God

From New World Encyclopedia
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This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and derived henotheistic forms. See deity or goddesses for details on polytheistic usages. See Names of God for terms used in other languages or specific faiths. See God (disambiguation) for non-religious abbreviations.

The term God is used to refer to a specific monotheistic concept of a supernatural Supreme Being in accordance with Christianity, and is capitalized in the English language as a proper noun. The notion of such a supreme being exists in virtually all world religions, even those which deny the existence not of a god-figure such as Buddhism. However, the precise definition varies greatly from culture to culture and often from person to person.

Etymology

File:Gudis Argenteus.jpg
Earliest attestation of the Germanic word in the 6th century Codex Argenteus (Mt 5:9)

The word God continues from the Old English/Germanic terms god (guþ, gudis in Gothic, gud in modern Scandinavian and Gott in modern German). The original meaning and etymology of the Germanic word god has been widely disputed, though most agree to a reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form *khutóm, which is a passive perfect participle from the root *khu-, which likely meant "libation" or "sacrifice". Evidence for this theory is provided by comparisons of the Sanskrit hu- ("to sacrifice"), the Greek khu-, kheu- ("to pour") and the Common Germanic strong verb *geutan (Anglo-Saxon gēotan) "to pour", and the English in-got. The connection between these terms is likely derives from the meaning "pour a libation". Another possible meaning of *khutóm is "invocation", related to the Sanskrit term hūta. The word God was first used in the Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas to represent the Greek term Theos, (Latin Deus) in Bible translations.

Definition

Common traits attributed to most conceptualizations of God are absoluteness and other superlative qualities. In much religious and philosophic thought, God is considered the creator of the universe. However, many other definitions of the word exist. Some concepts of God center on a view of God as ultimate, immanent, transcendent, eternal Reality which exists beyond the malleable multiplicities of the sensible world. In many cases, god is attributed these qualities while also Some bearing anthropomorphic traits, such as a particular gender, name, and sometimes even ethnic exclusivity. In other cases, God may be Supreme but is not necessarily a Being, instead conceived of as an ambiguous impersonal force or philosophical concept. For example, the concept of God is often embedded in definitions of abstractions such as truth, where the sum of all truth is equated to God.

Also at stake are questions concerning the dynamic of relationship between humans and god, or similarly, god and the physical world. Many traditions hold that the creator is also the sustainer active in the maintenance of the earth and human life through revelation and divine intervention, a position generally characteristic of classical theism. In contrast, others argue that their God created the world but is no longer involved in the world afterward, a position known as deism.

God is often considered the singular spiritual force in the universe. This conception is characteristic of monotheism, but there is no universal definition of monotheism. The differences between monotheism and polytheism vary among traditions (see also trinity, dualism, and henotheism). Many believers in these monotheistic faiths allow for the existence of other, less powerful spiritual beings, and give them names such as angels, saints, Djinn, demons, and devas. In other cases, God is not considered the only entity in the univers. In some cases, God exists in relation to other other gods, rising to supremacy above the others (as in henotheism). Additionally, god may exist seperately from forces outside of his purview, such as evil. With that said, not all systems hold that God is necessarily morally good (see summum bonum). Some hold that God is the very definition of moral goodness. Others maintain that God is beyond morality. Not all combinations of attributes 'work', and this has been cause for much debate among theologians in many traditions. For example, if God is the Creator, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and the Ultimate Judge, then he created all people, including atheists and pagans, knowing exactly what he was doing and then sends them to Hell. This God cannot also be "good", from the point of view of all humans - just as all humans are not "good" from his point of view. In Zoroastrianism, for example, the supreme god Ahura Mazda is responsible for good as well as evil. In some cases, god is not the penultimate force in the universe, but is in a state of continual progress toward that supremacy, as in Process theology or Arthur C. Clark's post-human god.

Despite all of these possible traits, some philosophers do not so readily attribute definitions and characteristics to God. Negative theology, sometimes called apophatic theology, argues that no true statements about attributes of God can be made at all, instead speaking in terms of what cannot be said about God. Agnostic positions argue that limited human understanding precludes any possibility for any conclusive statements about God whatsoever. Similarly, some mystical traditions ascribe limits to God's powers, arguing that God's supreme nature leaves no room for spontaneity.

There are definitions of god which actually deny his existence, such as Paul Tillich's theology which states that god is basically nothing. There are also atheistic explanations for the existence of the concept of God in the human imagination. These often explain God as a function of psychological and/or sociological factors. Thinkers such as Freud, Marx and Feuerbach claim that god is merely the "self writ large", that is, a psychological projection of what humans want themselves to be placed in the context of religion. Others, such as Durkheim claim that the purpose of a supreme being and its representative totem is to bond the group into communal worship of the totem, which actually represents the tribe. Therefore, God is the projection of the entire clan, which thereby bonds the clan.

Names of God

File:Tetragrammaton scripts.png
YHWH, the name of God or Tetragrammaton, in Phoenician (1100 B.C.E. to AD 300), Aramaic (10th Century B.C.E. to 0) and modern Hebrew scripts.

