Haley,
A couple of interesting sources might be a recent series of interviews with Michael Hudson, at naked capitalism; https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/04/the-delphic-oracle-was-their-davos-a-four-part-interview-with-michael-hudson-about-his-forthcoming-book-the-collapse-of-antiquity-part-1.html
Along with Gilbert Murray. His most famous work being; The Five Stages of Greek Religion; http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30250/30250-h/30250-h.htm
One of Murray’s points being that the ancients didn’t distinguish between religion and government, so monotheism equated with monarchy and despotism. As in one god, one ruler. While pan and polytheism equated with democracy and republicanism. As in many gods, many voices/power centers.
When monotheism assumed default mode, it left us with the divine right of kings, as the political paradigm. Necessarily when societies went back to democratic models, the separation of church and state became necessary and at least Christian religion was shorn of its civil functions and left with its cultural uses.
Another interesting theme is the Christian trinity arose from the Greek year gods, as analog for regeneration/the cycling of the seasons, as in past, present, future. This was obscured by the Catholic church, which saw itself as the eternal institution, at least until Martin Luther came along and tried to do to Christianity what Jesus had tried to do to Judaism, push the reset button.
The essential logical fallacy of monotheism would be that a spiritual absolute would be the essence of sentience, from which we rise, not an ideal of wisdom and judgement, from which we fell. More the new born, than the wise old man. Consciousness seeking knowledge, than any particular insight. The light shining through the film, than the images on it.
God as infinite would be pantheism, not monotheism. The network, rather than a node.
Currently our ideals/goals/narrative based, object oriented, atomized, individualized, monetized, abstracted culture has its own misconceptions to deal with, but that’s a much broader topic. Though a good sense of the history giving rise to it is necessary.
