[2][3][4] In 1898, the Scottish anthropologist Andrew Lang proposed that the idea of a Supreme Being, the "High God", or "All Father" existed among some of the simplest of contemporary tribal societies prior to their contact with Western peoples,[2][3][4] and that Urmonotheismus ("primitive monotheism") was the original religion of humankind.
[5] The Catholic priest Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954) defended the idea of Urmonotheismus in his work Der Ursprung der Gottesidee (The Origin of the Idea of God), published 1912 to 1955, opposing the "revolutionary monotheism" approach that traces the emergence of monotheistic thought as a gradual process spanning the Bronze and Iron Age religions of the ancient Near East and Classical antiquity.
[2][6] According to Schmidt, alleged traces of primitive monotheism appear in the Assyro-Babylonian deities Ashur and Marduk, and in the Ancient Hebrew god Yahweh.
[10] Schmidt added that "a being who lives in the sky, who stands behind the celestial phenomena, who must "centralize" in himself the various manifestations [of thunder, rain, etc.]
[2][3] By the 1950s, the academic establishment had rejected the hypothesis of primitive ethical monotheism (but not per se other proposed versions of Urmonotheismus), and the proponents of Schmidt's "Vienna school" rephrased his ideas to the effect that while ancient cultures may not have known "true monotheism", they at least show evidence for "original theism" (Urtheismus, as opposed to non-theistic animism), with a concept of Hochgott ("High God", as opposed to Eingott "Single God")—in effect, henotheism, which acknowledged the Supreme Being but also various lesser gods.
[2] Christian apologetics in the light of this have moved away from postulating a "memory of revelation" in pre-Christian religions, replacing it with an "inkling of redemption" or virtuous paganism unconsciously anticipating monotheism.