JbAC 60 (2017) Seiten: 5-82

›Pagan monotheism‹ has been a subject of intensive focus in recent scholarship in the history of religion. Within this debate the present article raises the question of whether and to what extent this term really offers an appropriate cate-gory for describing the discussed phenomena. After a brief overview of the history of research, two religious formulae – θεὸς ὕψιστος and εἷς θεός, which are both well attested in Late Antiquity – are analysed in a selection of pagan inscrip-tions from that time. In both cases it is concluded that scholarship should speak about ›pagan henotheism‹ instead of ›pagan monotheism‹ in order accurately to describe this complex religious phenomenon of the Eastern Mediterranean.