1.
God
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In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith. The concept of God as described by most theologians includes the attributes of omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, many theologians also describe God as being omnibenevolent and all loving. Furthermore, some religions attribute only a purely grammatical gender to God, incorporeity and corporeity of God are related to conceptions of transcendence and immanence of God, with positions of synthesis such as the immanent transcendence of Chinese theology. God has been conceived as personal or impersonal. In theism, God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, while in deism, God is the creator, in pantheism, God is the universe itself. In atheism, God is not believed to exist, while God is deemed unknown or unknowable within the context of agnosticism, God has also been conceived as the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable existent. Many notable philosophers have developed arguments for and against the existence of God, there are many names for God, and different names are attached to different cultural ideas about Gods identity and attributes. In the ancient Egyptian era of Atenism, possibly the earliest recorded monotheistic religion, this deity was called Aten, premised on being the one true Supreme Being and creator of the universe. In the Hebrew Bible and Judaism, He Who Is, I Am that I Am, in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, God, consubstantial in three persons, is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Judaism, it is common to refer to God by the titular names Elohim or Adonai, in Islam, the name Allah is used, while Muslims also have a multitude of titular names for God. In Hinduism, Brahman is often considered a concept of God. In Chinese religion, God is conceived as the progenitor of the universe, intrinsic to it, other religions have names for God, for instance, Baha in the Baháí Faith, Waheguru in Sikhism, and Ahura Mazda in Zoroastrianism. The earliest written form of the Germanic word God comes from the 6th-century Christian Codex Argenteus, the English word itself is derived from the Proto-Germanic * ǥuđan. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form * ǵhu-tó-m was likely based on the root * ǵhau-, in the English language, the capitalized form of God continues to represent a distinction between monotheistic God and gods in polytheism. The same holds for Hebrew El, but in Judaism, God is also given a proper name, in many translations of the Bible, when the word LORD is in all capitals, it signifies that the word represents the tetragrammaton. Allāh is the Arabic term with no plural used by Muslims and Arabic speaking Christians and Jews meaning The God, Ahura Mazda is the name for God used in Zoroastrianism. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhā, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European mn̩sdʰeh1, literally meaning placing ones mind, Waheguru is a term most often used in Sikhism to refer to God
2.
Agnosticism
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Agnosticism is the philosophical view that the existence of God or the supernatural are unknown and unknowable. Agnosticism is a doctrine or set of rather than a religion. English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, the Nasadiya Sukta in the Rigveda is agnostic about the origin of the universe. Agnosticism is of the essence of science, whether ancient or modern and it simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe. Consequently, agnosticism puts aside not only the part of popular theology. On the whole, the bosh of heterodoxy is more offensive to me than that of orthodoxy, because heterodoxy professes to be guided by reason and science, and orthodoxy does not. Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, positively the principle may be expressed, In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration. And negatively, In matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable, being a scientist, above all else, Huxley presented agnosticism as a form of demarcation. A hypothesis with no supporting objective, testable evidence is not an objective, as such, there would be no way to test said hypotheses, leaving the results inconclusive. His agnosticism was not compatible with forming a belief as to the truth, or falsehood, karl Popper would also describe himself as an agnostic. Others have redefined this concept, making it compatible with forming a belief, george H. Smith rejects agnosticism as a third alternative to theism and atheism and promotes terms such as agnostic atheism and agnostic theism. Agnostic was used by Thomas Henry Huxley in a speech at a meeting of the Metaphysical Society in 1869 to describe his philosophy, early Christian church leaders used the Greek word gnosis to describe spiritual knowledge. Agnosticism is not to be confused with religious views opposing the ancient religious movement of Gnosticism in particular, Huxley used the term in a broader, Huxley identified agnosticism not as a creed but rather as a method of skeptical, evidence-based inquiry. In recent years, scientific literature dealing with neuroscience and psychology has used the word to mean not knowable, in technical and marketing literature, agnostic can also mean independence from some parameters—for example, platform agnostic or hardware agnostic. Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume contended that meaningful statements about the universe are always qualified by some degree of doubt and he asserted that the fallibility of human beings means that they cannot obtain absolute certainty except in trivial cases where a statement is true by definition. A strong agnostic would say, I cannot know whether a deity exists or not, a weak agnostic would say, I dont know whether any deities exist or not, but maybe one day, if there is evidence, we can find something out. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. Agnostic thought, in the form of skepticism, emerged as a philosophical position in ancient Greece
3.
Apatheism
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Apatheism is the philosophical view that one should be apathetic towards the existence or non-existence of god. It is more of a rather than a belief, claim or belief system. An apatheist is someone who is not interested in accepting or rejecting any claims that gods exist or do not exist, an apatheist may thus decide to live as if there are no gods. The existence of god is not rejected, but may be designated irrelevant, philosopher Trevor Hedberg has called apatheism uncharted territory in the philosophy of religion. One version considers the question of the existence or nonexistence of deities to be irrelevant in every way that matters. The existence of gods is not put aside for moral or epistemic reasons – for democratic or existential reasons, it is deemed unnecessary. This is a universalization of the democratic principle that there are no first- and second-class humans. In this version the existence of the gods is not one of the so-called grand questions in life. The term apatheist is believed to have come into use in the early 2000s, journalist Jonathan Rauch has claimed to be an apatheist. An apatheist may not have any interest in the god debate just purely because of their lack of interest on the topic, being all-powerful, if they truly wanted humans to believe, they could send a divine sign not left up to interpretation. This is also an argument with antitheists, Matt Dillahunty makes it with great frequency. Since they do not seem to care if humans believe or not, apatheists will not care until they show them a reason to, richard Dawkins has gone so far as to claim this position in interviews. Therefore, their existence has little to no impact on human affairs. It can be summarized by the statement I dont know and I dont care, the view that one should live their life with disregard towards a god or gods. Practical atheism doesnt see the god question as irrelevant, in contrast to apatheism, practical atheism Cosmic indifferentism Creator in Buddhism Indifferentism Nontheism Postchristianity Post-theism Von Hegner, Ian. Gods and Dictatorships, A Defence of Heroical Apatheism, Science, Religion and Culture, Vol.3, Issue 1,2016. Let It Be, Three Cheers for Apatheism Apatheism, Allognosticism, and the American Religious Landscape Apatheism defined on Atheism. about. com ABC New Radio, wordwatch, Apatheism Apathetic Agnostics
4.
