Animism vs Polytheism

[xkatz]

What is the theological/philosophical difference between the two?

[The Sum of Awe]

Polytheism believes in many gods.

Animism believes that everything has a spirit, including inanimate objects.

[Shyanekh]

Originally Posted by xkatz

What is the theological/philosophical difference between the two?

Out of interest where you thinking of pantheism/panentheism rather than polytheism?

[xkatz]

Originally Posted by Shyanekh

Out of interest where you thinking of pantheism/panentheism rather than polytheism?

I guess we could include pantheism in this as well, but I was mainly thinking of animism vs polytheism. In some religions (eg Shinto), polytheism and animism overlap to some extent.

[Me Myself]

I agree in some overlap, but each statement in itself gives different information.

As Sum said it already pretty much: In animism everything has a spirit (posibly but not necesarily called god or revered like one)

In polytheism there are many Gods (that may cause the things in the world, but not necesarily be the "spirits" of the things they cause)

[Quintessence]

I've been wondering this myself. The differences seem superficial or semantic to me. Unfortunately, there are few works out there that bother to address non-monotheistic theology. The ones I have managed to track down and read have not been particularly enlightening in drawing a difference between the two.

Thinking about this from the standpoint of the history of philosophy, though, it was once a "given" in philosophical thought that all things had a sort of inner spirit or purpose for being. When certain "advances" in human civilization occurred (e.g. the Enlightenment), the ensouled view of matter was thrown out in favor of a disenchanted and mechanistic one. It was no longer proper to speak of all things as having a teleological purpose. So in at least some contexts, animism does not particularly describe a religious belief at all, but a philosophical position. It seems to me, though, that when animism is spoken of in a religious context it's pretty much identical to polytheism. But I don't know.

[Egyptian Phoenix]

In most Pagan religions the gods are viewed as having spirits also, like human beings have a spirit

[lullylucifer]

Most religions are in fact more than God, but deliberately these gods are divided into good and bad two

[The Sum of Awe]

I feel there is something more to this question: What did you not understand the difference was? One is a theological view, the other is a spiritual view