One God or Many? Concepts of Divinity in the Ancient World

As the editor and one of the contributors to this volume, I wanted to make it clear that the book is not about Canaanite religion! One God or Many? is the result of a conference that explored the religions of ancient Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Israel, focusing on their ideas of the divine as one, many, or simultaneously singular and plural. The five essays, written by J. Baines, S. Parpola, S.A. Geller, H.S. Versnel, and B.N. Porter, address topics such as the advantages and disadvantages of monotheism and polytheism, how "god" or "the gods" were imagined in each of these ancient societies, and the usefulness of various concepts of god in developing models of the cosmos and its workings, adapting to social change, or coping with illness and suffering.