Once upon a time, were there no monotheists? Did monotheism evolve rather recently, as humankind somehow outgrew polytheism or animism? These views are often assumed nowadays, although in previous times, it was assumed that the earliest human religions were monotheistic. Some have non-rational reasons to prefer one or the other, but what does the available evidence say?

In this recent book, Dr. Winfried Corduan re-opens the case for “original monotheism,” the view that the forms of human religion which are probably the oldest, are mostly monotheistic, which is what one would expect if the earliest human religions were all or mostly monotheistic. He explains the life work of the amazingly hard-working anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt (1868-1954).

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