Intro
Definition: Mutual acknowledgement of certain multiple Gods (whatever the center) and intimate entanglement between their lores and cults defines a polycentric social field.
- At a population level, that there is a “multiplicity of positive existential commitments” regarding the supreme deity is an empirical fact beyond dispute. Eg. Hinduism.
Examples:
Acknowledgement of multiple deities who can each be treated as the center is clear in the vedic lore. [MT]
Of a dramatist-philosopher-logician from 10th century, jayanta bhaTTa whose work serves as a prototype for the religion/counter-religion distinction and also alludes to the ’tacit recognition’ we speak of…
nAvalar, a devout and orthodox shaiva teacher from shrI lanka who had to contend with western missionaries attacking shaivam. In a certain polemical treatise, he raises a question often asked by the Padres “Why do you attack only us when there are others within your own religion who believe in gods other than shiva (viSNu, etc) as supreme?” nAvalar proceeds to answer along the lines that these deities are recognized by his own deity & therefore worshiping them is no fault while the “god” of the padres is not recognized; again, alluding to the ’tacit recognition’ idea.
Importance of the polycentric discourse
Where the polycentric polytheistic field is explicitly articulated as such, we have the perfection of a philosophical discourse about religion, but this perfection is not a condition for the existence of polytheism as such, or for its essential polycentricity. … [EB]