> For instance, ancient Jews (not westerners) pioneered the idea of a "a truly all-inclusive" god, while also creating a literary tradition (the old testament)

> For instance, ancient Jews (not westerners) pioneered the idea of a "a truly all-inclusive" god, while also creating a literary tradition (the old testament) full of contradictions and "either-or" forms of logic. Ehhhh, that's not quite how it happened. In the Bronze Age everyone was doing pantheons. This was a good idea because tribes who started gaining power in this period were exploring empire-building and pantheons allow for a high degree of syncretism - you absorb the conquered gods into your own structure, most of the peasants don't even notice a change. The ancient Israelites (Jews and Samaritans) acknowledged those pantheons, but chose to only worship the god who was viewed as being at the top of the Canaanite pantheon - El (Israel literally meaning "struggles with El"). Through the various captivities and exiles and the Bronze Age collapse, the lower gods on the pantheon faded to history and it became more of the modern idea of an all-encompassing god. There is definitely also some Christianizing of European Jews that happened for obvious reasons, so it's hard to separate out how much of modern Jewish thought is a reflection of this. Especially with the Ashkenazim who had a lot of "Great Awakening" style religious activity around the same time it was happening in colonial and post-Revolutionary America.