Join us on 20 February 2025, from 5pm, for a book launch by Life Members Paul Hedges. The event will be held in the Clare Hall Meeting Room, as well as on Zoom.

About the book

Christian polytheism? is a theological and political exploration of how Christianity may be compatible with polytheism, arguing that there is no singular “orthodoxy”, rather we see “polydoxy”. Conceptually deconstructing the distinction between monotheism and polytheism, it advances multi-devotionalism and mono-devotionalism as analytically preferable terminology.

It starts by exploring notions of polytheism in the Old(er) Testament, New(er) Testament, and Christian developments of the Trinity over subsequent centuries, before placing Christianity in comparative dialogue with Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism. Employing a decolonial and feminist stance, the book proceeds to examine global Christianities, focusing on African and Asian theologies as well as Goddess traditions. It concludes by offering five options for developing a theology of Christian polytheism: Henotheist originalism, theologies of plurality, generous orthodoxy, atheistic Christian polytheism, and a theology of polytheistic excess.

Characterised as “original and compelling”, Routledge consider it essential reading for scholars of Christian Systematic Theology and Modern Theology. Join Paul & co. in Cambridge or on livestream to hear what others make of it.

About the author

Paul Hedges is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, UK, and Professor of Interreligious Studies in NTU (Singapore). He has worked at, or lectured in, various universities in the UK, mainland Europe, Asia, and North America. He frequently works with stakeholders outside academia, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth (MCCY, Singapore), the Anglican Communion Network for Interfaith Concerns (NIFCON), the Dialogue Society (UK), Netflix, and the BBC.

He is co-editor of Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology, editor-in-chief of the Occasional Paper series Interreligious Relations, and sits on the editorial board of numerous journal and book series.  He works in such areas as interreligious studies, theory and method in the study of religion, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, prejudice studies, theological studies, and decolonising academia.

He has published fifteen books and over ninety scholarly papers, including Christian Polytheism? Polydox Theologies of Multi-devotional and Decolonial Praxis (Routledge 2024), Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies (University of California Press 2021), and Religious Hatred: Prejudice, Islamophobia, and Antisemitism in Global Context (Bloomsbury 2021).