Atheism
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Atheism is, in the broadest sense, the absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is the rejection of belief that any deities exist, in an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists, the etymological root for the word atheism originated before the 5th century BCE from the ancient Greek ἄθεος, meaning without god. The term denoted a social category created by orthodox religionists into which those who did not share their religious beliefs were placed, the actual term atheism emerged first in the 16th century. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope, the first individuals to identify themselves using the word atheist lived in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. The French Revolution, noted for its unprecedented atheism, witnessed the first major movement in history to advocate for the supremacy of human reason. Arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to social and historical approaches, although some atheists have adopted secular philosophies, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere. Since conceptions of atheism vary, accurate estimations of current numbers of atheists are difficult, an older survey by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2004 recorded atheists as comprising 8% of the worlds population. Other older estimates have indicated that atheists comprise 2% of the worlds population, according to these polls, Europe and East Asia are the regions with the highest rates of atheism. In 2015, 61% of people in China reported that they were atheists, the figures for a 2010 Eurobarometer survey in the European Union reported that 20% of the EU population claimed not to believe in any sort of spirit, God or life force. Atheism has been regarded as compatible with agnosticism, and has also been contrasted with it, a variety of categories have been used to distinguish the different forms of atheism. Some of the ambiguity and controversy involved in defining atheism arises from difficulty in reaching a consensus for the definitions of words like deity, the plurality of wildly different conceptions of God and deities leads to differing ideas regarding atheisms applicability. The ancient Romans accused Christians of being atheists for not worshiping the pagan deities, gradually, this view fell into disfavor as theism came to be understood as encompassing belief in any divinity. Definitions of atheism also vary in the degree of consideration a person must put to the idea of gods to be considered an atheist, Atheism has sometimes been defined to include the simple absence of belief that any deities exist. This broad definition would include newborns and other people who have not been exposed to theistic ideas, as far back as 1772, Baron dHolbach said that All children are born Atheists, they have no idea of God. Similarly, George H. Smith suggested that, The man who is unacquainted with theism is an atheist because he does not believe in a god. This category would include the child with the conceptual capacity to grasp the issues involved. The fact that this child does not believe in god qualifies him as an atheist, ernest Nagel contradicts Smiths definition of atheism as merely absence of theism, acknowledging only explicit atheism as true atheism
5.
Deism
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Deism is a philosophical position which posits that a god does not interfere directly with the world. Deism gained prominence among intellectuals during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in Britain, France, Germany, included in those influenced by its ideas were leaders of the American and French Revolutions. These lead to many subdivisions of modern deism which tends, therefore, Deism is a theological theory concerning the relationship between the Creator and the natural world. Deistic viewpoints emerged during the revolution of 17th Century Europe. Deism stood between the narrow dogmatism of the period and skepticism, though deists rejected atheism, they often were called atheists by more traditional theists. There were a number of different forms in the 17th and 18th Centuries, in England, deism included a range of people from anti-Christian to non-Christian theists. See the section Features of deism, following, Deism is related to naturalism because it credits the formation of life and the universe to a higher power, using only natural processes. Deism may also include an element, involving experiences of God. The words deism and theism are both derived from words for god, the former from Latin deus, the latter from Greek theós, prior to the 17th Century the terms were used interchangeably with the terms theism and theist, respectively. Theologians and philosophers of the 17th Century began to give a different signification to the words, both asserted belief in one supreme God, the Creator. Perhaps the first use of the term deist is in Pierre Virets Instruction Chrétienne en la doctrine de la foi et de lÉvangile, Viret, a Calvinist, regarded deism as a new form of Italian heresy. I have heard there are of this band those who call themselves Deists, an entirely new word. In England, the term deist first appeared in Robert Burtons The Anatomy of Melancholy, Lord Herbert of Cherbury is generally considered the father of English Deism, and his book De Veritate the first major statement of deism. Deism flourished in England between 1690 and 1740, at which time Matthew Tindals Christianity as Old as the Creation, also called The Deists Bible, later deism spread to France, notably through the work of Voltaire, to Germany, and to the United States. The concept of deism covers a variety of positions on a wide variety of religious issues. Sir Leslie Stephens English Thought in the Eighteenth Century describes the core of deism as consisting of critical and constructional elements, critical elements of deist thought included, Rejection of religions that are based on books that claim to contain the revealed word of God. Rejection of religious dogma and demagogy, Skepticism of reports of miracles, prophecies and religious mysteries. Constructional elements of deist thought included, God exists and created the universe, God gave humans the ability to reason
6.
Henotheism
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Henotheism is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker used it to depict primordial monotheism among ancient Greeks, Friedrich Schelling coined the term henotheism, from heis which literally means single, one. The term refers to a form of theism focused on a single god, related terms are monolatrism and kathenotheism. The latter term is an extension of henotheism, from καθ ἕνα θεόν — one god at a time, Henotheism refers to a pluralistic theology wherein different deities are viewed to be of a unitary, equivalent divine essence. Another term related to henotheism is equitheism, referring to the belief that all gods are equal, further, the term henotheism does not exclude monism, nondualism or dualism. Various scholars prefer the term monolatry to henotheism, to discuss religions where a god is central. According to Christoph Elsas, henotheism in modern usage connotes a syncretic stage in the development of religions in late antiquity. A henotheist may worship a god from a pantheon of deities at a given time, depending on his or her choice, while accepting other deities. Henotheism and inclusive monotheism are terms that refer to a position between unlimited polytheism and exclusive monotheism. Ahura Mazda is the god, but Zoroastrianism does not deny other deities. Ahura Mazda has yazatas some of which include Anahita, Sraosha, Mithra, Rashnu, Richard Foltz has put forth evidence that Iranians of Pre-Islamic era worshiped all these figures, especially Mithra and Anahita. Prods Oktor Skjærvø states Zoroastrianism is henotheistic, and a dualistic and polytheistic religion, but with one supreme god, who is the father of the ordered cosmos. Other scholars state that this is unclear, because historic texts present a picture, ranging from Zoroastrianisms belief in one god. Henotheism was the used by scholars such as Max Muller to describe the theology of Vedic religion. The Vedic era conceptualization of the divine or the One, states Jeaneane Fowler, is more abstract than a monotheistic God, it is the Reality behind and of the phenomenal universe. The Vedic hymns treat it as limitless, indescribable, absolute principle, an example of the questioning of the concept of God, in addition to henotheistic hymns found therein, are in later portions of the Rigveda, such as the Nasadiya Sukta. Hinduism calls the metaphysical absolute concept as Brahman, incorporating within it the transcendent and immanent reality, different schools of thought interpret Brahman as either personal, impersonal or transpersonal. Ishwar Chandra Sharma describes it as Absolute Reality, beyond all dualities of existence and non-existence, light and darkness, while Greek and Roman religion began as polytheism, during the Classical period, under the influence of philosophy, differing conceptions emerged
7.
