Polytheism’s open pantheon makes genuine religious tolerance structurally easy.

Evidence

Religion may or may not be a source of hatred but it certainly provides an emotionally satisfying expression of hatred. Here it may be useful to distinguish between two kinds of religion, which may be described by the terms commonly used to denounce them—the one relativist, the other triumphalist. Relativist is a Catholic term, used to designate the theological error that all religions are valid and authentic—different ways by which human beings communicate with divinity and eternity, just as they use different inherited or acquired languages to communicate with each other. The obvious example of this approach is pol­ ytheism. For those who believe in many gods, one more or less makes little difference, and an additional god, brought by a newly-discovered people, can always be accommodated in the pantheon. A classical rejection of this view was given in a sermon of St. John of Capistrano, who accused the Jews—correctly on this occasion—of spreading the “deceitful” notion that “everyone can be saved in his own faith, which is impossible.” — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1022

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts moralizing cliches about pagan tolerance — connects to comparative-religion debates where tolerance usually is framed as a Judeo-Christian or modern-secular achievement.