The noun God is the proper English name used for the deity of monotheistic faiths. Names of God, however, are innumerable, varying with religious traditions. The Bible frequently uses the term Yahweh, from the Hebrew: 'YHVH' (יהוה) to refer to God. YHVH, also known as the Tetragrammaton, provides an unpronouncable string of consonants, consistent with the Israelite belief that the true name of god should not be spoken. Other Biblical terms for god include Elohim, El Shaddai, Adonai, Amanuel, and Amen. When Moses asked God "What is your name?" he was given the answer Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, commonly translated "I am that I am", referring to His unconditional self-existence. Yahweh is the most popular name for God in the Jewish tradition. When written or typed as a proper noun, some observant Jews will use the form "G-d" to prevent the written name of God from becoming desecrated later on. Some Orthodox Jews consider this unnecessary because English is not the Holy Language.) God is of course the most common moniker in Christianity. However, other terms are used, such as The Holy Trinity (meaning the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit/"Holy Ghost") which is used in almost all mainstream Christianity. Other churches use other definitions. God is called Igzi'abihier (lit. "Lord of the Universe") in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Some churches such as the United Church of Canada and Religious Science) are using the term "the One" alongside "God" as a more gender-neutral way of referring to God (See also Oneness). Allah is the term most commonly used in (Islam, although not exclusively so. "Allah" is Arabic for "the God", and is also used by non-Muslim Arabs.

In India, Ishvara is the term used for God among the Hindus. In Sanskrit, it means the Supreme Lord. Most Hindus worship the personal form of God or Saguna Brahman, as Vishnu, Shiva, or directly as the Supreme Cosmic Spirit Brahman. A common prayer for Hindus is the Vishnu sahasranama, which is a hymn describing the one thousand names of God. Ishvara should not be confused with the numerous deities of the Hindu pantheon. In modern Hindi, Ishvara is also called Bhagwan. Sikhs worship God with the name Akal (the Eternal) or Onkar (See Aum). Help of the gurus is essential to reach God. Buddhism, in contrast can be described as atheistic or agnostic: When asked about a supreme God, Buddha remained silent on the subject. Buddha believed the more important issue was a way out of suffering. Enlightened beings are called Arhats or Buddha. However, popular Buddhism of China has venerated the Bodhisattva, an enlightened being that has chosen to forego entering into nirvana until all beings are enlightened. Buddhism also teaches about the devas, or heavenly beings who temporarily dwell in states of great happiness. Jains, meanwhile, do not recognize any Supreme Omnipotent creator God, though they commonly invoke the five paramethis: Siddha, Arahant, Acharya, Upadhyaya and Sadhu.

File:KJV Psalm 23 1 2.jpg
KJV of 1611 (Psalms 23:1,2): Occurrence of "Lord" (and "God" in the heading)

The name of God is consistently capitalized in English writings. The development of English orthography was dominated by Christian texts. In early English bibles, the Tetragrammaton was rendered in capitals: "IEHOUAH" in William Tyndale's version of 1525. The King James Version of 1611 renders YHWH as "The Lord", Elohim as "God", Adonay YHWH and Adonay Elohim as "Lord God", and kurios ho theos as "Lord God" (in the New Testament). Capitalized "God" was first used to refer to the Judeo-Christian concept, and may now signify any monotheistic conception of God, including the translations of the Arabic Allāh and the African Masai Engai. The use of capitalization, as for a proper noun, has persisted to disambiguate the concept of a singular God from pagan deities for which lowercase god has continued to be applied. Pronouns referring to God are also often capitalized and are traditionally in the masculine gender, i.e. "He", "His" etc. However, in more recent times, some people have referred to God in feminine terms, such as "She" and "Her".

Classifications for Beliefs in God

Since the beginning of human religious thought, there have been virtually innumerable ways in which to explicate, express and experiene god. Therefore, religious scholars and theologians alike have created a number of classificatory terms in order to better describe the various types of belief in God. Some of the terms most applicable to the current discussion are given below.

  • Theism describes the belief that God is both transcendent and immanent. Thus, God is simultaneously infinite and in some way also present in the affairs of the world. Catholic theology, for example, holds that God is infinitely simple and is not involuntarily subject to time. God's immanence may also be explained through revelations to humanity (for example, holy scriptures) or miracles whereby god takes initiative in contacting humanity. Even everyday human experiences such as those of "love", "goodness", or "truth" can be interpreted as affirmations of God's involvement in creation. Typically, God in theism is personalistic, having human form and emotionality. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, although this belief raises questions about God's responsibility for evil and suffering in the world. To remedy this difficulty, some theists ascribe to God a self-conscious or purposeful limiting of omnipotence, omniscience, or benevolence. Open Theism, by contrast, asserts that, due to the nature of time, God's omniscience does not mean he can predict the future. "Theism" is sometimes used to refer in a more general sense to any belief in a god or gods such as monotheism or polytheism.
  • Deism holds that God is wholly transcendent, exists in direct counterpoint to theism. For deists, God exists as a First Cause, but does not intervene in the world beyond creation. In this view, God is not anthropomorphic, and does not literally answer prayers or cause miracles to occur. Rather, god is simply the entity which created the universe, setting in motions all its physical laws and processes. After this, god steps out of the picture, allowing the universe to be operated by physical laws. In this way, deism is highly reconcilable with scientific thought. Common in deism is a belief that God has no interest, and even no awareness in humanity.
  • Henotheism is the academic classification placed upon religious belief systems which have accepted or do accept the existence of many gods, but worship one particular deity as supreme. This may take the form of a system in which one god rises to supremacy over others in a process of mythological succession (as did Zeus among the Greeks). However, it may also refer to systems where various gods exist in order to illustrate aspects of a greater, supreme being or essence, such as in Vedic Hinduism. Henotheistic beliefs are very often the precursor to full-fledged monotheism, as gradually the inferior gods fall away and the supreme god or universal principle beyond the gods becomes recognized as the sole divinity.
  • Monotheism holds that there is only one God. This has led some traditions to espouse an exclusionist view, holding to one sole definition of God. Exclusionist monotheists of one religion can, and often do, consider the God or gods of a different religion to be false. For instance, many Christian fundamentalists consider the and that all gods of other religions are actually demons in disguise, including the monotheistic God of Islam (Allah). Others hold an inclusionist view, accepting the possibility of more than one definition of God to be true at the same time and/or that the one true God is worshipped in different religions under different names. Eastern religious believers and Liberal Christians are more likely to assume those of other faiths worship the same God as they, albeit with different attributes due to cultural influences. Unlike other religious classifications, monotheism has been conceived of by many religions as an with an "ideal" for which all spiritual endeavour should strive, hence it is the classification which plays the most significant role in discussions of God such as this.
  • Pantheism refers to the belief that God is the universe and the universe is God. In this system, god is fully immanent, rendering a spiritual basis to all reality, and typically not seen as transcendent. All of Natural law, existence, and the sum total of all that is, was, and ever will be, is represented in the theological principle of 'God.' This means that every object, as well as each individual human, is part of God. Most pantheists conceives of God in non-personalistic terms, instead conceiving it as the unconscious, non-sentient universe which is in own majesty holy and beautiful.
  • Panentheism holds that God contains the Universe but is not identical to, existing beyond it. Panentheism is often compared to pantheism, however, the panentheist God is both immanent and transcendent, as in Theism. Unlike theism, the panentheist conceptualization of God is less likely to be personalistic, since God is tantamount to the universe while also existing as more than it. Pantheistic sentiments are actually quite common in religious movements, such as the Jewish mystic sect Kabbalah, the Liberal Catholic Church, Theosophy, and many branches of Hinduism.

