God

An abstract representation of Isvara (a Hindu word for God) painted by Antti Silvekoski, copyright 2007

The (English language) term God when capitalized and singular (as a proper noun) is used to refer specifically to a monotheistic or henotheistic concept of a supernatural Supreme Being. Uncapitalized spelling (both singular and plural) is used to refer to an individual member or members of a polytheistic pantheon (for more on this topic, see polytheism).

The notion of an unrivaled, divine absolute exists in virtually all world religions, even those like Buddhism that take an agnostic stance on the existence of God. God is quite universally understood as creator and sustainer of "the world" (i.e., all that is). Typically, God (i.e., the "one true God") is characterized as omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent (and in most theologies, immutable), as well as just, benevolent, and merciful. Where God is conceived of as a personal God, he may be understood as male, as female, as beyond gender, or as the unity of male and female aspects. Often he/she has the disposition of a parent, who watches over human beings, his children, protecting or punishing them as need be in an effort to raise them well.

Of course the precise definition (or intuition) of what and who God is, and "is for us" varies greatly among religions, within specific denominations of religions, and surely even from person to person. Saints, mystics, seers, visionaries, and prophets from all world traditions uniformly insist that God is to be known through experience, not through intellectual speculation. Thus God (by whatever name) comes to be known as a result of how one lives, not through how one thinks.

Etymology

File:Gudis Argenteus.jpg

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

The word God comes 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 it takes root in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European word *khutóm. *Khutóm 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") as well as the Common Germanic strong verb *geutan (Anglo-Saxon gēotan) "to pour", and the English in-got. The connection between these terms likely derives from the meaning "pour a libation". 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 translations of the Bible.

Early Conceptions of God

From Polytheism to Monotheism

Polytheism seems to have been the predominant conception of divinity throughout most of the ancient world, and it continues in primal traditions to this day. Although the expressions of polytheism have varied considerably from culture to culture, some common characterisitics can be identified. The gods of polytheism have independent and individual personalities with specific skills, needs and desires. Though often lacking material form, though they could (on occasion) assume physical bodies. They are seen to possess a high level of relevance to human life, as they can intervene in human affairs. They can do so by their own volition, or worshipers can encourage them by way of rituals and sacrifices. The gods are generally conceived to be immortal. They are often portrayed as similar to humans in their personality traits, failings and vices, but with additional supernatual powers and abilities. Some have jurisdiction or governance over a large area, as the "patron god(s)" of a geographical region, town, mountain or clan. In many civilizations, the pantheons grew over time as the patron gods of various cities and places were collected together as empires extended over larger territories. In others cases, the various gods may have arisen due to a perceived "division of labor," with each having dominion or authority over specified elements in the human and natural worlds.

Many of the earliest conceptualizations of divinity were of the Goddess. Small female figures and cave paintings of females were the dominant foci of worship during the Paleolithic times (35,000-10,000 B.C.E.). These depictions typically emphasize the reproductive parts, such as large breasts, the pregnant womb, and the vulva, which presumably represented women's creative, preservative, nourishing, and embracing traits. The female was symbolically linked to the earth, maintaining the life cycle, creating and nourishing new life. Excavations 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.

The ancient Greek gods provide the example of polytheism that is most familiar to Western scholarship. Their extensive mythological tales (preserved in plays, visual art, and epic poems) show that the ancient Greeks believed in independent, highly personified deities who were not aspects of a greater divinity. Rather, they were seen to stand on their own, representing certain aspects of the cosmos or human experience. The first gods were largely tied to natural or primoridal processes, such as Uranus, the father god of the Sky, Gaia, the mother goddess of Earth, and Chronos, the godly personification of time. Later gods, such as the Olympians, became identified with more specific aspects of experience. For instance, Apollo was the god of light, dance, reason, music, archery and medicine, while also exemplifying the difficulties of human relationships through the stories of his many failed loves. Athena was heralded as the goddess of wisdom, artistry, education and inner beauty, as well as war. Zeus represented the god of weather. While each of these gods and goddesses evidently had dominion over a certain portion of reality, they also were members of a celestial pantheon and were, at various junctures, ruled over by Chronos, Uranus, and finally Zeus. Their belief in a father/ruler God meant that the Greek polytheism was perhaps best described as a henotheism.

Greek definitions of God

Later developments in Greek philosophy shifted the Greek belief from polytheism or henotheism to a monistic theism. This trend began with the Pre-Socratic philosophers, who suggested that this pantheisitic essence for the universe perhaps took root in a natural element — such as Anaximenes (who claimed the essence to be air), or Thales (who thought it was water). Eventually these elements came to be more abstract, reaching 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 and ruling them all. For Pythagoras and his followers, all things were ruled by mathematics and geometry. Xenophanes propounded the idea of a changeless, indestructible and unified entity which possessed infinite intelligence and 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 as to the singular essence behind the universe culminated in the later philosophical monotheism espoused by both Plato and Aristotle. Plato construed God as representative of the single good which existed in contrast to the physical world, which was in constant flux and therefore evil. This so-called "Form of the Good" was held by Plato to exist beyond specific instances of good in the world, because each of these particulars was subject to mutability and therefore not eternal. Plato claimed these transient appearances of the Form of the Good were created by a Demiurge. The point of life was to rise up from all that is ugly, evil and fallacious and realize the true, permanent Good.

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 an immutable and indivisible entity, which represents the ultimate ground of truth and singularly provides the explanation as to why all things exist with the characteristics they do, as well as how they came into being. Aristotle propounded the idea that all people must seek to understand truth, as the search for truth is ultimately a form of participation 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.

Early monotheism in Egypt

Another example of a conception of one transcendent god growing out of henotheism occured in the iconoclastic cult of the Egyptian solar god, Aten, which was promoted by the pharaoh 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 Egyptians of that time period thought to be the single most powerful entity. Furthermore, Aten came to represent a more personal conception of the divine than the other gods, all of whom had been the primary 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 was promptly put to a halt upon his death. The worship of gods other than Aten never fully ceased outside Akhenaten's court, and the older polytheistic cults soon regained prominence. 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's eschewal of polytheism, due to the presence of Israelite slaves in Egypt.

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism provides another example of early monotheistic belief. Zarathustra founded Zoroastrianism at best estimation sometime during the 10th century B.C.E. perhaps under inspiration to elevate divine-human relations above the Indo-Iranian polytheism of his time, a tradition steeped in an elaborate ritualism that obscured divine presence. Under Zarathustra (as well as the later Zoroastrians) the various notions of divinity found within these assorted faiths were recognized as attributes of one all-encompassing deity called Ahura Mazda (or "Wise Lord"). Zarathustra 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 is not considered completely all-powerful. Ahura Mazda is described as inherently good, just and moral, and as such creates only good things, a seeming limitation to His power considering the presence of evil in the world. Zoroastrians attribute the existence of evil to two subsidiary moral spirits who Ahura Mazda is said to have fathered: Spenta Manyu, who is good, and Angra Manyu, who is evil. Although such a conception limits Ahura Mazda's power, he is consistently described to be triumphant over evil, which marks him as the supreme entity in the Zoroastrian cosmos. Later Zoroastrianism also includes angelic beings called the Amesha Spentas, who are seen as emanations of Ahura Mazda, whose job it is to put in place His will in the physical world.

