
•          Parker, Robert (2011) On Greek Religion. Cornwell University Press. Ithaca.

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• Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. 2006. Episode 5. BBC One