Conceptions of God

Ancient Conceptualizations

Many of the earliest conceptualizations of God, it seems, were actually of goddesses. Archaelogical findings suggest that small female figures and cave paintings of females were the dominant modes for worship in the Paleolithic times (35000-10000 B.C.E.) and later. These depictions typically focus upon the reproductive parts, specifically emphasizing large breasts, the pregnant womb, and the vagina. These parts represented women's creative and preservative traits, such as the production of new life and provision of nourishment. Extrapolating upon these figures, it seems that the female was connected to teh earth as the source of the life cycle. The frequent appearance of these figures in archaeological finds, and the lack of comparable male forms, hs lead some archaeologists and religious scholars to suggest that earliest human conception of the deity was as a goddess with male as the subordinate partner. Some thinkers, such as Sjoo and Mor, brazenly cliam that God was conceived as female for the first 200 000 years of human life upon the earth as we know it, perhaps having been carried on from later Cro-Magnon beliefs.

Later findings from Catal Huyuk in what is now Turkey suggest that settlements existing between 6500 and 5500 B.C.E. also held the goddess in highest esteem. Certain rooms in living quarters exclusively show paintings of Goddess, suggesting the importance of women and fertility in providing sustenance for life. Some rooms even feature pictures of female vulture near headless bodies, perhaps suggesting that it is the female principle which takes life back into herself in order to create life new. Buildings and artifacts suggest that in the Indus Valley of modern day north India, a religious system that would wield some influence on later Hinduism, the goddess was also of particular importance. This civilization, which flourished from 2500-1800 C.E., seems to have placed the Goddess and Mother in primacy, evident from the number of female depictions found. They were no doubt revered due to their place as source of fertility and life. Many of these themes disappeared when the militaristic Aryans invaded the Indus Valley. The goddess virtually disappears in the Vedas, which were composed by the invading Aryans, suggesting the Goddess was supplanted by the god in this region. Marja Gimbutas has extended these findings to argue that there was once an agrarian culture centred in Europe in ancient times which worshipped the goddess. These peaceful people were, in theory, overtaken by patrilineal Russian invaders who assimilated the European goddess worshippers into their patriarchal culture. However, the reconstruction of such evidence is largely conjectural and in need of further evidence.

Early monotheism

The religions that are monotheistic today are often thought of as having been of relatively recent historical origin — although efforts at comparison are usually beset by claims of most religions to being very ancient or eternal. The worship of polytheistic gods, on the other hand, is seen by many to predate monotheism. Today, monotheistic religions are dominant, though other systems of belief still exist.

Ancient Egyptian

The notion of one god, transcendent to the entire universe grew in several instances out of henotheism. One example comes from the iconoclastic cult of the Egyptian solar god Aten, which was promoted by the pharoah Akhenaten (Amenophis IV), who ruled between 1358 and 1340 B.C.E. Upon inheriting the throne, Akhenaten brought Aten from relative obscurity among the other gods and made Him synonymous with the sun, which was viewed as the single most powerful entity among Egyptians. Furthermore, Aten came to represent a more personal conception of the divine than the other gods that had been primarily the focus of public ritual in temples. As these other gods in the pantheon came to be perceived as inferior to Aten, their idols were destroyed. Even though such works as Akhenaten's hymn to Aten offers strong evidence that Akhenaten considered Aten to be the sole, omnipotent creator, Akhenaten's program to enforce this monotheistic worldview ended with his death. The worship of gods other than Aten never fully ceased outside Akhenaten's court, and the older polytheistic cults soon regained precedence. However, the Aten cult could still be classified one of the earliest known examples of monotheism, and it is claimed by some scholars to have possibly been a formative influence on early Judaism, due to the presence of Israelite slaves in Egypt.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism provides another example of early monotheistic belief. Zarathushstra founded Zoroastrianism sometime between the eighteenth and sixteenth centuries B.C.E. as a reacion against Indo-Iranian polytheism and ritualism. He merged the various notions of divinity found within these faiths into one all-encompassing deity called Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord"). Zarathushtra set his teachings apart from contemporary Iranian traditions by insisting that worship be dedicated solely to the Wise Lord. Although Ahura Mazda is the supreme power in the universe, he cannot, however, be considered completely all-powerful. Ahura Mazda is described as inherently good, just and moral, and as such creates only good thing, a seeming limitation to His power. Zoroastrians attribute the existence of evil to two subsidiary moral spirits who Ahura Mazda is said to have fathered: Spenta Manyu is the good one, while Angra Manyu is evil. Although such a conception limitis Ahura Mazda's power, he is consistently portrayed as victorious over evil, which marks him as the supreme entity. Later Zoroastrianism also includes some other polytheistic elements, such as the existence of angelic beings called the Amesha Spentas, who are seen as emanations of Ahura Mazda which put in place the supreme god's will in the physical world.