Early Buddhist Monism

Sakyamuni Buddha is sometimes thought to be atheistic or agnostic: When asked about a supreme God, Buddha remained silent. Buddha believed the more important issue was a way out of suffering. He taught that speculation about the supernatural distracts us from the greater and more worthwhile devotion to breaking the cycle of rebirth. Buddha's silence has resulted in many even educated people believing that Buddhism is atheistic. However, it is more accurate to regard the Buddha's religious development as a move away from the Hindu polytheism of his day towards monism, similar to that of the Pre-Socratics in ancient Greece. That is, what the Buddha discovered was the Dharma, the universal principle of nature that he viewed as governing all beings, even the gods. All beings, humans and gods alike, are subject to the chain of cause and effect that is samsara, and all needed the Buddha's teaching to undertake the path to liberation. Dharma is a monistic principle in Buddhism, governing all beings and showing the path to liberation for all beings.

Thus, while Buddhism is not monotheistic, it is monistic, and its rejection of the Hindu deities can be seen as of a piece with Greek philosophy's rejection of the Greek gods. (Socrates was also accused of being an atheist.) Later Hinduism would follow the same path, from Vedic polytheism to the Monistic systems of the Upanishads; and for some traditions, to various forms of monotheism.

God in the Abrahamic Religions

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

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are together considered Abrahamic religions due to the fact they worship the God who first came into covenant with Abraham. Abraham's portion of the covenant was that he spread the teaching that only God alone is the true God, and all others are not. Therefore, each of the three religions that trace their roots to Abraham strongly espouse monotheism. Further, no doubt due to the dialogical relationship between Abraham and God, the Abrahamic faiths conceive of God as deeply involved in human history, rather than detached from it. God often appears at various junctures through time in order to alter the fate of the physical world.

Considering this close relationship between God and human beings, it is not surprising that Jews, Christians and Muslims often conceive of God in personal terms. The prophets of the Bible and the Qur'an encountered God as a Being with an explicit will and personality. The Bible depicts God with anthropomorphic traits, as seen in Genesis 1:27, "God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness"—however from the viewpoint of faith, it is rather human beings who are "theomorphic," made in the image of their Creator. Although God is referred as male, the Bible also depicts God with images of a mother who wraps her child in swaddling clothes and bends down to feed it (Hosea 11).

Later, 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 be understood as metaphors. On the other hand, for many saints and pious believers, relating to God in personalistic terms allows an intimacy and depth of sentiment surpassing the logic of the more refined and rationalist conceptions.

The Abrahamic faiths do not permit the personalistic understanding of God to overwhelm the radical difference between God and human beings, or the radical separation between God and world. God is unlike human beings in that He created the world, rules over the universe, and has the properties of holiness (in that He is unrelated to sin and incorruptible), justness (being fair, right, and true in all His judgments), sovereignty (unthwartable in His will), omnipotence (being all-powerful), omniscience (knowing all), omnibenevolence (all-loving), omnipresence (everywhere-present), and immortality (in that He is eternal and everlasting).

Judaism

God in the Hebrew Bible: Known through the Covenant Relationship

The Hebrew Bible does not provide a philosophical definition of God. God is the Creator, certainly, of the physical world and all that lives upon it. Yet only a few chapters of the Bible are concerned with God's role in creation. Mainly, God in the Bible is understood relationally—as God in covenant with Israel.

Biblical texts make evident that God cares about people, and that He also cares about whether or not people care about Him. God is chiefly known by His mighty acts in history: liberating the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt and leading them across the desert to the Promised Land; rescuing faithful Israel from her enemies; and chastising disobedient Israel with invasions, pestilence and exile. God is also known by the laws he gives the people to live by—the laws of the Mosaic covenant, which require justice, charity to the poor and downtrodden, integrity in matters of morality. They also forbid idolatry and the worship of foreign gods. God's active mercy and protection, coupled with the obligations to follow His law, constitute the two sides of the covenant relationship. They make clear to the people that God holds them accountable for their actions, and that He has the power to reward or punish them accordingly.

The God of the Hebrew Bible has the likeness of a king, who governs his subjects and expects their loyalty and service. To this the Bible adds another dimension, characterizing God not only as the divine Ruler but also as the "Heavenly Father". As this title implies, God takes a paternal interest in the Israelites; He is not content to rule them, but would also educate them and raise them to meet His highest expectations. His attitude in Exodus is a stern parent:

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 (...) 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." (Exodus 34:6-7)

But it is in the prophets that God's fatherly and even motherly heart shines forth:

When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and burning incense to idols.
Yet it was I that taught Ephraim to walk,
I took him up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of compassion,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one
who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and fed them. (Hosea 11.1-4)

On the other hand, the Hebrew Bible deliberately avoids any rational apprehension of God's nature. This is in accord with its prohibition of images (Exodus 20:4): God is not to be depicted by any kind of form. God's traits transcend human comprehension to the extent that attempts to see him by form is downright dangerous! In Exodus God is cited as saying "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live"; even Moses, who longs to see God, must cover his eyes when God passes by and is only granted a glimpse of his backside (Exodus 33:20-23). The prophet Ezekiel deepens the mystery with his vision of God's throne, mounted on a chariot surrounded by wheels and strange living creatures, for now matter how he tries, he can only glimpse "the likeness of the glory of the Lord" enveloped in light (Ezekiel 1:26-28). This vision implies that God's true existence is far beyond the physical world, even as his action within the world sustains and governs all things.

Kabbalistic and Hasidic definitions of God

Mainstream Orthodox Judaism teaches that although God is the creator of both matter and spirit, God in fact is neither. This teaching has raised questions among some as to how can there be any interaction between the Creator and the created if the Creator is indeed so different from it. In response, early Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) envisioned two aspects of God: firstly, God's self, which ultimately is unknowable, and secondly, the revealed aspect of God who created and preserves the universe, interacting with mankind in a personal way. Kabbalists believe that these two aspects are not contradictory but rather complementary to one another.

Kabbala 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 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's self, and that humanity is endowed with an inherent godliness with which we must come to terms. The standing view in neo-Hasidism, currently, can be summed up within the ancient and popular Kabbalistic incantation, אין עוד מילבדו ("Ain od milvado"), which means: "There is nothing but God." Thus, the Kabbalistic view of God can be described as pantheistic or panentheistic, a definite departure from traditional Jewish theism, but such an ascription from without might be just another misapprehension of another person's more profoundly grasped religion.

Islam

Muslims conceive God as One, with monotheism forming the cornerstone of the Muslim faith. Just as in the other Abrahamic faiths, Muslims claim the worship of the one God to be the only acceptable form of religious faith, and place Islam in direct opposition to polytheists and idolaters. Allah is all truth and the source of all creation, therefore Allah alone is worthy of worship, and no other gods are to be acknowledged or worshiped. With this in place, Muslims deny all forms of polytheism, as well as the Christian notion of the Trinity, also regarded to be polytheistic. To attribute the traits of Allah upon any other god is considered by Muslims to be the only unforgivable sin.

The Qu'ran speaks of 99 names of God, namely the attributes of Allah. The text of the Qur'an itself lists even more than 99 "names," each an attribute that Allah embodies. Many of these names portray Allah in highly personalistic terms, giving Allah abilities to "see" and "hear". This has sparked controversy among Muslim theologians, some of whom claim that such passages insinuate God as having has a particular form limited by senses. This controversy is most often settled with the conclusion that if God does see and hear, he does so in no way similar to mere human sensations. With this concern about excessive anthropomorphism, many Muslims do not approve of the Christian appellation "Father" for God. One name, Al Haqq, meaning The Truth, equates Allah with absolute truth that cannot be negated and is universal in all time, past, present, and future. This and other traits put forth the idea that Allah is completely transcendent and therefore wholly separate from humanity. However, Allah is said to be immanent within the world, as well.