Monotheism
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Monotheism has been defined as the belief in the existence of only one god that created the world, is all-powerful and interferes in the world. Another, more broad definition of monotheism, is the belief in one god, a distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform monotheism which, while recognising various distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity. There are also monotheistic parody religions, such as Pastafarianism, the word monotheism comes from the Greek μόνος meaning single and θεός meaning god. The English term was first used by Henry More, according to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition, monotheism was the original religion of humanity. Scholars of religion largely abandoned that view in the 19th century in favour of a progression from animism via polytheism to monotheism. Austrian anthropologist Wilhelm Schmidt had postulated an Urmonotheismus, original or primitive monotheism in the 1910s and it was objected that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam had grown up in opposition to polytheism as had Greek philosophical monotheism. Some writers believe that the concept of monotheism sees a gradual development out of notions of henotheism and monolatrism, quasi-monotheistic claims of the existence of a universal deity date to the Late Bronze Age, with Akhenatens Great Hymn to the Aten. A possible inclination towards monotheism emerged during the Vedic period in Iron-Age South Asia, the Rigveda exhibits notions of monism of the Brahman, in particular, in the comparatively late tenth book, dated to the early Iron Age, e. g. in the Nasadiya sukta. While all adherents of the Abrahamic religions consider themselves to be monotheists, Judaism does not consider Christianity to be monotheistic, Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. God in Judaism is strictly monotheistic, a one, indivisible. The Babylonian Talmud references other, foreign gods as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality, One of the best-known statements of Rabbinical Judaism on monotheism is the Second of Maimonides 13 Principles of faith, God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species, nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity. Judaism and Islam reject the Christian idea of monotheism, Judaism uses the term shituf to refer to the worship of God in a manner which Judaism does not deem to be monotheistic. During the 8th century BCE, the worship of YHWH in Israel was in competition with other cults. Some scholars hypothesize that Judaism was originally a form of monolatrism or henotheism, in this hypothesis both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah had YHWH as their state god, while also acknowledging the existence of other gods. Shema Yisrael are the first two words of a section of the Torah, and is the title of a prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the service in Judaism. It is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, despite at least one earlier local synod rejecting the claim of Arius, this Christological issue was to be one of the items addressed at the First Council of Nicaea
8.
Monism
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Monism is the view that attributes oneness or singleness to a concept. Substance monism is the view that a variety of existing things can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. Another definition states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them and this is often termed priority monism, and is the view that only one thing is ontologically basic or prior to everything else. Another distinction is the difference between substance and existence monism, or stuff monism and thing monism, substance monism posits that only one kind of stuff exists, although many things may be made out of this stuff. Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there only a single thing. The restricted definition, this not only unity of origin. Although the term monism is derived from Western philosophy to typify positions in the mind–body problem, in modern Hinduism, the term absolute monism is being used for Advaita Vedanta. The mind–body problem in philosophy examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain and it was later also applied to the theory of absolute identity set forth by Hegel and Schelling. Thereafter the term was more used, for any theory postulating a unifying principle. The opponent thesis of dualism also was broadened, to include pluralism, according to Urmson, as a result of this extended use, the term is systematically ambiguous. According to Jonathan Schaffer, monism lost popularity due to the emergence of Analytic philosophy in the twentieth century. Carnap and Ayer, who were proponents of positivism, ridiculed the whole question as incoherent mysticism. Monism is also relevant to the philosophy of mind, where various positions are defended. g. Metaphysical nihilism, negates any of the above categories, eliminative Materialism, according to which everything is physical and mental things do not exist b. Moreover, they do not define the meaning of real, while the lack of information makes it difficult in some cases to be sure of the details, the following pre-Socratic philosophers thought in monistic terms, Thales, Water. Reality is some, one thing, but we know what. Parmenides argued that Being or Reality is a perfect sphere, unchanging. Neopythagorians such as Apollonius of Tyana centered their cosmologies on the Monad or One, Stoics taught that there is only one substance, identified as God
9.
Panpsychism
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In philosophy, panpsychism is the view that consciousness, mind or soul is a universal and primordial feature of all things. Panpsychists see themselves as minds in a world of mind, Panpsychism is one of the oldest philosophical theories, and has been ascribed to philosophers like Thales, Parmenides, Plato, Averroes, Spinoza, Leibniz and William James. Panpsychism can also be seen in ancient philosophies such as Stoicism, Taoism, Vedanta, during the 19th century, panpsychism was the default theory in philosophy of mind, but it saw a decline during the middle years of the 20th century with the rise of logical positivism. The recent interest in the problem of consciousness has revived interest in panpsychism. The term panpsychism has its origins with the Greek term pan and psyche as the center of the mental life of us humans. Psyche comes from the Greek word ψύχω and can mean life, soul, mind, spirit, heart, early forms of panpsychism can be found in pre-modern animistic beliefs in religions such as Shinto, Taoism, Paganism and shamanism. Panpsychist views are also a theme in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy. According to Aristotle, Thales the first Greek philosopher, posited a theory which held that everything is full of gods, Thales believed that this was demonstrated by magnets. This has been interpreted as a panpsychist doctrine, other Greek thinkers that have been associated with Panpsychism include Anaxagoras, Anaximenes and Heraclitus. Plato argues for Panpsychism in his Sophist, in which he writes that all things participate in the form of Being, in the Philebus and Timaeus, Plato argues for the idea of a world soul or anima mundi. According to Plato, This world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul, a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. Stoicism developed a cosmology which held that the world was infused with a divine fiery essence called Pneuma. The relationship of the individual Logos of beings with the universal Logos was a concern of the Roman Stoic Marcus Aurelius. The Metaphysics of Stoicism was based on Hellenistic philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism also made use of the Platonic idea of the Anima mundi, after the closing of Platos Academy by the Emperor Justinian in 529 CE, Neoplatonism declined. Though there were mediaeval Christian thinkers who ventured what might be called panpsychist ideas, cardano argued for the view that soul or anima was a fundamental part of the world and Patrizi introduced the actual term panpsychism into the philosophical vocabulary. According to Giordano Bruno, There is nothing that does not possess a soul, platonist ideas like the anima mundi also resurfaced in the work of esoteric thinkers like Paracelsus, Robert Fludd and Cornelius Agrippa. In the 17th century, two rationalists can be said to be panpsychists, Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, in Spinozas monism, the one single infinite and eternal substance was God, or Nature which has the aspects of mind and matter. Leibniz view is there are an infinite number of absolutely simple mental substances called monads which make up the fundamental structure of the universe
10.
Pantheism
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Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Pantheistic concepts may date back thousands of years, and some religions in the East continue to contain pantheistic elements, Pantheism derives from the Greek πᾶν pan and θεός theos. There are a variety of definitions of pantheism, some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God. As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism, from this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of early Gnostic groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the Middle Ages. These included a section of Johannes Scotus Eriugenas 9th-century work De divisione naturae, the Roman Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy. Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and he has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science. Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, in the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi Portuguese origin, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes famous dualist theory that the body, Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a God-intoxicated man, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance, although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. His work, Ethics, was the source from which Western pantheism spread. The breadth and importance of Spinozas work was not fully realized until years after his death. Spinozas magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers, Hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23
11.
Polytheism
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Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did
12.
Conceptions of God
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The first recordings that survive of monotheistic conceptions of God, borne out of henotheism and monism, are from the Hellenistic period. 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. God, according to Aristotle, is in a state of stasis untouched by change, the unmoved mover is very unlike the conception of God that one sees in most religions. It has been likened to a person who is playing dominos and pushes one of them over, so every other domino in the set is pushed over as well. The All is the Hermetic version of God and it has also been called The One, The Great One, The Creator, The Supreme Mind, The Supreme Good, The Father and The Universal Mother. The All is seen by some to be a panentheistic conception of God, One Hermetic maxim states that While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in All. The All can also be seen to be hermaphroditic, possessing both masculine and feminine qualities in equal part and these qualities are, however, of mental gender, as The All lacks physical sex. According to The Kybalion, The All is more complicated than simply being the sum total of the universe. Rather than The All being simply the physical universe, it is said that everything in the universe is within the mind of The All, since The All can be looked at as Mind itself. The Alls mind is thought to be more powerful and vast than humans can possibly achieve. The Kybalion states that nothing can be outside of The All or The All would not be The All, the All may also be a metaphor alluding to the godhead potentiality of every individual. That invisible power which all know does exist, but understood by different names, such as God, Spirit, Supreme Being, Intelligence, Mind, Energy, Nature. In the Hermetic Tradition, each and every person has the potential to become God, the All is also an allusion to the observer created universe. We create our own reality, hence we are the architect, another way would to be to say that the mind is the builder. Freemasonry often includes concepts of God as an entity, however, esoteric masonic teachings clearly identify God as the individual himself. We are all God and as such we create our own reality, although others believe God to be abstract. Meaning he is not seen in reality, but understood through deep contemplation and he is all around us everyday, just hiding in the miracles and beauty of our Earth. Judaism, Christianity and Islam see God as a being who created the world, God is usually held to have the following properties, holiness, justice, sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience, benevolence and omnipresence
13.