Greek definitions of God

While Greek religion is known for its polytheisitic religion, the notion of God in more singular or unified form was entertained my numerous thinkers. Early thinkers suggested various natural elements which seemed to provide the pantheisitic essence for the universe such as Anaximenes (who claimed the essence to be air) or Thales (who thought the substance was water). Eventually these concepts came to be more abstract and beyond the physical world. Anaximander, for instance, proposed an uncreated and indestructible being which could not itself be considered a thing, yet was responsible for the existence of all things, ruling them all. For Pythagoreans, all things were ruled by mathematics and geometry. Xenophanes propounded the idea of a changeless, undestroyable and unity which possessed infinite intelligence as was present in all things, which he called the "All-One" . He claimed this notion of unity and oneness to be the highest and most reasonable form of religious thought.

These ruminations no doubt culminated in the later philosophical monotheism of Plato and Aristotle. Plato construed god as representative of the single good which existed in contrast to the physical world evil, which was in constant flux and therefore evil. This "Form of the Good" exists beyond specific instances of good in the world, because each of these particulars was also subject to mutability and therefore not eternal. The point of life was to rise up from all that is ugly, evil and fallacious and realize the true Good. Plato also believed their exists a demiurge who brings the transient appearances of the Form of the Good into existence. Likewise, Aristotle, the famous student of Plato, believed that truth can be found within a proper understanding of the natural world, which is attributable to its ultimate source. This source, also known as the First Mover is immutable and indivisible, and represents the ultimate ground of truth as to why all things exist with the characteristics they do and how they came into being. In searching for truth, humans are therefore participating in god. Both Plato and Aristotle's conception of the highest entity in the universe would go on to wield massive influence on the conceptions of God in the Abrahamic faiths.

Abrahamic conceptions

Michelangelo's view of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel)

Judaism, Christianity and Islam conceive of God as a being who created the world and rules over the universe. God is usually held to have the properties of holiness (in that He is separate from sin and incorruptible), justness (being fair, right, and true in all His judgments), sovereignty (unthwartable in His will), omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), omnibenevolence (all-loving), omnipresence (everywhere-present), and immortality (eternal and everlasting). Moreover, this god is seen as deeply involved in history rather than detached from it, often appearing at various junctures through time in order to alter the fate of the physical world. In this way, Jews, Christians and Muslims often conceive of God as a personal God, possessing with an explicit will and personality. Even God's physiognomy is marked by anthropomorphic traits, as is evident in the Book of Genesis 1:27 where it is stated "God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Also, God is almost always referred to in the masculine sense. Many medieval rationalist philosophers in each of these religions put forth the view that one should not conceive of God as personal in the literal sense, as such perceptions limit His transcendent majesty. Rather, they claimed that such personal descriptions of God should only be intended as metaphors. Some within these three faiths still accept such a view as valid, although the majority of the laity today do not have a wide awareness of them. Despite the Abrahamic God's similarity to these worldly forms of humans, each of these faiths are also highly dualistic, and God is wholly seperate from the world.

Biblical definition of God

The Hebrew Bible contains no systematic theology, in that no attempt is made to give a philosophical or rigorous definition of God. In fact, God's nature seems to be left ambiguous in order to render His nature mysterious. This is exemplified by God's assertion in Exodus that "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live". God's traits, therefore, are portrayed as existing beyond human comprehension. Furthermore, nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are the words omnipotent, omniscient, or omnibenevolent used to define God in a systematic sense. Although Scripture does not describe God systematically, it does provide a poetic depiction of God and His relationship with people. Biblical texts make evident that God that cares about people, and also that He cares about whether people care about Him.

God according to the Bible is characterized not just as Creator, but also as the "Heavenly Father". As this title would imply, in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) he is marked by a number of personalistic traits. Exodus 34:6-7 describes him suchly : "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." Here was see god described as being capable of a wide variety of moods ranging from loving and gentle to irascible and vengeful.

Like the Old Testament, the New Testament contains little systematic theology. No philosophical or rigorous definition of God is given, nor of how God acts in the world; however the first of John's letters states: "God is light" (1 John 1:5), before he states: "God is love" (1 John 4:8). This seems to insinuate god's existence beyond the world yet his action within it to sustain it. The New Testament also seems to provide an implicit theology as it teaches that God interacted and connected directly with people, in the person of Jesus, and that he subsequently sent the Holy Spirit to maintain this link. Through the person of Jesus, God becomes someone that can be seen and touched, and may speak and act in a manner easily perceived by humans, while also remaining transcendent and invisible to the naked eye. This appears to be a radical departure from the concepts of God found in Hebrew Bible. The New Testament's statements regarding the nature of God were eventually developed into the doctrine of the Trinity.

God as Trinity

In 325, the Council of Nicaea declared that Jesus Christ, as the son of God, is consisted of the same substance as the Father. This was extended with the addition of the Holy Spirit, the worldly manifestation of God within human beings, into the formulation that god was three persons composed of one substance. God, therefore, is a single Being who consists, simultaneously and eternally, of three persons. Since the 4th Century AD, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom share a single Divine essence. Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism. Trinitarians hold that the three persons have the same purpose, holiness, and sovereignty, and therefore each can be worshipped as God, without violating the idea that there is only one God to which worship belongs. Christianity readily adopted the doctrine of the trinity as a mainstream belief, and other views of god were considered heretical. As such, the majority of Christians today are still trinitarian.