Christianity

God in the New Testament

In the New Testament, God is known through the person of Jesus, of whom the Gospel of John states: "He who has seen me has seen the Father... Believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me" (John 14:9-11). God becomes someone that can be seen and touched, and who may speak and act in a manner easily perceived by humans, while also remaining transcendent and invisible to the naked eye. In Jesus Christ God revealed His unparalleled love for every human being, who would sacrifice his own life—the life of his Son—for their sake: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) While the God of the Hebrew Bible demands and rewards faithfulness, in Jesus God demonstrated that He would sacrifice to save even the faithless sinner:

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4.10-11)

Out of this experience of God's unconditional love, the writer states what for many Christians best sums up the nature of God: "God is love" (1 John 4:8).

Jesus also demonstrated how believers can come into an intimately personal relationship with God as their Father, which he demonstrated in his own prayers, where he called out "Abba, Father!" (Mark 14:36). The word "Abba" means "Daddy!", what a child would call his father. Here Jesus discards the formalism and respectful distance which the Hebrew Bible requires of a believer addressing God. The New Testament commends this intimacy for all believers. While it is extremely difficult for an ordinary human being to feel such closeness to the omnipotent and ineffable deity, God himself provides the bridge, by sending the Holy Spirit:

"All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God... When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God." (Romans 8:14-16)

The apprehension of God as a loving Father has remained central to Christian piety. At the same time, the New Testament's identification of God with Jesus Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit were eventually developed into the doctrine of the Trinity.

God of classical theism

In spite of the biblical understanding of God as

Via negativa

Some Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, medieval philosophers developed what is called negative theology, or apophatic theology. This is the idea of approaching the knowledge of God through negating categories, rather than through positive statements and affirmations. In negative theology, it is assumed that human language can never truly express the complete 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 proclaim God's existence in the usual sense of the term. Rather, we would be better off claiming that God is not nonexistent. Or, 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, then, 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, experience often unmediated by the structures of traditional organized religion. Mystical experiences are often described as exceeding the boundaries of human language, therefore, statements about mystical experience of god may be best suited for such a theology of negation.

Conceptions of God in Asian Religions

Hinduism

Vedic henotheism

Hinduism of the early Vedas in largely characterized by polytheism or henotheism, with elaborate ritualism and sacrifice prescribed for the appeasement of the various gods. Various gods rise to supremacy at various times in Vedic myth, as well as in the execution of the ritual. Often this supreme God was called Indra, represented as a warrior god, or else cosmic forces such as Agni, the god of fire, Varuna, keeper of the celestial waters, or Vac, speech. Each of these deities enjoys a position at the top of the Vedic pantheon throughout the course of the Vedas. The interchangable nature of the supreme god suggests that Vedic henotheism was merely a heuristic device for a greater, more nebulous reality, with gods and goddesses personalizing various aspects of the supreme divinity in order to render it more accessible. Rig Veda 1:164:46 is famous for insinuating the existence of some divinity beyond the numerous gods, stating that "Truth is One, though the sages know it as many." Such a statement may be interpreted as a vague indication of a deeper monism or even monotheism, gauging from the later schools of Hinduism that were seemingly on a search to define god as ultimately one; even within these early texts, it seems clear that the Vedic seers were unsatisfied with the idea of their polytheistic pantheon serving as the sole conception of divinity. By the time of the Upanishads, early commentaries upon the Vedas, the notion of an ineffable, indescribable Supreme Cosmic Spirit which served as grounds for the entire universe called Brahman had been developed to better articultate this singular, supreme essence.

Vedanta schools

The schools of Vedanta (or "end of the Vedas) are responsible for the further development of this a notion of Brahman. Advaita (or "non-dualistic") Vedanta, founded by mystic philosopher Shankara (700-750 C.E.), served as the fertile grounds from which one of the first monistic philosophies of God was developed. According to Shankara, Brahman is the only true reality in this world, and everything else is based in illusion (or maya). Maya is that complex illusory power which causes the Brahman to be perceived as the material world. Shankara also differentiated between Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without qualities) and Saguna Brahman (Brahman with qualities). When human beings attempt to understand the attributeless Brahman with their worldly minds, ever under the influence of maya, Brahman becomes God, or Ishvara as described as above. Therefore, God in the traditional form with positive attributes (Saguna Brahman) is Brahman conditioned by maya. Ishvara is omniscient, omnipresent, incorporeal, independent, Creator of the world, and also its destroyer, ruling the world with his Maya. However, while God is perceived in this conditioned state, humans by way of their ignorance are the servants of Maya, which is the cause of the widespread unhappiness experienced within the mortal world. The Advaita Vedanta philosophy concludes that once one comes to fully realize that the distinction between Brahman and all particular things, including the human soul (Atman), are merely an illusory, they will recognize their own inherent unity with Brahman and henceforth liberate themselves from the material realm.

Visistadvaita (or "qualified non-dualistic"), the second of the major Vedanta schools founded by mystic saint Ramanuja (1017-1137 C.E.), holds that while the self is still connected to Brahman, it is only an incomplete part and not the same as the whole. While god is infinite and represents the cause and effect of the universe, individual atman are limited and considered to be inferior to Brahman. Thus, simple realization of the soul's true identity will not suffice for attaining liberation, then, since Brahman and atman are not fully equivalent. Rather, Ramanuja prescribed that one should dedicate and surrender oneself to a personal God in a process called bhakti (or "loving devotion"). Ishvara, then, is typically perceived by Visistadvaitas as almost or equally important in non-dual Brahman form. Belief in this deity was claimed by Ramanuja to be indispensible for purposes of devotion, the ulimate path to non-dual Brahman. The end result of veracious devotion is not a complete merger of the soul with Brahman, as was described by Shankar, but rather an oppurtunity for the liberated soul to share in the nature of God.

Madhva's (1238-1317 C.E.) Dvaita (or "dualistic") Vedanta, in contrast, denies any connection whatsoever between Brahman and atman. Intead, God is conceived of in wholly personal terms as Ishvara, a being totally seperate from the universe and souls within it. This view displaying significant overlap with Abrahamic theism. Nirguna Brahman is rarely acknowledged within this school, which considers the notion of a deity without characteristics to be an intellectual abstraction with no appeal in the context of religion as it occurs among laypersons.

Emanational monotheism

Just as with the Vedic tradition, many outside observers interpret the practices of some modern Hindu sects to be polytheistic in nature. However, here again that view is wrong. For Hindus, as in other faiths, God is made up of innumerable aspects, a consequence of its infinite nature. Therefore, like the Vedic deities, the numerous deities of Hinduism, which have been reported as numbering as high as 330 million, are necessary to provide personalized emphasis upon certain traits of God. Many members of the Hindu faith take the view that it is only through conception of so many divine beings that humans come to realization of Brahman or Ishvara.