Demiurge
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In the Platonic, Neopythagorean, Middle Platonic, and Neoplatonic schools of philosophy, the demiurge is an artisan-like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe. The term was adopted by the Gnostics, depending on the system, they may be considered to be either uncreated and eternal, or considered to be the product of some other entity. The philosophical usage and the proper noun derive from Platos Timaeus, written c.360 BC and this is accordingly the definition of the demiurge in the Platonic and Middle Platonic philosophical traditions. In the various branches of the Neoplatonic school, the demiurge is the fashioner of the real, perceptible world after the model of the Ideas, Plato, as the speaker Timaeus, refers to the Demiurge frequently in the Socratic dialogue Timaeus, c.360 BC. The main character refers to the Demiurge as the entity who fashioned and shaped the material world, Timaeus describes the Demiurge as unreservedly benevolent, and hence desirous of a world as good as possible. The world remains imperfect, however, because the Demiurge created the world out of a chaotic, Platos work Timaeus is a philosophical reconciliation of Hesiods cosmology in his Theogony, syncretically reconciling Hesiod to Homer. In Numeniuss Neo-Pythagorean and Middle Platonist cosmogony, the Demiurge is second God as the nous or thought of intelligibles and sensibles, Plotinus and the later Platonists worked to clarify the Demiurge. To Plotinus, the second emanation represents a second cause. In order to reconcile Aristotelian with Platonian philosophy, Plotinus metaphorically identified the demiurge within the pantheon of the Greek Gods as Zeus, the first and highest aspect of God is described by Plato as the One, the source, or the Monad. This is the God above the Demiurge, and manifests through the work of the Demiurge, the Monad emanated the demiurge or Nous from its indeterminate vitality due to the monad being so abundant that it overflowed back onto itself, causing self-reflection. This self-reflection of the indeterminate vitality was referred to by Plotinus as the Demiurge or creator, the second principle is organization in its reflection of the nonsentient force or dynamis, also called the one or the Monad. Plotinus form of Platonic idealism is to treat the Demiurge, nous as the contemplative faculty within man which orders the force into conscious reality. In this he claimed to reveal Platos true meaning, a doctrine he learned from Platonic tradition that did not appear outside the academy or in Platos text. This tradition of creator God as nous, can be validated in the works of philosophers such as Numenius. Before Numenius of Apamea and Plotinus Enneads, no Platonic works ontologically clarified the Demiurge from the allegory in Platos Timaeus. The idea of Demiurge was, however, addressed before Plotinus in the works of Christian writer Justin Martyr who built his understanding of the Demiurge on the works of Numenius. The figure of the Demiurge emerges in the theoretic of Iamblichus, here, at the summit of this system, the Source and Demiurge coexist via the process of henosis. The One is further separated into spheres of intelligence, the first and superior sphere is objects of thought, then within this intellectual triad Iamblichus assigns the third rank to the Demiurge, identifying it with the perfect or Divine nous with the intellectual triad being promoted to a hebdomad
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Deus
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Deus is Latin for god or deity. Latin deus and dīvus divine, are descended from Proto-Indo-European *deiwos, celestial or shining, from the root as *Dyēus. In Classical Latin, deus was a noun referring to a deity, while in technical usage a divus or diva was a figure who had become divine. In Late Latin, Deus came to be used mostly for the Christian God and it was inherited by the Romance languages in French Dieu, Spanish Dios, Portuguese and Galician Deus, Italian Dio, etc. and by the Celtic languages in Welsh Duw and Irish Dia. Latin deus consistently translates Greek θεός theos in both the Vetus Latina and Jeromes Vulgate, in the Septuagint, Greek theos in turn renders Hebrew Elohim. Arthur C. Clarke picks up this usage in his novel 3001, william Blake said of the Deists that they worship the Deus of the Heathen, The God of This World, & the Goddess Nature, Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Druid Dragon & hidden Harlot. In Cartesian philosophy, the deus deceptor is sometimes used to discuss the possibility of an evil God that seeks to deceive us. This character is related to an argument as to how much we can really know if an evil demon were attempting to thwart our knowledge. Another is the deus otiosus, a concept used to describe the belief in a creator god who largely retires from the world and is no longer involved in its daily operation. A similar concept is that of the deus absconditus of Thomas Aquinas, both refer to a deity whose existence is not readily knowable by humans through either contemplation or examination of divine actions. Nobiscum deus was a cry of the late Roman Empire. The name Amadeus translates to for love of God, the genitive/dative dei occurs in such phrases as Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, Agnus Dei and Dei Gratia
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God the Father
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God the Father is a title given to God in various religions, most prominently in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person God the Son and the third person God the Holy Spirit. Since the second century, Christian creeds included affirmation of belief in God the Father, primarily as his capacity as Father and creator of the universe. While a religious teacher in one faith may be able to explain the concepts to his own audience with ease, many believe they can communicate with God and come closer to him through prayer – a key element of achieving communion with God. For instance, after completing his monumental work Summa Theologica, Catholic St. Thomas Aquinas concluded that he had not yet begun to understand ‘God the Father’. Although God is never addressed as Mother, at times motherly attributes may be interpreted in Old Testament references such as Isa 42,14, Isa 49, 14–15 or Isa 66. This passage clearly acknowledges the Jewish teachings on the uniqueness of God, over time, the Christian doctrine began to fully diverge from Judaism through the teachings of the Church Fathers in the second century and by the fourth century belief in the Trinity was formalized. Judaism In Judaism, God is described as Father as he is seen as the one, indivisible and incomparable, transcendent, immanent. The God in Judaism is the giver of the shabbath and the torahs—written, oral, mystical—to his chosen people. In Judaism, the use of the Father title is generally a metaphor, referring to the role as Life-giver and Law-giver, and is one of many titles by which Jews speak of and to God. The Jewish concept of God is similar to the Christian view, being that Christianity has Jewish roots, though there are some differences, and also the concept of God the Father in Biblical Judaism is generally more metaphorical. Islam The Islamic concept of God differs from the Christian and Jewish views, the father is not formally applied to God by Muslims. Also Muslims believe God is Wali, Wali means custodian, protector and helper. In Quran 9,23, Allah is more preferred to Father, also, Allah is called as Rahim. Rahim means both Merciful, Compassionate and Womb, Uterus Baháí Faith In the Baháí faith God is also addressed as father. Since the second century, creeds in the Western Church have included affirmation of belief in God the Father, the primary reference being to God in his capacity as Father and creator of the universe. This did not exclude either the fact the father of the universe was also the Father of Jesus the Christ or that he had even vouchsafed to adopt as his son by grace. Tertullian also discussed how the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, while the expression from the Father through the Son is also found among them
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Great Architect of the Universe