Some alternative views do persist in contemporary Christianity, however. Mormons believe that the three personas are actually three separate divine personages. One of these personages is a spirit without a body referred to as the Holy Ghost. The other two personages, Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ, are resurrected beings with perfected or celestial bodies . Mormons hold that God is a Holy Man who advanced to his divine status through a repeatable process of progression. They believe that by following their religion's teachings, humans can literally become gods at some point after their own death and resurrection, a process called Exaltation.

Muslims, Jews, and a small fraction of Christians are unitarian monotheists, referring to the fact that they believe in god as an undivided one and nothing else. Unitarian monotheists hold that there is only one "person" (so to speak), and often consider Trinitarian beliefs to reflect a form of polytheism. As well, not all non-Christian religions disavow multiplicities consisted from a supreme god. Hasidic Jews holds that there are ten Sefirot (emanations) of God, each of which is more distinct than a mere characteristic of god, but less distinct than a separate personage. Some sects of Hinduism also recognize the Trimurti, a conception of three major gods (see below).

Kabbalistic and Hasidic definitions of God

Mainstream Orthodox Judaism teaches that although God is the creator of both matter nor spirit, he is himself neither. This teaching has raised questions among some as to how can there be any interaction between the Creator and the created if God is so different from it. In response, early Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) envisioned two aspects of God, firstly, God himself, who in the end is unknowable, and secondly, the revealed aspect of God who created and preserves the universe, interacts with mankind in a personal way. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but complement one another.

This view has been developed further in Hasidic and anti-nomian circles, however. Kabbalah teaches that in order to create the universe, God "withdrew," and created the universe within the space from which "He" contracted. It is taught in the Zohar that God, at the beginning of creation, shattered ten ספירות ("sephiroth") or כלים ("kaylim" or "vessels") scattering their fragments throughout the universe. The sephiroth — represented by the so-called עץ חיים ("Etz Hayim" or "Tree of Life") — are comprised of different vessels embodying various emanations of God's being. Each of these sephiroth is more distinct than a mere characteristic of god, but less distinct than a separate personage, thereby precluding the perception that such a doctrine is polytheistic. Over time, this view evolved into the belief that all of existence was in fact God itself, and that humanity is imbued with an inherent Godliness which we must grapple to come to terms with it. The standing view in neo-Hasidism, currently, is that there is nothing in existence other than God, as is stated in the ancient Kabbalistic incantation, אין עוד מילבדו ("Ain od milvado") — "There is nothing but God." Thus, it has become understood that God used God's self to form the universe.

Quranic definitions of God

Allah (Arabic allāhu الله) is traditionally used by Muslims as the Arabic word for "God", not as "God's personal name", but the equivalent of the Hebrew word El as opposed to YHWH. The word Allah is not specific to Islam; Arab Christians and Arab Jews also use it to refer to the monotheist deity. Arabic translations of the Bible also employ it, as do the Catholics of Malta who pronounce it as "Alla" in Maltese, a language derived from Arabic. As well Christians in Indonesia, use the term, pronouncing it "Allah Bapa" (Allah the Father). Many linguists believe that the term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic words al (the) + ilah ("male deity"). In addition, one of the main pagan goddesses of pre-Islamic Arabia, Allāt (al + ilāh + at, or 'the female deity'), is cited as being etymologically (though not synchronically) the feminine linguistic counterpart to the grammatically masculine Allah. If so, the word Allāh is an abbreviated title, meaning 'the deity', rather than a name. For this reason, both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars often translate Allāh directly into English as 'God' especially the Quran Alone Muslims. However, some Muslim scholars feel that "Allāh" should not be translated, because it expresses the supreme divinity's unique traits more accurately than "God", which can take a plural as "gods", whereas "Allāh" cannot. This is a significant issue in translation of the Qur'an. This also explains why Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians freely refer to God as Allāh.

Muslims conceive God as One, with monotheism forming the cornerstone to their faith. Just as in the other Abrahamic faiths, Muslims claimed the worship of one god to be the only acceptable form of religious faith, and place themselves in direct opposition to polytheists and idolators. Allah is all truth and the source of all creation, therefore Allah alone is the sole entity for worship, and no other gods are to be acknowledged or worshipped without exceptions. With this in place, Muslims deny all forms of polytheism, as well as the Christian notion of the Trinity, which they also claim to be polytheistic. There is no existence or supernatural powers to be worshipped other than Allah. To attribute the traits of Allah upon any other god is considered by Muslims to be the only unforgiveable sin.

The Qu'ran speaks 99 names of God in order to describe Allah. Most of these "names" found in the Qur'an are not actually monikers, but rather attributes which Allah embodies. Many of these names portray Allah in highly personalistic terms, often claiming Allah as having the abilities to "see" and "hear", which has sparked controversy among Muslim theologians scholarship, some of whom claim that such passages insinuate God has a particular form, limited by senses. In general, the conclusion has been reached that if God does see and hear, he does so in a manner unworth of comparison to human sensations as they are known. One, however, Al Haq, meaning The Truth, seems to equate to Allah absolute truth as that which cannot be negated. Al Haq is more than a reflection of faith in the existence of The God, and links the concept of God to all creation forever. Thus Allah transcends the prophetic origins of Islam and is thus universal in all time and applies to all existence in the past, present, and future. These traits speak to the the fact that Allah is completely transcendent and therefore wholly separate from humanity. However, he is said to immanent within the world, as well, a process which is carried out through the revelation given to prophets, the most important of which is Mohammed.