One such example of a multiplicity serving as a window to the primordial oneness is classical Hindu idea of the Trimurti, which acknowledges three aspects of God in the personae of Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver), and Shiva (the destroyer). These three gods are simply different aspects of the one and the same Ishvara, who ultimately is inconceivable. In this manner, the Trimurti is similar to Sabellian interpretations of the Christian Trinity. Such forms of worship are very much alive in many contemporary Hindu traditions, such as the Smarta school, which believes meditation upon icons (murti) representing an unlimited number of gods to be the optimum means by which connect with the greater power Brahman. Brahman transcends the iconic form. All gods, then, reduce to the same principle which does not exist as a plurality. Such schools of Hinduism are better placed under the classification of emanational monotheism rather than polytheism proper. Emational monotheism refers to religious traditions in which a singular monistic or pantheistic principle is perceived by humans as having many emanations or iterations, and is subsequently given worship through these forms. Other forms of Hinduism are more explicitly polytheistic. For example, the Mimamsa school recognizes the devas (celestial spirits) as the rulers over the forces of nature, with no particular deva rising above the others as the supreme deity.

Devotional monotheism

Because the many Hindu conceptualizations of gods serve a practical purpose, some remain popular based on their features or mythologies, while others fall out of significance. For some Hindus, the practical polytheism involving the many gods has become non-essential as a means to consider one god, and hence there has developed substantial monotheistic movements which acknowledge one personalized God as supreme. Not surprisingly, these Gods to whom sole devotion ends up being given are those who have maintained significance since the early history of Hinduism. Such is the case with the popular movements of Vaishnavism, which worships Vishnu and his avatars, and Saivism, which worships Shiva. These are the two largest branches of Hinduism today. Both of these gods enjoyed some significance in the Vedas, Vishnu being declared the supreme god in several instances, and Shiva prominent in the form of his precursor, Rudra. Their mythologies burgeoned in popularity after the circulation of the Puranas and the Mahabarata, which laid the foundation for their eventual veneration as monotheistic gods.

In the movements associated with Shiva and Vishnu it is believed that Ishvara and Brahman are identical. Thus, these movements closely resemble traditional Western monotheism, in that each sect considers their chosen god to be the sole and supreme deity. However, unlike the Western traditions (as well as Hindu interpretations such as Dvaita Vedanta), the devotional sects generally do not interpret the relation between God and the universe as one of dualism. Rather, they maintain a monistic view which conceives their personalistic god as the supreme entity of the universe, embodying the indescribable and supreme power of the traditional Brahman without qualities as well as their anthropomorphic form. The personalistic attributes of Vishnu and Shiva are not perceived to be limitations upon their power. In fact, it is these very characteristics which are thought to render Vishnu or Shiva superior over Nirguna Brahman.

Ishvara, whether in the form of Shiva or Vishnu, is endowed with several major attributes. The number six is invariably provided for these, but the individual attributes listed in any given account vary since the actual number of auspicious qualities of God are said to be countless. One set of attributes (and their common interpretations) are: Jnana, the power to know about all beings simultaneously; Bala, the capacity to support everything without any fatigue; Virya, the power to retain immateriality in spite of being the material cause of mutable creations; Tejas, which expresses self-sufficiency and the capacity to overpower everything by way of spiritual effulgence; and Aishvarya, unchallenged rule over the sixth attribute, Shakti the energy which renders the impossible possible. Shakti itself is the focus of worship in Shaktism, another popular devotional school. Followers of Shaktism conceive of the divine power of the Ishvara as a female goddess called Devi or Durga who is worshipped as the Divine Mother.

Sikhism

Many scholars attribute the formation of Sikhism to geographical and social pressures which engendered the merger of elements from the Hindu and Islamic faiths. With that said, Sikhism features numerous aspects from both religions, such as the notion that God is essentially One (Ek Onkar). Numerous passages within the Guru Granth Sahib (the Sikh holy book) assert the importance of this idea, including the very first stanza, known as the Mool Mantra. It reads: "One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth (...) Self-Existent." As in the Islamic faith, the assertion of monotheism is a rigourous one, as Sikhs reject any division of God, including the notion that god can produce avatars or human incarnations.

Generally, God is described by Sikhs as the creator of the universe, singular, supreme, timeless, omnipresent, and perfectly moral. Sikhs claim that God's very essence is unchanging Truth (Sat Namm). In addition, He is also described in seemingly anthropomorphic terms, such as in the aforementioned Mool Mantra, which describes Him as "Creative Being Personified." Although Sikhs, like Muslims, bestow many names upon God in order to describe His various traits, they most commonly refer to Him as Wahiguru.

Sikhism also features elements of pantheism or panentheism. Stories attributed to Guru Nanak suggest that he believed god to be everywhere in the physical world as in pantheism, in contrast to contemporaneous Muslims who believed God to be centered around the Kaaba in Mecca. Similarly, the Sikh tradition typically describes God as the preservative force within the physical world, present in all material forms. Each of these worldly forms was created as a manifestation of God. These ideas, taken together with the prevalent Sikh belief that God is the transcendent creator who exists independent of the world, could be interpreted to suggest that Sikhism is panentheistic.

Buddhism

Theravada Buddhism has been described as atheistic or agnostic: When asked about a supreme God, Buddha remained silent. Buddha believed the more important issue was a way out of suffering. Sakyamuni Buddha taught that speculation about the supernatural distracts us from the greater and more worthwhile devotion to breaking the cycle of rebirth. Buddha's silence has resulted in many even educated people believing that Buddhism is atheistic. However, Mahayana Buddhism in China developed the notion of the Buddha's cosmic body, the eternal Dharmakaya, which is the substance of Enlightenment and Truth itself; and the Sambhogakaya, the all-pervading compassion and wisdom of the Buddha which invites all people to salvation. These cosmic manifestations of the Buddha precede the historical Sakyamuni, called the Nirmanakaya. This doctrine of the Trikaya, or three bodies of the Buddha, bears some resemblance to the Christian doctrine of Trinity. By thus venerating the Buddha as the qualities of truth and mercy that pervade the cosmos, East Asian Buddhists have attributed to the Buddha the qualities of divinity. Mahayana Buddhism also venerates the Bodhisattvas, enlightened heavenly beings who have chosen to forgo entering into nirvana until all beings are enlightened.

Chinese religions

The concept of Tian ("Heaven"), the heavenly force which was believed to judge both the world and its rulers, came into currency within China during the Zhou dynasty (1122-255 B.C.E.). Scholars still debate whether or not Tian was a personal agent or an impersonal force which set in motion all natural forces, though general definitions span both meanings. Evidence suggests that under the Zhou, Tian was actually more of a personalistic force, representing an all-powerful entity which guaranteed peace and justice within the kingdom so long as rulers maintained order and justice. If order and justice were not maintained, Tian meted out punishment through natural and social disasters. The way in which the ruler was obligated to rule his empire in order to please Tian was known as Tian-Ming, or "the Mandate of Heaven." The ruler, then, was the most important link between Tian and the common people. In fact, only the ruler called upon Tian in the process of ritual and sacrifice. In this way, the people were detached from Tian, and eventually came to see the ruler as a sort of God on earth as the concepts of the ruler and communication with Tian came to be inextricably linked. Eventually, the ruler came to be known as Tian-zi, the "Son of Heaven," embodiment of Tian on Earth. During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), Tian became an item of even more reverence, as humans and the earth were believed to be deeply interrelated with it. Tian, then, did not remain separate from creation, and eventually actions of all people were undertaken with regard toward Tian. Inevitably, Tian came to be questioned as the actions of just rulers came to coincide with natural disasters and other seemingly undeserved fates.