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The Great Architect of the Universe is a conception of God discussed by many Christian theologians and apologists. As a designation it is used within Freemasonry to represent deity neutrally and it is also a Rosicrucian conception of God, as expressed by Max Heindel. The concept of the demiurge as an architect or a great architect also occurs in gnosticism and other religious. The concept of God as the Architect of the Universe has been employed many times in Christianity. An illustration of God as the architect of the universe can be found in a Bible from the Middle Ages and the comparison of God to an architect has been used by Christian apologists and teachers. Saint Thomas Aquinas said in the Summa, God, Who is the first principle of all things, Masonic historians such as William Bissey, Gary Leazer, and S. Brent Morris, assert that the Masonic abbreviation G. A. O. T. U. Meaning the Great Architect of the Universe, continues a tradition of using an allegorical name for the Deity. They trace how the name and the abbreviation entered Masonic tradition from the Book of Constitutions written in 1723 by the Reverend James Anderson and they also note that Anderson, a Calvinist minister, probably took the term from Calvins usage. The Great Architect may also be a metaphor alluding to the godhead potentiality of every individual. That invisible power which all know does exist, but understood by different names, such as God, Spirit, Supreme Being, Intelligence, Mind, Energy, Nature. In the Hermetic Tradition, each and every person has the potential to become God, the Great Architect is also an allusion to the observer created universe. We create our own reality, hence we are the architect, another way would be to say that the mind is the builder. In Heindels exposition, the Great Architect of the Universe is the Supreme Being, for a detailed discussion, see The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception. The concept of the Great Architect of the Universe occurs in gnosticism, the Demiurge is The Great Architect of the Universe, the God of Old Testament, in opposition to Christ and Sophia, messengers of Gnosis of the True God. The First Life prays for companionship and progeny, whereupon the Second Life, the Ultra Mkayyema or World-constituting Æon, from this architect come a number of æons, who erect the universe under the foremanship of the Mandâ dHayye or gnôsis zoês, the Personified Knowledge of Life. To that Jinarajadasa adds his observation that the Great Architect is also a Grand Geometrician, for in some manner or other, whether obvious or hidden, there seems to be a geometric basis to every object in the universe. The concept of the Demiurge as a benevolent great architect or grand architect of matter occurs in the writings of Plato, the concept of a Great Architect of the Universe also occurs in Martinism. Martinist doctrine is that the Great Architect must not be worshipped, martinists hold that whilst it is possible to invoque Him, it is not to adore Him
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Mother goddess
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A mother goddess is a goddess who represents, or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. Many different goddesses have represented motherhood in one way or another, others have represented the fertility of the earth. Several small, voluptuous figures have been found during excavations of the Upper Paleolithic. This sculpture is estimated to have been carved 35,000 years ago, some archaeologists believe they were intended to represent goddesses, while others believe that they could have served some other purpose. The Paleolithic period extends from 2.5 million years ago to the introduction of agriculture around 10,000 BCE, archaeological evidence indicates that humans migrated to the Western Hemisphere before the end of the Paleolithic, so cultures around the world share its characteristics. It is the prehistoric era distinguished by the development of stone tools, regional differences in the development of this stage of tool development are quite varied. During this time, native cultures appear in the Western Hemisphere, regular seasonal occupation or permanent settlements begin to be seen in excavations. Herding and keeping of cattle, goats, sheep, and pigs is evidenced along with the presence of dogs, almost without exception, images of what Marija Gimbutas interpreted as mother goddesses have been discovered in all of these cultures. Numerous female figurines from Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Anatolia have been interpreted as evidence of a mother-goddess cult, james Mellaart, who led excavation at the site in the 1960s, suggests that the figures represent a Great goddess, who headed the pantheon of an essentially matriarchal culture. A seated female figure, flanked by what Mellaart describes as lionesses, was found in a grain-bin, she may have intended to protect the harvest and grain. The seated or enthroned goddess-like figure flanked by lionesses, has suggested as a prototype Cybele. They also left behind many ceramic remains of pottery and clay figurines, some of these figurines appear to represent the mother goddess. Malta has some of the oldest buildings in the world, and has many fertility figures or pieces of fertility figures throughout the temples, the most famous is the Sleeping Lady, recovered from the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni, and held in the National Museum of Archaeology, Malta. Similarly, mother goddess figurines are found in the contemporaneous Ozieri culture of Sardinia. James Frazer and others advance the idea that worship in ancient Europe. According to Gimbutas Kurgan Hypothesis, Old European cultures were disrupted by expansion of Indo-European speakers from modern-day Ukraine, in 1968 the archaeologist Peter Ucko proposed that the many images found in graves and archaeological sites of Neolithic cultures were toys. The graves he was describing dated from Predynastic Egypt and Neolithic Crete, Mother goddesses are present in the earliest images discovered among the archaeological finds in Ancient Egypt
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Supreme Being
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Supreme Being is a term for God used by theologians and philosophers of many religious faiths, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and deism. In Christian theology, the term Supreme Being is used to refer to God, although God is mostly reserved for God the Father in the New Testament, Supreme Being can be used to refer to Jesus Christ or the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Deists use the term Supreme Being to refer to the Godly, following the French Revolution, the Cult of the Supreme Being was intended to become the state religion of the new French Republic. In Hinduism, the term is used by several traditions and it is used by the Vaishnavite traditions in reference to Vishnu/Krishna, and by the Shaiva tradition in reference to Shiva. Islamic scholars have used the term Supreme Being to refer to Allah, the holy scripture of the Sikhs, Guru Granth Sahib, uses terms that are sometimes translated as Supreme Being. Sikhs personally use Waheguru, or the term Ik Onkar, meaning One God, in the Yoruba religion the term Supreme Being is used in reference to Olorun, one of the three manifestations of the Supreme God in the Yoruba pantheon. In Yoruba cosmology, Olorun is the Supreme Being whose supremacy is absolute
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Lord
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Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others acting like a master, a chief, or a ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, the collective Lords can refer to a group or body of peers. The appellation lord is primarily applied to men, while for women the appellation lady is used. However, this is no universal, the Lord of Mann, a title currently held by the Queen of the United Kingdom. Under the feudal system, lord had a wide, loose, an overlord was a person from whom a landholding or a manor was held by a mesne lord or vassal under various forms of feudal land tenure. The modern term landlord is a survival of this function. A liege lord was a person to whom a vassal owed sworn allegiance, neither of these terms were titular dignities, but rather factual appellations, which described the relationship between two or more persons within the highly stratified feudal social system. For example, a man might be Lord of the Manor to his own tenants but also a vassal of his own overlord, where a knight was a lord of the manor, he was referred to in contemporary documents as John, knight, lord of. A feudal baron was a true titular dignity, with the right to attend Parliament, the substantive title of Lord of the Manor came into use in the English medieval system of feudalism after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The title Lord of the Manor was a titular feudal dignity which derived its force from the existence, to the tenants of a manor their lord was a man who commanded on occasion the power of exercising capital punishment over them. The term invariably used in mediaeval documents is simply lord of X, X being the name of the manor. The title of Lord of the Manor is recognised by the British Government, in the form of the Her Majestys Land Registry, modern legal cases have been won by persons claiming rights as lords of the manor over village greens. The heads of many ancient English land-owning families have continued to be lords of the manor of lands they have inherited. The UK Identity and Passport Service will include titles on a British passport as an observation, provided the holder can provide documentary evidence of ownership. The United States however, forbids the use of all titles on passports, australia forbids the use of titles on passports if those titles have not been awarded by the Crown or the Commonwealth. The word is used to refer to any owner of a landed estate and has no meaning in heraldic terms. Lord is used as a term to denote members of the peerage. Five ranks of peer exist in the United Kingdom, in descending order these are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, the appellation Lord is used most often by barons, who are rarely addressed by their formal and legal title of Baron
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Trinity