Negative theology

Some Jewish, Christian and Muslim medieval philosophers developed what is termed as negative theology (sometimes called apophatic theology), the idea of approaching knowledge of God through negative attributes rather than positive statements. In negative theology, it is assumed that human language can never truly express the purview of God. Instead, that person who wishes to understand god must go beyond words. In this sense, negative theology is not a denial of what god is, but rather an exploration of what the Divine might be. For example, a negative theologian might claim that we should not say that God exists in the usual sense of the term. Rather, we would be better off claiming that God is not nonexistent. We should not say that God is wise, but we can say that God is not ignorant. We should not say that God is One, but we can state that there is no multiplicity in God's being. Rather than asserting what god is, negative theologians discuss what God is not. This kind of theology is often allied with or expressed in tandem with mystical traditions, which commonly focuses on a spontaneous or cultivated individual experience of the divine reality beyond the realm of ordinary perception, an experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion. As well, mystical experiences are described as exceeding the boundaries of human language, therefore, only statements about mystical experience of god may be better suited for such a theology of negation.

Binitarianism

Binitarianism: A view within Christianity that there were originally two beings in the Godhead—the Father and the Word that became the Son (Jesus the Christ). Binitarians normally believe that God is a family, currently consisting of the Father and the Son. Some binitarians believe that others will ultimately be born into that divine family. Hence, binitarians are nontrinitarian, but they are also not unitarian. Binitarians, like most unitarians and trinitarians, claim their views were held by the original New Testament Church. Unlike most unitarians and trinitarians who tend to identify themselves by those terms, binitarians normally do not refer to their belief in the duality of the Godhead, with the Son subordinate to the Father, as binitarianism—they simply teach the Godhead in a manner that has been termed as binitarianism.

"The word “binitarian” is typically used by scholars and theologians as a contrast to a trinitarian theology: a theology of “two” in God rather than a theology of “three”... it is accurate to offer the judgment that most commonly when someone speaks of a Christian “binitarian” theology the “two” in God are the Father and the Son...A substantial amount of recent scholarship has been devoted to exploring the implications of the fact that Jesus was worshipped by those first Jewish Christians, since in Judaism "worship" was limited to the worship of God" (Barnes M. Early Christian Binitarianism: the Father and the Holy Spirit. Early Christian Binitarianism – as read at NAPS 2001). Much of this recent scholarship has been the result of the translations of the Nag Hammadi and other ancient manuscripts which were not available when older scholarly texts (such as W. Bousset's Kyrios Christos, 1913) were written.

Although some critics prefer to use the term ditheist or dualist instead of binitarian, those terms suggests that God is not one, yet binitarians believe that God is one family.

Conceptions of God in Hinduism

Aum. Found first in the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism, Aum has been seen as the first manifestation of the unmanifest Brahman (the single Divine Ground of Hinduism) that resulted in the phenomenal universe
  • The Sanskrit and Hindi word for God, that is used most commonly, is Ishvara, lit., the Supreme Lord, pronounced as "īshvərə". Hindus generally believe that Ishvara is only One. This must not be confused with the numerous deities or demi-gods of the Hindus known as Devas, which can number upto 330 million.
  • The Vedantic school of Hindu philosophy also has a notion of a Supreme Cosmic Spirit called Brahman, pronounced as "brəhmən". Brahman is (at best) described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, transcedent and immanent Reality that is the diving ground of all Being in this universe. Brahman is actually undescribable. It is at best, "Sat" + "Chit" + "Ananda", ie, Infinite Truth, Infinite Conscioussness and Infinite Bliss. Brahman may be called as God, or better, as Godhead.
  • A major branch of Hinduism, Advaita Vedanta, served as the fertile grounds from which one of the first monistic philosophies of God was developed. According to Advaitins, Brahman is the only Ultimate Reality in this world, and everything else is an illusion. They believe that Māyā is that complex illusionary power of Brahman which causes the Brahman to be seen as the distinct material world. When man tries to know the attributeless Brahman with his mind, under the influence of Maya, Brahman becomes God (Ishvara as described as above). God is Brahman with Maya. He is Saguna Brahman or Brahman with positive attributes. He is omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent, Creator of the world, its ruler and also destroyer. He is eternal and unchangeable. He rules the world with his Maya. However, while God is the Lord of Maya and she (ie, Maya) is always under his control, living beings (jīva, in the sense of humans) are the servants of Maya (in the form of ignorance). This ignorance is the cause of the unhappiness and sin in the mortal world. While God is Infinite Bliss, humans are misereable. God (Ishvara) always knows the unity of the Brahman substance, and the Mayic nature of the world. There is no place of a Satan or devil in Hinduism, unlike Abrahamic religions. Advaitins explain the misery because of ignorance. God or Ishvara can also be visualized and worshipped in anthromorphic form like Vishnu, Krishna or Shiva. The Advaita Vedanta philosophy continues with the view that once one becomes aware of the unity of being of Godhead, he will then be able to see beyond the illusions of division and separation from Godhead, and recognize his or her own inherent unity with the Brahman. See Advaita Vedanta.
  • In the two largest branches of Hinduism, Shaivism and Vaishnavism, it is believed that Ishvara and Brahman are identical, and God is in turn anthromorphically identified with Shiva or Vishnu. God, whether in the form of Shiva or Vishnu has six attributes. However, the actual number of auspicious qualities of God, are countless, with the following six qualities being the most important.
  • The number six is invariably given, but the individual attributes listed vary. One set of attributes (and their common interpretations) are:
    • Jnana (Omniscience), defined as the power to know about all beings simultaneously;
    • Aishvarya (Sovereignty, derived from the word Ishvara), which consists in unchallenged rule over all;
    • Shakti (Energy), or power, which is the capacity to make the impossible possible;
    • Bala (Strength), which is the capacity to support everything by will and without any fatigue;
    • Virya (Vigour), or valour which indicates the power to retain immateriality as the supreme being in spite of being the material cause of mutable creations; and
    • Tejas (Splendour), which expresses his self-sufficiency and the capacity to overpower everything by his spiritual effulgence.; cited from Bhakti Schools of Vedanta, by Swami Tapasyananda.
  • A second set of six characteristics are
    • Jnana (Omniscience),
    • Vairagya (Detachment),
    • Yashas (Fame),
    • Aishvarya (Sovereignty, derived from the word Ishvara),
    • Sri (Glory) and
    • Dharma (Righteousness).
  • Other important qualities attributed to God are Gambhirya (grandeur), Audarya (generosity), and Karunya (compassion).
  • Chanted prayers, or mantras, are central to Hindu worship. Among the most chanted mantras in Hinduism are the Vishnu sahasranama (a prayer to Vishnu that dates from the time of the Mahabharata and describes him as the Universal Brahman), Shri Rudram (a Vedic hymn to Rudra, an earlier aspect of Shiva that also describes Him as Brahman) and the Gayatri mantra, (another Vedic hymn that initially was meant as a prayer to the Sun, an aspect of Brahman but has other interpretations. It is now interpreted as a prayer to the impersonal absolute Brahman).
  • The followers of Shaktism like to concieve the divine power of the Ishvara as a female goddess, the divine mother called Devi or Durga. Another famous hymn, Lalitha Sahasranama, describes the 1000 names of Devi, worshipped as God the Divine Mother.
  • It is important to add that in Hinduism (Sanatana Dharama) God is considered the Supreme Being, and many views of God range from panentheism to dualism to monism. His appearance, in its entirety, cannot be comprehended by the common man. His appearance with form is only a manifestation of certain characteristics. The various forms of God or deities which apparently give Smarta Hinduism a character of polytheism, are regarded as mundane manifestations of One Brahman or Ishvara, only to facilitate his devotional worship.
  • Ayyavazhi propagates almost a similar theory to Advaita Vedanta. However, Kashmir Shaivism, one notable Saivite branch disagrees and focuses on panentheism. Furthermore, it rejects the maya illusion theory by stating that if God is real, then His creation must be real and not illusory.