Although the teachings of Confucius (551–479 B.C.E.) may seem more atheistic than theistic, the notion of the Mandate of Heaven still influenced his work. Confucius delved into the practical questions of how one would have to live in order to implement the will of heaven and therefore uphold peace, harmony and justice within society. For purposes of implementing the will, he stressed the concept of li which had previously referred to ritual, but was nuanced under his influence, coming to be refer to "propriety". By bringing personal, familial and societal roles into harmony, one could acheive li, the basis for putting the Mandate of Heaven into action. Tian is the foundation for all of which is good, the ultimate aid in attaining a life of ren or "humanity." Therefore, the truly humanistic person always keeps Tian in mind. Mozi (470-390) would expand upon Confucius' teachings, claiming Tian to be the absolute source of goodness, and the principle which differentiates between what is right and what its wrong. Tian brings what is recognized as beneficial and pleasing for all people in the world, particularly by way of people who seek its goodness through ritual activities such as sacrifice and prayer.

Lao Tzu, author of the Dao De Jing and acknowledged founder of Daoism, provided a more pantheistic concept to describe the principle which creates and sustains the world, which he called the Dao. Simply put, the Dao is the way: the ultimate, ineffable principle which contains the entirety of the universe, yet also embodies nothingness as its nature. It is all things, but it is also no particular thing. Thus, the Dao, in its totality, represents the central unifying metaphysical and naturalistic principle pervading the entire universe. While the Dao is indescribable and incapable of full human understanding, it is not altogether indiscernable. That is, if one can look beyond the surface of things, they can potentially begin to see the Way of the universe, and come to a realization of their own place as a product of and participant within this Way. The Dao is also responsible for creation, oscillating between two contrasting creative energies which exist in diametric opposition, the yin and the yang. The yin and the yang put in place the dualities which persist in the physical world. Therefore, the Dao, while not personalistic by any means, embodies many of the definitive traits of God in other traditions. Later on, more personalistic conceptions of divinity would arise. In the Daoist tradition which followed, Lao Tzu himself came to be viewed as the human incarnation of the Dao, and was venerated as a personal god. As well, numerous other people who followed the Dao were recognized as heavenly figures, or xians ("immortals"), and henceforth were acknowledged held a measure of supremacy in folk religious circles.

Names of God

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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 Hebrew Bible frequently uses the term Yahweh, from the Hebrew: 'YHVH' (יהוה) in order to refer to God. YHVH, also known as the Tetragrammaton, provides an unpronounceable 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", or "I am what I shall be," referring to His unconditional self-existence. Although Yahweh is the generally accepted name for God in the Hebrew Bible, Orthodox Judaism strenuously avoids mentioning or even writing the divine name, preferring such circumlocutions as "the Holy One," "the Name," or the defective writing "G-d."

"God" is of course the most common moniker for the supreme deity in Christianity. However, other terms are used, such as The Holy Trinity (meaning the Father, the Son (Christ), and the Holy Spirit/"Holy Ghost") which is used in almost all denominations of mainstream Christianity to refer to the "three-in-one" constituent parts of the penultimate God. Other churches use other definitions. In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, God is called Igzi'abihier (or the "Lord of the Universe"). Some churches such as the United Church of Canada and Religious Science) currently use the term "the One" alongside "God" as a more gender-neutral cognomen for God.

Allah is the term most commonly used in Islam, not as God's personal name, but as the equivalent of the Hebrew word El. "Allah" is Arabic for "the God", and is also used by non-Muslim Arabs. 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 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. If this theory is correct, then explains why Allah is by no means exclusive to Islam, and is commonly used by Arab Christians, Arab Jews, and Malteste Catholics (among others) in order to refer to the monotheist deity.

Among Hindus, there are two names for the supreme divinity: Brahman and Ishvara. Brahman, is (at best) described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, transcendent and immanent Reality that is the ground of all Being in this universe, as well as all of non-being. Ishvara (or Supreme Lord), the more popular form of God in Hinduism, is the term used for the personalistic God. Most Hindus worship the personal form of God, in its various roles of preserver Vishnu, destroyer Shiva, or the creator Brahma. A common prayer for Hindus is the Vishnu sahasranama, which is a hymn describing the one thousand names of God Permeating in the total creation. Ishvara should not be confused with the numerous deities of the Hindu pantheon.

Sikhs worship God with the name Akal (the Eternal) or Sat (truth). Help of the gurus is essential to reach God, who is conceived as the ultimate guru. Hence, Sikhs most frequently refer to God by the title Wahiguru (or "wonderful guru").

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, God has sometimes been referred to in feminine terms, such as "She" and "Her".

Images of God

The Creation of Adam, from the Sistine Chapel's ceiling

The world religions differ greatly on their views toward images of God; throughout history, depictions of god have been persecuted as often as they have been promoted. In general, many religions consider the creation and veneration of icons tantamount to the affirmation that God exists as a multiplicity, due the unavoidable variation in depictions as they are created by humans. This multiplicity found in images of God may be perceived as an affirmation of polytheism, and therefore as an idolotrous misrepresentation of the power of the one true God. Discontent with idolatry can lead to iconoclasm, the destruction of depictions of gods. One very early example of iconoclasm occured in Egypt during the 14th Century B.C.E. when pharaoh Akhenaten declared the solar God Aten to be solely supreme. Subsequently, Akhenaten demanded that images of gods other than Aten be destroyed. Some scholars have suggested that the Israelites may have been influenced by such a suspicion toward images of God during their bondage under the Egyptians.

The Hebrew Bible forbids the creation of images of God, as the Second Commandment explicitly states: "Thou shalt not make unto me any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above" (Exodus 20.4-5). This vehement refusal of divine portrayals is based in the covenant between God and Abraham described in Genesis where Abraham promises to spread faith in God alone. In order to do this, Abraham fervently denounces polytheism, going so far as to destroy the idols constructed by his father Terah, who worshiped multiple gods. With this in mind, contemporary Jews consider paintings, sculptures or drawings of God to be idolatrous. Some Conservative and Orthodox Jews do not even write the word "God" in full, as they consider its portrayal on destructible substances to be tantamount to desecration. Hence, the spelling "G-d" is considered by these Jews to be a more respectful representation of the divine.

Christianity in the Apostolic era maintained the thorough denunciation of images of God taught by the Jews. However, St. John of Damascus (676 – 749) would later claim that images of God in the form of Jesus should be permitted, as the person Jesus marks a shift in God's nature from invisible to visible. In the present day, depictions of god are common in Christianity, particularly in the form of Christ and sometimes even as the Heavenly Father. Both the Catholic and Orthodox churches have traditionally venerated images and icons of Christ (whom Christians believe to be the "second person of the Godhead" - "second person of the Holy Trinity"), as well as those of angels and saints. During the Protestant reformations, many reformers condemned such use of images as idolatrous. Some took drastic measures to suppress the use of images of the divine in worship, such as John Calvin (1509-1564), who commonly ordered that church walls be white-washed. Contemporary Protestant groups have softened their position toward the use of images, often accepting them for purposes of non-ritual activities such as teaching, so long as they are not used in worship.

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Islam does not allow pictorial representations of God. This image is Arabic calligraphy representing the name, Allah.

Islam strictly forbids the creation of any image of God. The manufacture of false idols falls under the scope the mortal sin termed shirk, which first appears in the Qu'ran and generally refers to any action or belief which does service to some force or entity other than the one God Allah. The second category of shirk is called Shirk in al-Asma was-Sifat (the Names and Attributes of Allah) and refers to the practice of confounding Allah with the attributes of His creation. By portraying Allah in the form and qualities of either human beings, animals, or other objects, one does not actually create an image of the divine, but rather creates a false idol, since Allah is irreconcilably beyond form. Thus, images of God are banned outright in most sects of Islam in order to reinforce absolute monotheism and to eliminate potential for idolatry.

