The academic does this almost instinctively. Sometimes, indeed, it is because of their Christian sympathies. More often, though, it is because the "pantheist" (i.e., immanent monotheist) interpretation preserves their own position as a privileged interpreter of the tradition.

Acknowledging the Gods Themselves would upset the entire epistemic framework in which the academic operates in a way that glib gestures toward "Indigenous sovereignty" or pious statements that "divinity is everywhere" never could.