In Hinduism there are two methods of worship:

  1. To worship God through meditation on an icon (murti).
  2. To worship God without icon worship.(eg. non-anthromorphic symbols such as linga, saligrama, Ayyavazhi, or through meditation)

In the early Upanishads the conception of the Divine Teacher guru on earth first manifested from its early Brahmin associations. Indeed, there is an understanding in some Hindu sects that if the devotee were presented with the guru and God, first he would pay respects to the guru since the guru had been instrumental in leading him to God.

  • Hari Bhakti Vilasa ( 4.344)
Prathamam tu gurum pujya tatas caiva mamarcanam
Kuran siddhim avapnoti hy anyatha nisphalam bhavet
One does not directly worship one's God. One must begin by the worship of the Guru. Only by pleasing the Guru and gaining his mercy, can one offer anything to God. Thus, before worshiping God, one must always worship the Guru.

See also Guru.

Christian Monism

Within the body of Christian belief, the only well-known developed system of monism is found within the recently developed (1975) teachings of the book known as A Course In Miracles (or ACIM). The philosophical system of ACIM presents what appears to be a unique synthesis of Hindu monistic Advaita Vedanta teachings, blended with the early Christian teaching of the universal-fatherhood-of-God belief. In this philosophy God retains the traditional Christian role of an All loving, all forgiving Father, as portrayed in the Christian allegory of the Prodigal Son, yet God is also attributed with the qualities of complete oneness with all of mankind. The apparent contrast between the existence of this oneness with God, and the common belief in human separation from God, is explained by the belief that man's apparent separation from God is a mere illusion, an illusion that can be overcome by gaining a full understanding of, and by adopting an unfailing practice of, the dynamics of Christian forgiveness.

The Ultimate

Arguably, Eastern conceptions of The Ultimate (this, too, has many different names), except for Shaivism and Vaishnavism, which do focus on a personal God, are not conceptions of a personal divinity, though certain Western conceptions of what is at least called "God" (e.g., Spinoza's pantheistic conception and various kinds of mysticism) resemble Eastern conceptions of The Ultimate.

Aristotelian definition of God

Main article: Aristotelian view of God.

In his Metaphysics, Aristotle discusses meaning of "being as being". Aristotle holds that "being" primarily refers to the Unmoved Movers, and assigned one of these to each movement in the heavens. Each Unmoved Mover continuously contemplates its own contemplation, and everything that fits the second meaning of "being" by having its source of motion in itself, moves because the knowledge of its Mover causes it to emulate this Mover (or should).

Modern views

Process philosophy and Open Theism definition of God

  • Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947).
  • Open theism, a theological movement that began in the 1990s, is similar, but not identical, to Process theology.

In both views, God is not omnipotent in the classical sense of a coercive being. Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will. Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just human beings. God and creatures co-create. God cannot force anything to happen, but rather only influence the exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. See the entries on Process theology, Panentheism, and Open theism.

Posthuman God

Similar to this theory is the belief or aspiration that humans will create a God entity, emerging from an artificial intelligence. Arthur C. Clarke, a science fiction writer, said in an interview, "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." Clarke's friend and colleague, the late Isaac Asimov, postulated in his story "The Last Question" a merger between humanity and machine intelligence that ultimately produces a deity capable of reversing entropy and subsequently initiates a new Creation trillions of years from the present era when the Universe is in the last stage of heat death.

Another variant on this hypothesis is that humanity or a segment of humanity will create or evolve into a posthuman God by itself; for some examples, see cosmotheism, transhumanism, technological singularity.