Other religions are more accepting of the use of images and icons to depict the divine. Many sects of Hinduism accept icons to be necessary for human religious activity, since human experience is mediated by the senses. Therefore, humans utilize physical images as part of our focus on religious devotion and pursuit of realizing the one, supreme Ishvara without form. Many Hindus accept murti (or veneration of the divine through the representation provided by icons) as an important part of religious observance. Similarly, in schools of Mahayana Buddhism, Buddha is openly depicted in his human form, and henceforth, phenomenal images and statues of the Buddha have been created, as well as those of other venerated or enlightened beings. That said, some Hindu and Buddhist schools do not believe in creating images of the divine, believing such depictions detract from true spiritual awareness, which transcends all sensory forms.

Types of Belief about God

Given the vast number of concepts about God, religious scholars and theologians have created a number of classifications to describe them. These include:

• Theism describes the belief that God is both transcendent and immanent. Thus, God is infinite and ineffable, yet also present in the affairs of the world. God's immanence is attributed to miracles or revelations given to humanity (for example, holy scriptures), 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 personal, having human form and dynamic emotionality. Most theists hold that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and unfailingly benevolent, although this belief raises questions about how God relates to evil and suffering in the world. To remedy this difficulty, some theists ascribe to God a self-consciousness or else purposefully place limits upon His omnipotence, omniscience, and/or benevolence. Theism is by far the most common idea about God among believers in the Abrahamic religions.

• Deism developed in response to the cruel wars of religion that ravaged Europe in the seventeenth century. It rejects God's involvement in worldly affairs—i.e. to set up religions and give special revelations in scriptures—because these revelations and religions are incommensurate with one another. Rather, what can be known about God must be universal and accessible by reason. Deists like Voltaire in France compared God to a "watchmaker" who set the universe in motion but does not subsequently intervene in what transpires. All valid laws of morality and religion are expressions of the fundamental principle by which God created the universe, and not a special revelation to any particular church. Humans ought to be moral because the consequences of not doing so are built into the fabric of the universe just like the law of gravity. In this way, deism is highly reconcilable with scientific thought. On the other hand, there is no point in praying to God or asking for His help, for God has no interest in human beings aside from setting up a universe hospitable to them.

• Henotheism is the academic classification placed upon religious belief systems which accept or have accepted 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 the inferior gods gradually 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 that their definition of God is the sole correct one. Exclusionist monotheists of one religion can, and often do, consider the God or gods of religions other than their own to be false. For instance, some Christian fundamentalists consider all the gods of other religions to be demons in disguise, including even the monotheistic God of Islam. Others maintain an inclusionist view, accepting the possibility of more than one definition of God to be true at the same time and/or claiming that the one true God is worshipped in different religions under different names. Eastern religious believers and Liberal Christians are more likely to assume that adherents of other faiths worship the same God as they, albeit with different attributes due to cultural influences. Moreso than any other religious classification, monotheism has been conceived of by many religions as an "ideal" towards which all spiritual endeavour should strive, hence it is the classification which often plays the most significant role in discussions of God.

• Pantheism refers to the belief that God is the universe and the universe is God. In this system, God is fully immanent, imbuing all of reality with a spiritual basis, while simultaneously retaining status 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 do not describe God in personalistic terms, instead conceiving God to be the unconscious, non-sentient universe and the holy majesty its totality entails.

• Panentheism holds that God contains the Universe but is not identical to it; thus God existing beyond the universe as well as within it. Panentheism is often compared to pantheism, however, the panentheist God is both immanent and transcendent, as in Theism. In contrast to theism, the panentheist God is less likely to be personalistic. Despite the fact that the term has only recently come into currency within religious circles, pantheistic sentiments are actually quite common in religious movements, such as the Jewish mystic sect Kabbalah, the Liberal Catholic Church, Process theology, and many branches of Hinduism.

• Atheism refers most generally to a lack of belief in God or gods. The term has a variety of meanings ranging from a disbelief in certain conceptions of God (e.g., a personal God) to full-fledge denial that God exists. Such ideas have been present since antiquity. The hedonistic Carvaka school, which flourished in India between 600 B.C.E. and 1400 C.E., held that the only entities in existence were material, and that all the pleasures of life should be indulged since there was no possibility of god or afterlife to speak of. Similarly, in Greece during the 4th century B.C.E., philosopher Epicurus put forth the view that people should disavow faith in the gods and the notion of an afterlife in order to enjoy the immediate sensory pleasures.

During the Age of Enlightenment, atheism resurfaced as the philosophical position of a rapidly growing minority, led by the openly atheistic works of Paul Baron d'Holbach. In the 19th century, Ludwig Feuerbach claimed God was a fictional projection fabricated by humanity. This idea greatly influenced Karl Marx, the founding father of communism, who believed that laborers are given religion by their capitalist employers in order to mitigate the pain caused by the reality of their economic subordination. Atheism would become the official position of the various Communist states such as the USSR and China. Friedrich Nietzsche summed up the 19th century popularity of atheism when he coined the aphorism "God is dead." By the 20th century atheism had become common, as rationalism and secular humanism came in vogue, particularly among scientists.

Arguments for the Existence of God

The three most notable arguments for the existence of god in Western philosophy) are the ontological, cosmological and teleological arguments. The ontological argument, originally developed by Anselm of Canterbury (1034?-1109), claims that God must exist based on the simple fact that the human intellect can conceive of such a supreme power. In this proof, God is "that than which no greater can be conceived." This position was later reiterated with some modifications by philosophers René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz, among others.

The so-called cosmological argument was first suggested by Aristotle, who claimed that all being and movement cannot originate from nothing and therefore must have an original cause or impulsion. Hence, there must exist an "unmoved mover" who sets in motion the causal sequences of matter and being found within the world. Thirteenth century theologian St. Thomas Aquinas insisted that this First Cause must be God.

Aquinas also provided the foundations for the teleological argument or the "argument from design," which contends that the instances of order and purpose which can be witnessed within the natural world suggests it has been designed. There can be no such cosmic design without a Designer, also known as God. This position was elaborated by modern philosophers Frederick R. Tennant and Richard Swinburne, who claimed that the harmony observable within nature, as well as the breadth of the human mind which is capable of understanding and appreciating this harmony, proves the existence of a purposeful creator.

God as Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity has its basis in the New Testament, where the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are associated in the Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be seen together also in the apostolic benediction: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14). However, for the monotheistic religion of Christianity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three gods, as there is only one God.

Two theological movements sprang up in early Christianity in order to maintain God's three-fold manifestations while safeguarding monotheism, the unity of the Godhead. One was Modalistic Monarchianism, which taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three different successive modes of one and the same God. That is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are titles which describe how humanity has interacted with or had experiences with God. In the role of the Father, God is the provider and creator of all. In the mode of the Son, we experience God in the flesh, as a human, fully man and fully God. God manifests as the Holy Spirit by actions on earth and within the lives of Christians. This view is also known as Sabellianism, and was rejected as heresy by the Ecumenical Councils, although it is still prevalent today among certain Pentecostal Christian denominations. A second approach, Dynamic Monarchianism, defended the unity of the Godhead by saying that the Father alone is God, and that the Son and Holy Spirit are merely creatures. The Son as a created man received a power (dynamis in Greek) from the Father at the time of his baptism to be adopted as the Son of God.

