Rethinking Spiritual Ontology in Candomblé and Avoiding the Legitimation Trap Across the Atlantic

Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion, presents a hierarchical polytheism grounded in graded immanence, challenging monotheistic assumptions in philosophy of religion. Divine agency is distributed across multiple autonomous beings whose cooperation sustains the cosmos, with vitality (axé) circulating through relations among deities, humans, and material elements. This structure of multi-devotionalism reveals a metaphysics of relational co-constitution and participation, termed entitology. Decolonizing philosophy of religion requires engaging such Afro-diasporic grammars of divinity as sources of metaphysical insight rather than objects of comparative classification.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This paper reexamines the ontology of the divine in Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion whose cosmology and ritual life challenge the monotheistic assumptions that continue to shape philosophy of religion. Responding to what I call the legitimation trap —the strategy of securing intellectual respectability for African and Afro-diasporic traditions by assimilating them to Western monotheistic norms—I argue that Candomblé articulates a hierarchical polytheism grounded in graded immanence. Drawing on mythic narratives as well as ritual practices of possession, sacrifice, and initiation, I show that divine agency in Candomblé is distributed across multiple autonomous beings whose cooperation sustains the cosmos. This structure of multi-devotionalism reveals a metaphysics in which vitality ( axé ) circulates through relations among deities, humans, and material elements. Candomblé’s spiritual ontology thus calls for a philosophical shift from theology and ontology to what may be termed entitology : a study of relational co-constitution and participation. The paper concludes by proposing that decolonizing philosophy of religion requires engaging such Afro-diasporic grammars of divinity as sources of metaphysical insight rather than as objects of comparative classification.