Extraterrestrials

Some comparatively new belief systems and books portray God as Extraterrestrial life. Many of these theories hold that intelligent beings from another world have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years, and have influenced the development of our religions. Some of these books posit that prophets or messiahs were sent to the human race in order to teach morality and encourage the development of civilization. (See e.g. Rael). One famous espouser of such views was the late Francis Crick, one of the discoverers of the structure of DNA. Confronted with the statistical improbability of the origin of self replicating and purposeful life in the allegedly miniscule timeframe physicists allot for the creation of planet earth, Crick suggested life on earth originated far away. (See Mark Steyn's obituary for the scientist: http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=29 )

Phenomenological definition

The philosopher Michel Henry defines God in a phenomenological point of view. He says : "God is Life, he is the essence of Life, or, if we prefer, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what is God, we know it not by the effect of a learning or of some knowledge, we don’t know it by the thought, on the background of the truth of the world ; we know it and we can know it only in and by the Life itself. We can know it only in God." (I Am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity).

This Life is not biological life defined by objective and exterior properties, nor an abstract and empty philosophical concept, but the absolute phenomenological life, a radically immanent life which possesses in it the power of showing itself in itself without distance, a life which reveals permanently itself.

The Rosicrucian conception of God and the scheme of evolution

According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings [1] about the scheme of evolution, and in Esoteric Christianity, in the beginning of a Day of Manifestation a certain collective Great Being, God, limits Himself to a certain portion of space, in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution of added self-consciousness.

File:THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.JPG
THE ANCIENT OF DAYS, illustrated by William Blake (1794)

In God there are contained hosts of glorious Hierarchies and lesser beings of every grade of intelligence and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an unconsciousness deeper than that of the deepest trance condition. During the current period of manifestation these various grades of beings are working to acquire more experience than they possessed at the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in previous manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development work on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness.

The period of time devoted to the attainment of self-consciousness and to the building of the vehicles through which the spirit in man manifests, is called "Involution". The succeeding period of existence, during which the individual human being develops self-consciousness into divine omniscience, is called "Evolution". Every evolving being has within him a "force" which makes evolution not to be a mere enfoldment of latent germinal possibilities but a process where each individual differ from that of every other. This force, called "Epigenesis", provides the element of originality and gives scope to the creative ability which the evolving being is to cultivate that he may become a God.

Heindel states that in the Solar system, God's Habitation, there are seven Worlds differentiated by God, within Himself, one after another [2]. These Worlds have each a different "measure" and rate of vibration and are not separated by space or distance, as is the earth from the other planets. They are states of matter, of varying density and vibration (as are the solids, liquids and gases of the physical Earth). These Worlds are not instantaneously created at the beginning of a day of Manifestation, nor do they last until the end. The evolutionary scheme is carried through five of these Worlds in seven great Periods of manifestation, during which the evolving virgin spirit becomes first human and, then, a God. The highest Worlds are created first, and as involution is to slowly carry the life into denser and denser matter for the building of forms, the finer Worlds gradually condense and new Worlds are differentiated within God to furnish the necessary links between Himself and the Worlds which have consolidated. In due time the point of greatest density, the nadir of materiality, is reached. From that point the life begins to ascend into higher Worlds, as evolution proceeds. That leaves the denser Worlds depopulated, one by one. When the purpose has been served for which a particular World was created, God ends its existence, which has become superfluous, by ceasing within Himself the particular activity which brought into being and sustained that World [3].

Rosicrucians teach that the, above referred, seven Worlds belong to the lowest of the seven "Cosmic Planes". The Worlds and Cosmic Planes are not one above another in space, but the seven Cosmic Planes inter-penetrate each other and all the seven Worlds. They are states of spirit-matter, permeating one another, so that God and the other great Beings pervade every part of their own realms and realms of greater density than their own, including our world: "in Him we live and move and have our being". Proceeding from the physical world to the inner worlds and up through the Cosmic Planes, God - the "Architect of the Solar System", the Source and goal of human existence - is found in the highest division of the seventh Cosmic Plane: this is His World. In order to trace the origin of the Architect of the Solar System, one must pass to the highest of the seven Cosmic Planes: the "Realm of the Supreme Being", Who emanated from the "Absolute". The Absolute is beyond comprehension and, as manifestation implies limitation, He may be best described as "Boundless Being": the "Root of Existence".

From the Absolute proceeds the Supreme Being, at the dawn of manifestation: this is The One, the "Great Architect of the Universe". The first aspect of the Supreme Being may be characterized as Power, from this proceeds the second aspect, the Word, and from both of these proceeds the third, aspect, Motion. From this threefold Supreme Being proceed the "seven Great Logoi". They contain within Themselves all the great Hierarchies which differentiate more and more as they diffuse through the various Cosmic Planes [4]. In the Highest World of the seventh Cosmic Plane dwells the God of the Solar Systems in the Universe. These great Beings are also threefold in manifestation, like The Supreme Being. Their three aspects are Will, Wisdom and Activity.

Notes and references

  1. ^  Heindel, Max, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, ISBN 0-911274-34-0, 1st ed 1909; Part II: Chapters V, VI.
  2. ^  Heindel, Max, Idem; Diagram 2: The Seven Worlds.
  3. ^  Heindel, Max, Idem; Diagram 8: The 777 Incarnations.
  4. ^  Heindel, Max, Idem; Diagram 6: The Supreme Being, the Cosmic Planes and God.
  • Pickover, Cliff, The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience, Palgrave/St Martin's Press, 2001.
  • Miles, Jack, God : A Biography, Knopf, 1995; Book description.
  • Armstrong, Karen, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Ballantine Books, 1994.
  • Rotch, Mike, God, the Sheep, and Me... And Other Stories of Godly En(tendre)counters, Modern Christian Press, 2003.

See also

External links

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