Tag Archives: monotheism

Question no. 4: Is Tenrikyo monotheistic or polytheistic?

Q: I grew up assuming that Tenrikyo is monotheistic, believing in one creator God. Yet when I once opened The Doctrine of Tenrikyo and read Chapter Four, I see a list of ten Shinto deities. So what gives? Is Tenrikyo a monotheistic or polytheistic or what?

submitted by No Scope in the Morning (real name withheld)

A: Wow, another complicated question, to say the least. I think one way to answer this question is to quote the late Tenrikyo theologian Yoshinori Moroi from his critique of Henry van Straelen’s work The Religion of Divine Wisdom (hold on, this is going to be long):

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