In the eyes of many in the Church, both Monarchian schools were two extreme positions, and neither of them was acceptable. The orthodox position was articulated by Tertullian as a middle position between the two. Thus Trinitarianism maintains that the Father, Son, and Holy spirit are neither one and the same(Modalistic Monarchianism), nor separate (Dynamistic Monarchianism), but rather merely "distinct" from one another. To argue for the distinction of the three, which is neither sameness nor separateness, Tertullian used the expression "three persons (personae)." The Latin word persona in the days of Tertullian never meant a self-conscious individual person, which is what is usually meant by the modern English word "person." It only meant legal ownership, or a mask used at the theater, where one actor would wear different masks to signify the characters he played. Thus the three distinct persons are still of one substance (una substantia).

In 325, the Council of Nicaea declared that Jesus Christ, the son of God, consisted of the same substance as the Father. To these two was added the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of God in the world, at the Council of Constantinople. Since the 4th century C.E., in both Eastern and Western Christianity, the mainstream doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "One substance in three persons." The vast majority of Christians today are trinitarian.

Further explanations of the relationship of the three distinct divine persons of one and the same God include the "mutual indwelling" or interpenetration of the three, according to which one dwells as inevitably in the others as they do in the one. Following John 14:11, "I [Jesus] am in the Father and the Father in me," and 14:17, "The Spirit of truth... dwells with you, and will be in you," the persons of the Trinity "reciprocally contain one another, so that one permanently envelopes and is permanently enveloped by, the other whom he yet envelopes." The relationship of the three persons is further explained by differentiation of functions: creation, redemption, and sanctification are attributed primarily to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, respectively, even as all three persons are indivisibly involved in each.

Muslims, Jews, Unitarians, 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. They hold that God is only one "person" (so to speak), and often consider Trinitarian beliefs to be a form of polytheism. (Christians counter that this misunderstands the subtle and careful grasp of the One true God within trinitarian theology.)

On the other hand, some non-Christian religions also incorporate multiplicity into their concept of the One 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 recognize the Trimurti, a conception by which the three major gods (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) represent the three modes of the Supreme Deity as Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer (see below). Mahayana Buddhism developed the doctrine of the Trikaya, or three bodies of the Buddha: the Buddha's cosmic body, the eternal Dharmakaya, which is the substance of Enlightenment and Truth itself; the Sambhogakaya, the all-pervading compassion and wisdom of the Buddha which invites all people to salvation; and the incarnation of these principles in the historical Sakyamuni, called the Nirmanakaya. These doctrines can be seen as ways of dealing with some of the same theological problems that are addressed by Christian trinitarian doctrine: specifically how to bridge the gap between the ineffable God and his/her/its concrete manifestations in the world.

The Polarity of God

The monotheistic religions usually regard God as a dynamic deity, believing that God has two different poles: transcendence and immanence (or condescendence). The Hebrew Bible has God say on this: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isaiah 57:15). Also, while God talks to Moses of himself, "I am who I am," he at the same time states: "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you" (Exodus 3:12-13). As was seen in a previous section, the God of Israel, who should be transcendent from the human level, cares about the people of Israel and therefore makes a covenantal relationship with them. The Kabbalistic and Hasidic traditions seem to make the transcendent God even more accessible to the human level.

It goes without saying that Islam recognizes God's immanence as well as his radical transcendence. Sufism goes even further in appreciating the immanent side of God more than traditional Islam.

Christianity, too, understands this dynamic polarity of God. For example, Luke 2:14 says: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" Many Christian devotional writings such as liturgies, hymns, and meditations describe about the same thing. How about Christian theologians? According to St. Augustine, God is both high and humble at once. Martin Luther describes God both as the hidden God (deus absconditus) and the revealed God (deus revalatus). Following this Reformation tradition, Karl Barth recognizes two aspects of God: essence (freedom) and revelation (love), maintaining that while God in his essence is absolutely free from anything, he freely chooses to create the world to reveal himself to stay in love with it. Hendrikus Berkhof, a Dutch Reformed theologian, calls this polarity of God his "two-sidedness". Many Catholic theologians talk about of God in terms of the duality of "being" and "activity." Alfred North Whitehead's "dipolar theism" discusses God in terms of his transcendent "primordial" nature and immanent "consequent" nature, which are his "conceptual" and "physical" poles, respectively. According to this, while God in his conceptual pole envisages all possibilities for the world, he in his physical pole also incorporates data from the world in order to decide which of the possibilities are finally relevant to the world.

Peter L. Berger's The Other Side of God: A Polarity in World Religions refers to our experiences of God's transcendence and immanence generally as "confrontation" and "interiority," respectively, and reports that these two types of religious experiences can be found in all major religions including Hinduism and Buddhism.

From all this, one may realize that Christian classical theism's official understanding of God as immutable "pure act" or the "unmoved mover" is not necessarily universal, since it hardly appreciates the polarity of God.

The Gender of God

Recently there has been a number of religious movements which have attempted to restore the role of the feminine in conceiving of God. Wicca, for example, has focused upon the use of powers derived from numerous gods, particularly the Goddess, in order to execute magical procedures. Wiccans base this esteem for the feminine principle on the idea that such worship practices were prevalent in the world including Europe during the Middle Ages, but were repressed by patriarchal religious traditions which attempted to limit the balance of power allowed to women. Wicca, then, is seen as the current interation of a long-standing tradition of religious beliefs which acknowledge the Goddess as supreme. This line follows from an ancient shamanistic European tradition which worships the Mother Goddess in three aspects: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Goddess, then, becomes the focus of worship and liturgy in the Wiccan tradition.

The urge to reinvigorate the sense of god as woman has found its way into mainstream religion as well. Women in Christianity have begun to reconfigure the traditionally male conception of God, attempting to make it more feminine, both linguistically and theologically. Ruminations upon the feminine aspects of God have been dubbed theaology, based on the Greek root thea, or feminine conception of God as opposed to the masculine theos. Other depictions of a female Christ, often referred to as Christa, have also been produced. These terms have not necessarily been coined to change the conception of God and Christ to exclusively female in gender, but rather to illustrate the fact that male vocabulary has dominated conceptions of God throughout history, and that ideally the divine should transcend all statements of gender. Other Christian women have made similar assertions by associating Mary with the female nature of the divine, though Mary's unquestioning obedience to God as well as her virginity have been critiqued by some feminists as reinforcing the subordinate status of women.

Other feminist theologians, such as Rosemary Radford Reuther, have incorporated androgynous features to God in order to balance traditionally "male" and "female" virtues in the divine. Ruether refers to the supreme being by the gender-neutral term God/ess, and claims that this being must be that conceived of as both male and female, yet also neither male nor female. Androgyny may very well be the future of godly conceptions in the context of gender. As John Bowker has suggested, "Maybe the next step would be to abandon both theo- and thea- and speak instead of Deology; Latin is also gender specific (deus, dea), but both can be abandoned in speaking of Deo-."

The "Heart" of God

In traditions understand God as a being of love, God's everlasting love is not only "in general" but for each and every being, and for "me." All that exists both in the physical and in the spiritual realms exist in the purpose and "habitat" of love for "me." This focus on love is central to Christianity for example, as Christians understand through life-changing personal experience ("rebirth") that God not only "so loved the world," but so loved me "that He gave his only begotten son" to perish for my sake. (John 3:16).

Mystics and saints who live to plumb the depths of such love — and in so doing who recreate their own lives as similarly loving and sacrificial — have produced a wealth of literature and poetry that seek to capture and communicate Divine love. One reads in their devotions and transcendent rapture the overwhelming quality of even the most fleeting encounter with the true love of God. These writings are found among Christian saints such as Teresa of Avila and Islamic Sufi saints such as Rabi'a.