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The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is three consubstantial persons or hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—as one God in three Divine Persons. The three persons are distinct, yet are one substance, essence or nature, in this context, a nature is what one is, whereas a person is who one is. Reflection, proclamation, and dialogue led to the formulation of the doctrine that was felt to correspond to the data in the Bible. The simplest outline of the doctrine was formulated in the 4th century, further elaboration continued in the succeeding centuries. Scripture contains neither the word Trinity, nor an expressly formulated doctrine of the Trinity, rather, according to the Christian theology, it bears witness to the activity of a God who can only be understood in Trinitarian terms. The doctrine did not take its shape until late in the fourth century. During the intervening period, various solutions, some more. Trinitarianism contrasts with nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism, Unitarianism, Oneness Pentecostalism or Modalism, the word trinity is derived from Latin trinitas, meaning the number three, a triad. This abstract noun is formed from the adjective trinus, as the word unitas is the noun formed from unus. The corresponding word in Greek is tριάς, meaning a set of three or the number three, the first recorded use of this Greek word in Christian theology was by Theophilus of Antioch in about 170. He wrote, In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. The Ante-Nicene Fathers asserted Christs deity and spoke of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Trinitarians view these as elements of the codified doctrine. Ignatius of Antioch provides early support for the Trinity around 110, exhorting obedience to Christ, and to the Father, and to the Spirit. Justin Martyr also writes, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the first of the early church fathers to be recorded using the word Trinity was Theophilus of Antioch writing in the late 2nd century. He defines the Trinity as God, His Word and His Wisdom in the context of a discussion of the first three days of creation, the first defence of the doctrine of the Trinity was in the early 3rd century by the early church father Tertullian. He explicitly defined the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, St. Justin and Clement of Alexandra used the Trinity in their doxologies and St. Basil likewise, in the evening lighting of lamps. The highly allegorical exegesis of the Valentinian school inclined it to interpret the relevant scriptural passages as affirming a Divinity that, the Valentinian Gospel of Phillip, which dates to approximately the time of Tertullian, upholds the Trinitarian formula
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Tawhid
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Tawhid is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religions most fundamental concept and holds that God is One, because of the principle of Tawhid the Islamic belief in God is considered Unitarian. Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession of faith, the first part of the Shahada is the declaration of belief in the oneness of God. To attribute divinity to an entity, known as shirk, is an unpardonable sin according to the Quran. Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid, There is an uncompromising monotheism at the heart of the Islamic beliefs which is seen, from an Islamic standpoint, as distinguishing Islam from other major religions. The Quran asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world, a unique, independent and indivisible being, who is independent of the entire creation. God, according to Islam, is a universal God, rather than a local, tribal, or parochial one—God is an absolute, who integrates all affirmative values and brooks no evil. Islamic intellectual history can be understood as an unfolding of the manner in which successive generations of believers have understood the meaning. Islamic scholars have different approaches toward understanding it, Islamic theology, jurisprudence, philosophy, Sufism, even to some degree the Islamic understanding of natural sciences, all seek to explain at some level the principle of tawhid. The classical definition of tawhid was limited to declaring or preferring belief in one God, in modern Arabic, the verbs wahhada or yuwahhidu mean to unite or bring together something that which wasnt one, which reflects the struggle of monotheism against polytheism. Attribution of divinity to an entity, shirk, is considered a denial of the truth of God. Associating others with God is known as shirk and is the antithesis of Tawhid and it is usually but not always in the form of idolatry and supplicating to others than Allah, or believing that they hold the same attributes as him in an equal or lesser degree. Shirk is divided into two categories, Greater shirk, open and apparent, Lesser shirk, concealed or hidden, Greater Shirk consists of the above-mentioned deeds. A person commits lesser shirk or hidden polytheism when he claims to believe in God but his thoughts and actions do not reflect his belief. There are also forms of Shirk, they must be avoided as well. Within Islam, shirk is a crime, God may forgive any sin if one dies in that state except for committing shirk. Ali states that God is One means that God is away from likeness and numeration, the first step of religion is to accept, understand and realize him as the Lord. The correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and that is, one should realize that there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person
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Unitarianism
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Unitarians believe that Jesus was inspired by God in his moral teachings and is a savior but a human being rather than a deity. Unitarianism is also known for the rejection of several other Western Christian doctrines, including the doctrines of sin, predestination. Unitarians in previous centuries accepted the doctrine of punishment in an eternal hell, Unitarianism might be considered a part of Protestantism depending on ones stance or viewpoint, perhaps it being described a part of Nontrinitarianism, or both, is more accurate. The Unitarian movement was not called Unitarian initially and it began almost simultaneously in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in Transylvania in the mid-16th century. Among the adherents were a significant number of Italians, in England, the first Unitarian Church was established in 1774 on Essex Street, London, where todays British Unitarian headquarters are still located. In J. Gordon Meltons Encyclopedia of American Religions, it is classified among the family of churches. Unitarianism is a noun and follows the same English usage as other theologies that have developed within a religious movement. In that case it would be a belief system not necessarily associated with the Unitarian religious movement. Although these groups are unitarians in the sense, they are not in the proper sense. To avoid confusion, this article is about Unitarianism as a religious movement, for the generic form of unitarianism, see Nontrinitarianism. Recently some religious groups have adopted the 19th-century term biblical unitarianism to distinguish their theology from Unitarianism and these likewise have no direct relation to the Unitarian movement. The term Unitarian is sometimes applied today to those who belong to a Unitarian church, in the past, the vast majority of members of Unitarian churches were Unitarians also in theology. Over time, however, some Unitarians and Unitarian Universalists moved away from the traditional Christian roots of Unitarianism, for example, in the 1890s the American Unitarian Association began to allow non-Christian and non-theistic churches and individuals to be part of their fellowship. As a result, people who held no Unitarian belief began to be called Unitarians because they were members of churches that belonged to the American Unitarian Association, after several decades, the non-theistic members outnumbered the theological Unitarians. A similar, though much smaller, phenomenon has taken place in the Unitarian churches in the United Kingdom, Canada, and other countries. Unitarian theology, therefore, is distinguishable from the system of modern Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist churches. This article includes information about Unitarianism as a theology and about the development of theologically Unitarian churches, for a more specific discussion of Unitarianism as it evolved into a pluralistic liberal religious movement, see Unitarian Universalism. Unitarianism, both as a theology and as a family of churches, was defined and developed in Poland, Transylvania, England, Wales
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God in Abrahamic religions
