Monotheism in Religious Texts: A Cognitive-Semantic Analysis

This study presents a cognitive-semantic analysis of monotheism in the Glorious Qur'an and the Holy Bible. Most of the previous studies focus on the religious, historical, or linguistic meanings of monotheism; therefore, this study seeks to address this gap by exploring the cognitive-semantic aspect of monotheism and the similarities and differences between the selected Qur'anic and Biblical texts. This study employs a qualitative approach to analyse six texts: three texts from the Glorious Qur'an and the other three texts are from the Holy Bible. It adopts an eclectic model which includes Johnson's Image Schema Theory (1987), Fauconnier's Mental Space Theory (1984), and Palmer's Lexical Relations Theory (1997). The analysis shows that the selected Qur'anic and Biblical texts reject polytheism and assert the divine singularity, but they differ in the religious doctrines that they reveal. The selected Qur'anic texts emphasise a strict monotheistic belief, whereas the selected Biblical texts involve the doctrine of Trinity.