In keeping with this understanding of God as love, there arises a paradoxical intuition of God's vulnerability or even actual suffering. Piety insists that if God is truly love, then it must be the case that the miserable condition of this world, and our individual condition of brokenness and grief, must cause God unspeakable suffering. What then follows is an orientation to a God who is at once all-powerful yet all vulnerable, not by weakness but by choosing to never abandon love as all in all.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Arrington, Robert L. ed. A Companion to the Philosophers. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. ISBN 155786845
• Armstrong, K. A History of God. London: Vintage, 1999. ISBN 0-09-927367-5.
• Berman, D. (1990). A History of Atheism in Britain: from Hobbes to Russell. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04727-7
• Bowker, John. God: A Brief History. New York: DK Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-7894-8050-6
• Carr, Brian. "Shankara." In Robert L. Arrington, ed., 613-620.
• Carr, Indira Mahalingam. "Ramanuja." In Robert L. Arrington, ed., 609-612.
• Carr, Indira Mahalingam & Carr, Brian. "Madhva." In Robert L. Arrington, ed., 592-594.
• Church, F. Forrester, ed. The Essential Tillich Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
• Gimbutas, Marija. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. ISBN 0520213939
• Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0802860702
• "Idolatry." Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mercia Eliade. New York: MacMillan Publishing, 1987.
• Miles, Jack. God : A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1995.
• Myers, Michael W. Brahman: A Comparative Theology. Richmond UK: Curzon, 2001. ISBN 0700712577
• Pickover, Cliff. The Paradox of God and the Science of Omniscience. New York: Palgrave/St Martin's Press, 2001.
• Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Sexism and God-talk. Boston: Beacon Press, 1983. ISBN 0807011045
• Rohi, Rajinder Kaur. Semitic and Sikh Monotheism: A Comparative Study. Patiala, India: Punjabi University Publication Bureau, 1999. ISBN 8173805504
• Sjoo, M. & Mor, B. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991.
• "Systems of Religious and Spiritual Belief." The New Encyclopedia Britannica: Volume 26 Macropaedia. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2002. 530-577.
• Tapasyananda, Swami. Bhakti Schools of Vedanta. Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press and Catalog, 1991. ISBN 81-7120-226-8
• Thrower, James (1971). A Short History of Western Atheism. London: Pemberton. ISBN 0-310-71101-1

See also

• Atheism
• Agnosticism
• Deism
• God, Arguments for the Existence of
• Monotheism
• Pantheism
• Polytheism
• Theism

External links

• Dwyer, Francis (2005). "Theologian Elections"
• Draye, Hani (2004). Concept of God in Islam. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Aish HaTorah (2003).
• Binitarian View: One God, Two Beings from Before the Beginning Updated 10/05
• Jewish Literacy. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Preston, Gregory (2005). Seeking Divine Guidance & Concepts of God.
• Nicholls, David (2004). DOES GOD EXIST?. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Salgia, Amar (1997)Creator-God and Jainism Retrieved October 18 2005.
• shaivam.org (2004). Hindu Concept of God. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Schlecht, Joel (2004). The God Particle. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2004). Moral Arguments for the Existence of God. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2005). God and Other Necessary Beings. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• Students of Shari'ah (2005). Proof Of Creator. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• The Freethought Zone (2000). Arguments for Atheism. Retrieved June 26 2005.
• All About God (2002). God - Scientific & Philosophical Arguments for God. Retrieved September 9 2005.
• Journal of Religion and Society (2005). Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies: A First Look

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Theological conceptions

Based upon the witness of Scripture, theologians have sought to arrive at more systematic conceptualizations of God. Commonly attributed to God are absoluteness, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, and other superlative qualities. In much religious and philosophic thought, God is considered the creator (or certainly at least "origin") 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 bearing some anthropomorphic traits, such as a particular gender, name, and sometimes even ethnic background. In other cases, God may be Supreme but not necessarily a Being, instead conceived of as an ambiguous impersonal force or philosophical concept. For example, the concept of God is sometimes embedded in definitions of abstractions such as truth, wherein the sum of all truth is equated to God.

Definitions of God also concern dynamics withing the relationship between humans and god, and by extension god and the physical world. Many traditions hold that the creator is also the sustainer active in the maintenance of worldly affairs through revelation and divine intervention, a position generally characteristic of classical theism. In contrast, others argue that God created the world but is no longer involved within it after creation, a position popularly attributed to deism.

God is often considered the singular spiritual force in the universe. This conception is characteristic of monotheism, but the understanding of the term varies greatly between religions and therefore a universal definition is impossible. For instance, many believers from 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 some of these traditions, the primary God may exists in relation to other gods, maintaining supremacy over the other deities (as in henotheism). In other faiths, God is considered the only transcendent, spiritual entity in the universe, and the acknowledgment of any other such beings is considered polytheistic. Additionally, god may exist separately from forces outside of His/Her purview, such as evil. With that said, not all systems conceive of God as morally perfected. While some conceptions hold that God is the very definition of moral goodness, others maintain that God is beyond morality. The Christian thinker Søren Kierkegaard famously inquired into this latter conundrum.

Clearly, not all combinations of attributes remain coherent when put together into a functional concept of God, and this has been cause for much debate among theologians in many traditions. For example, if God is both Creator and the Ultimate Judge of who and what is infinitely good, and (S)He created all people, including those who would become atheists and pagans, knowing very well (omniscience) what kind of people they would be. If (S)He then punishes such individuals with eternal damnation, this God cannot also be labeled as "good". Some faiths overcome such difficulties by making god responsible for good as well as evil, as has been interpreted by some to be a position in Zoroastrianism. In other cases, no claim is made that God is fully perfect, as in Process philosophy, where god's identity is understood as continually unfolding.

Despite all of these possible traits, some philosophers do not so readily attribute definitions and characteristics to God, as in Negative theology or via negativa, which argues that God is ineffable, thus statements about God never reach the fullness of being true. Negative theologians argue that we grow ever closer in our understanding of God, by systematically and rigorously paring away the inaccuracies inherent in each statement about God. Agnosticism differs from Negative theology in that it describes a person's inability to decide conclusively if God "exists." The only similarity agnosticism has with Negative theology is that both positions argue that limited human understanding precludes any possibility for conclusive knowledge, understanding, or accurate statements about God. Further, there are definitions which actually deny the "existence" of God, such as Paul Tillich's theology which states that god is the ground of being, and as such can not be said to exist in same the context of all finite beings in existence. This latter level of theology is nuanced and refined. Tillich's "God does not "exist," is not atheism.

There are also atheistic explanations for the widespread belief in God, claiming that the concept arises within the human imagination. These explanations often construe God as a function of psychological and/or sociological factors. Thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuerbach claim that God is merely a psychological projection of what all humans want to be, institutionalized into formal religious elements. Others, such as sociologist Emile Durkheim, see the projection as having a social function, claiming that the purpose of the concept of a supreme being is to bond groups in the act of communal worship toward the representative totem. According to Durkheim, this totem is again a projection which in this case serves to symbolize the tribe. Therefore, God is merely the collective projection of the clan. Essentially the clan worships itself.

The rise of philosophically sophisticated rejection of God gives rise to a community of thinkers who imagine it is possible to prove the existence of God. One such community exists in the Logical positivism school. And there are many others. Apart from such efforts it is usually the case that when pressed or carefully observed, those who argue against the existence of God, usually have something functioning in that capacity in their lives.