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Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are sometimes called Abrahamic religions because they all accept the tradition that God revealed himself to the prophet Abraham. The Abrahamic God in this sense is the conception of God that remains a common attribute of all three traditions, God is conceived of as eternal, omnipotent, omniscient and as the creator of the universe. God is further held to have the properties of holiness, justice, omni-benevolence and omnipresence, the Baháí writings describe a monotheistic, personal, inaccessible, omniscient, omnipresent, imperishable, and almighty God who is the creator of all things in the universe. The existence of God and the universe is thought to be eternal, though transcendent and inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of creation, with a will and purpose that is expressed through messengers termed Manifestations of God. The purpose of creation is for the created to have the capacity to know and love its creator, through such methods as prayer, reflection, and being of service to humankind. The Manifestations of God reflect divine attributes, which are creations of God made for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment, in the Baháí view, all physical beings reflect at least one of these attributes, and the human soul can potentially reflect all of them. The Baháí view rejects all pantheistic, anthropomorphic, and incarnationist beliefs in God, Most Christian denominations believe Jesus to be the incarnation of God as a human being, which is the main theological divergence with respect to Judaism and Islam. For most Christians, beliefs about God are enshrined in the doctrine of Trinitarianism, the doctrines were largely formalized at the Council of Nicea and are enshrined in the Nicaene creed. The Trinitarian view emphasizes that God has a will, and that God the Son has two wills, divine and human, though these are never in conflict but joined in the hypostatic union. A small minority of Christians, largely coming under the heading of Unitarianism, in the Mormonism represented by most of Mormon communities, God means Elohim, whereas Godhead means a council of three distinct gods, Elohim, Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit. The Father and Son have perfected, material bodies, while the Holy Spirit is a spirit and this conception differs from the traditional Christian Trinity, in Mormonism, the three persons are considered to be physically separate beings, or personages, but united in will and purpose. As such, the term Godhead differs from how it is used in traditional Christianity and this description of God represents the orthodoxy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, established early in the 19th century. In Islam, God is believed to be the real supreme being, all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer. Islam puts an emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular. He is unique and inherently one, all-merciful and omnipotent, according to the Quran there are 99 Names of God each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of God. All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine Arabic name, among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful. Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of mercy for which all creatures sing his glories and bear witness to his unity. According to the Quran, No vision can grasp Him, and he is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things
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God in Judaism
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God in Judaism is understood to be the absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God is personal, while some interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is a force or ideal. God has a name, written YHWH in the Hebrew Bible. In Jewish tradition another name of God is Elohim, the name of God used most often in the Hebrew Bible is the Tetragrammaton. Jews traditionally do not pronounce it, and instead refer to God as HaShem, in prayer this name is substituted with Adonai, meaning Master or Lord. The worship of gods and the concept of God having multiple persons are equally unimaginable in Judaism. The idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical in Judaism – it is considered akin to polytheism, God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of series, nor one like a species, nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity. In this way Judaism can be regarded as being similar to panentheism, Kabbalistic tradition holds that the divine consists of ten sefirot. Any belief that an intermediary between humanity and God could be used, whether necessary or even optional, has traditionally been considered heretical, all our prayers should be directed towards God, nothing else should even be considered. Some rabbinic authorities disagreed with this view, notably, Nachmanides was of the opinion that it is permitted to ask the angels to beseech God on our behalf. This argument manifests notably in the Selichot prayer called Machnisay Rachamim, modern printed editions of the Selichot include this prayer. Godhead refers to the aspect or substratum of God that lies behind Gods actions or properties, there is, in truth, no relation in any respect between God and any of Gods creatures. In Kabbalistic thought the term Godhead usually refers to the concept of Ein Sof, the knowability of the Godhead in Kabbalistic thought is no better that what is conceived by rationalist thinkers. As Jacobs puts it, Of God as God is in Godself—Ein Sof—nothing can be said at all, Ein Sof is a place to which forgetting and oblivion pertain. Because concerning all the sefirot, one can search out their reality from the depth of supernal wisdom, from there it is possible to understand one thing from another. However, concerning Ein Sof, there is no aspect anywhere to search or probe, nothing can be known of it, for it is hidden and concealed in the mystery of absolute nothingness. In traditional Judaism, God is conceived of as the eternal, omnipotent and omniscient creator of the universe, God has the power to intervene in the world
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God in Christianity
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In Christianity, God is the eternal being who created and preserves all things. Christians believe God to be both transcendent and immanent, although the Judæo-Christian sect of the Ebionites protested against this apotheosis of Jesus, the great mass of Gentile Christians accepted it. This began to differentiate the Gentile Christian views of God from traditional Jewish teachings of the time, in the 8th century, John of Damascus listed eighteen attributes which remain widely accepted. As time passed, theologians developed systematic lists of these attributes, some based on statements in the Bible and this never becomes a tritheism, i. e. this does not imply three Gods. The doctrine of the Trinity can be summed up as, The One God exists in Three Persons and One Substance, as God the Father, God the Son, Trinitarians, who form the large majority of Christians, hold it as a core tenet of their faith. Nontrinitarian denominations define the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a number of different ways, early Christian views of God are reflected in Apostle Pauls statement in 1 Corinthians, written ca. In John 14,26 Jesus also refers to the Holy Spirit, by the middle of the 2nd century, in Against Heresies Irenaeus had emphasized that the Creator is the one and only God and the maker of heaven and earth. These preceded the presentation of the concept of Trinity by Tertullian early in the 3rd century. This did not exclude either the fact the father of the universe was also the Father of Jesus the Christ or that he had even vouchsafed to adopt as his son by grace. Eastern creeds began with an affirmation of faith in one God and almost always expanded this by adding the Father Almighty, as time passed, theologians and philosophers developed more precise understandings of the nature of God and began to produce systematic lists of his attributes. These varied in detail, but traditionally the attributes fell into two groups, those based on negation and those based on eminence. Throughout the Christian development of ideas about God, the Bible “has been, in Christian theology the name of God has always had much deeper meaning and significance than being just a label or designator. It is not an invention, but has divine origin and is based on divine revelation. This is reflected in the first petition in the Lords Prayer addressed to God the Father, in Revelation 3,12 those who bear the name of God are destined for Heaven. John 17,6 presents the teachings of Jesus as the manifestation of the name of God to his disciples, the Bible usually uses the name of God in the singular, generally using the terms in a very general sense rather than referring to any special designation of God. However, general references to the name of God may branch to other forms which express his multifaceted attributes. Scripture presents many references to the names for God, but the key names in the Old Testament are, God the High and Exalted One, El-Shaddai, in the New Testament Theos, Kyrios and Pater are the essential names. The theological underpinnings of the attributes and nature of God have been discussed since the earliest days of Christianity
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God in Islam
