henotheism
of fleshless souls, resting, and finding pleasure in the presence of God in
a theocentric heaven. Around 408, Augustine changes his view from
souls related to God in ecstatic unions to the expectations of reuniting
with family and friends in a new social milieu characterized by love
(caritas) not lust (cupiditas), with all love directed to God.
Sparked by the urban revival in Europe, the medieval period conceives
of heaven as an eternal city, a new Jerusalem, which is described as a city
with golden streets, jeweled buildings, and richly dressed residents. The
medieval heaven, a place of light, harmony, and contemplation, promised
love and knowledge of God, which reflects a heaven conceived by edu-
cated, scholastic theologians. Heaven is also conceived as an empyrean,
a place of light where the blessed and angels live with God. The empy-
rean heaven is characterized by a lack of active life and only contempla-
tion of God that leads to the beatific vision of the divine.
The Islamic heaven is described in sensuous terms as a Garden (al-
Jannah) or Paradise (Firdaus) characterized by rivers of water, milk,
honey, and wine. It is a place where the faithful are content, peaceful, and
secure; they enjoy gentle speech and pleasant shade. According to the
Qur’an, the faithful drink and eat as they desire while seated on couches,
robed in silk and brocade, and surrounded by gardens and fountains.
Faithful males are promised hūrs (beautiful virgin maidens), rewards for
a virtuous life (44.51–56).
Although it is not called by this term, the sensuous nature of heaven
exists within Pure Land Buddhism, which adds the ubiquitous presence
of jewels. While a person can hear the message of the Buddha throughout
the land, a subject needs simply to wish to have one’s hunger or thirst
satisfied for it to be done. A person can also wish for pleasant odors and
sounds. A major difference between the Buddhist Pure Land and other
forms of paradise or heaven in other religious traditions is that there are
no perishable items within the Pure Land.
Further reading: McDannell and Lang (1988); Olson (2005); Russell (1997)
HENOTHEISM
A concept developed by the German scholar and Oxford University pro-
fessor Max Müller with the intention of distinguishing the belief in one
God within a polytheistic context. Müller attempts to make sense of the
many deities in the Vedic literature of ancient India and those hymns that