HENOTHEISM (CATENOTHEISM). – It is the first stage of the idea of God according to Max Müller, “whereby the deity momentarily present to religious consciousness is regarded and invoked as the only one (and supreme one) at that moment” (Schmidt).
This attitude, which Max Müller found particularly in the Vedic hymns but which, conversely, can also be observed among other ancient religions such as the Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, etc., “does not represent a stable and well-defined form or category of the idea of God, but is rather referable to the realm of intermittent and fluctuating religious experience” (Pettazzoni), and therefore remains an intermediate sentiment that excludes both an affirmation of monotheism and a negation of polytheism.
BIBL.: R. Pettazzoni, s. V. in Enc. Ital., XIV (1932), p. 4; W. Schmidt, Manuale di storia comparata delle religioni, 3ª ed., Brescia 1945, p. 51 ff.