Monotheism

=====Classical Greece=====
[[File:Xenophanes in Thomas Stanley History of Philosophy.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Fictionalized portrait of [[Xenophanes]] from a 17th-century engraving]]
The surviving fragments of the poems of the classical Greek philosopher [[Xenophanes of Colophon]] suggest that he held views very similar to those of modern monotheists.<ref>McKirahan, Richard D. "Xenophanes of Colophon. ''Philosophy Before Socrates''. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1994. 61. Print.</ref> His poems harshly criticize the traditional notion of anthropomorphic gods, commenting that "...if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,... [they] also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies of such a sort as the form they themselves have."<ref>Diels-Kranz, ''Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker'', Xenophanes frr. 15-16.</ref> Instead, Xenophanes declares that there is "...one god, greatest among gods and humans, like mortals neither in form nor in thought."<ref name="osborne62">Osborne, Catherine. "Chapter 4." ''Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction''. Oxford UP. 62. Print.</ref> Xenophanes's theology appears to have been monist, but not truly monotheistic in the strictest sense.<ref name="auto" /> Although some later philosophers, such as [[Antisthenes]], believed in doctrines similar to those expounded by Xenophanes, his ideas do not appear to have become widely popular.<ref name="auto" />

Although [[Plato]] himself was a polytheist, in his writings, he often presents [[Socrates]] as speaking of "the god" in the singular form. He does, however, often speak of the gods in the plural form as well. The [[Euthyphro dilemma]], for example, is formulated as "Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods?"<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lamb|first1=W. R. M.|title=Euthyphro|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DEuthyph.%3Asection%3D10a|website=Perseus|publisher=Tufts University|access-date=25 March 2017|archive-date=23 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823015053/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170%3Atext%3DEuthyph.%3Asection%3D10a|url-status=live}}</ref>