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In Islamic theology, God is the all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer and judge of everything in existence. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular, unique, inherently One, also all-merciful, the Surat 112 Al-Ikhlāş says, He is God, One. He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent, in Islam, there are 99 known names of God, each of which evoke a distinct attribute of God. All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive god, among the 99 names of God, the most familiar and frequent of these names are the Compassionate and the Merciful. Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of mercy for which all creatures sing Gods attributes. Allah is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions and it is distinguished from ilāh, the Arabic word meaning deity, which could refer to any of the gods worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia. God is described and referred to in the Quran and hadith by certain names or attributes, the Quran refers to the attributes of God as most beautiful names. According to Gerhard Böwering, They are traditionally enumerated as 99 in number to which is added as the highest Name, there are numerous conventional phrases and expressions invoking God. Islams most fundamental concept is a strict monotheism called tawhid, affirming that God is one, the basic creed of Islam, the Shahada, involves لا إله إلا الله, or, I testify there is no god other than God. Muslims reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, according to Vincent J. Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession. The deification or worship of anyone or anything other than God is the biggest sin in Islam, the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid. God is the creator of the universe and all the creatures in it, praise is to Allah, Creator of the heavens and the earth, made the angels messengers having wings, two or three or four. He increases in creation what He wills, indeed, Allah is over all things competent. And it is We Who have constructed the heavens with might and verily and we created man from an extract of clay. Then We made him as a drop in a place of settlement, so blessed be Allah, the Best of creators. Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a person and from Him He created his wife. And verily Allah is my Lord and your Lord, the most commonly used names in the primary sources are Al-Rahman, meaning Most Compassionate and Al-Rahim, meaning Most Merciful. God is said to love forgiving, with a hadith stating God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance
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God in Mormonism
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Also, Mormonism teaches that the intelligence dwelling in each human is coeternal with God. The Mormon conception of God also differs substantially from the Jewish tradition of monotheism in which elohim is a completely different conception. This description of God represents the Mormon orthodoxy, formalized in 1915 based on earlier teachings, other currently existing and historical branches of Mormonism have adopted different views of god, such as the Adam–God doctrine and Trinitarianism. Most early Latter Day Saints came from a Protestant background, believing in the doctrine of Trinity that had developed during the early centuries of Christianity. Before about 1835, Mormon theological teachings were similar to that established view, however, founder Joseph Smiths teachings regarding the nature of the Godhead developed during his lifetime, becoming most fully developed in the few years prior to his murder in 1844. Beginning as a description of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as being One, Smith taught that the Father. Mormons view their concept of the Godhead as a restoration of original Christian doctrine as taught by Christ, elements of this doctrine were revealed gradually over time to Smith. The book describes the Spirit of the Lord in the form of a man, prior to the birth of Jesus, the book depicts him as a spirit without flesh and blood, with a spirit body that looked the same as he would appear during his physical life. Moreover, Jesus described himself as follows, Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people, I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name, and they shall become my sons and my daughters. In another passage of the Book of Mormon, the prophet Abinadi states, I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people. After Jesus was resurrected and ascended into heaven, the Book of Mormon states that he visited a group of people in the Americas, who saw that he had a resurrected, tangible body. During his visit, he was announced by the voice of God the Father, and those present felt the Holy Spirit, the Book of Mormon states that Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit are one. The LDS Church interprets this oneness as a metaphorical oneness in spirit, purpose, on the other hand, some Latter Day Saint sects, such as the Community of Christ, consider the Book of Mormon to be consistent with trinitarianism. Some scholars have suggested that the view of Jesus in the Book of Mormon is also consistent, or perhaps most consistent. In 1835, Joseph Smith, with the involvement of Sidney Rigdon, publicly taught the idea that Jesus Christ, lectures on Faith were included as part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. They were eventually removed from the Doctrine and Covenants by the LDS Church, most modern Latter Day Saints do not accept the idea of a two personage Godhead, with the Father as a spirit and the Holy Spirit as the shared mind of the Father and the Son. In 1838, Smith published a narrative of his First Vision, in the endowment ceremony, introduced by Smith in 1842, the name Elohim is used to refer to God the Father
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Indian religions
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These religions are also classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected through the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities, evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley Civilisation, which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE, had an early urbanised culture which predates the Vedic religion. The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion, the practices of the early Indo-Iranians. The period of the composition, redaction and commentary of these texts is known as the Vedic period, the Reform or Shramanic Period between 800–200 BCE marks a turning point between the Vedic religion and Hindu religions. This period also saw the writing of the Upanishads and the rise of Vedanta, the early Islamic period also gave rise to new movements. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century on the teachings of Guru Nanak, the vast majority of its adherents originate in the Punjab region. With the colonial dominance of the British a reinterpretation and synthesis of Hinduism arose, james Mill, in his The History of British India, distinguished three phases in the history of India, namely Hindu, Muslim and British civilisations. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to, another periodisation is the division into ancient, classical, medieval and modern periods, although this periodization has also received criticism. The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim-conquests took place between the eight and the century, while the south was never completely conquered. According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on significant social and economic changes, smart and Michaels seem to follow Mills periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow the ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods periodisation. Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings such as at Bhimbetka, depicting dances, neolithic agriculturalists inhabiting the Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic. Marshalls interpretations have been debated, and sometimes disputed over the following decades. One Indus valley seal shows a seated, possibly ithyphallic and tricephalic, figure with a horned headdress, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as a form of the Hindu god Shiva, who is associated with asceticism, yoga, and linga, regarded as a lord of animals. The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal, after Pashupati, while Marshalls work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra was not a protector of wild animals. Despite the criticisms of Marshalls association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, historians like Heinrich Zimmer, Thomas McEvilley are of the opinion that there exists some link between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabha & Indus Valley civilisation
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God in Hinduism
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In Hindu monotheism, the concept of God varies from one sect to another. Hinduism is not exclusively monotheistic, and has described as spanning a wide range of henotheism, monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism, pandeism, monism, atheism and nontheism etc. This non-dualism postulates the identity of the Self or Atman with the Whole or Brahman, forms of explicit monotheism find mention in the canonical Bhagavad Gita. Explicit monotheism in the form of emotional or ecstatic devotion to an external and personal deity became popular in South India in the early medieval period. Ecstatic devotion to Krishna, a form of Vishnu, gained popularity throughout India during the Middle Ages, ecstatic devotion to Goddess Durga became popular in some parts of India in the later medieval and early modern ages. Vaishnavism, particularly Krishnaism, Shaktism and some forms of Shaivism remain the most explicit forms of worship of a personal God within Hinduism. Other Hindus, such as many of those who practice Shaivism, tend to assume the existence of a singular God, rather they envisage God as an impersonal Absolute, who can be worshipped only in part in a human form. The term Ishvara may refer to any of the monotheistic or monistic conceptions within Hinduism, in Hinduism, Brahman is the all-pervading, supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead, Brahman is conceived as personal, impersonal and/or supreme depending on the philosophical school. The sages of the Upanishads teach that Brahman is the essence of material phenomena that cannot be seen or heard. According to Advaita, a human being has realised Brahman as his or her own true self. The Isha Upanishad says, Auṃ – That supreme Brahman is infinite, if you subtract the infinite from the infinite, the infinite remains alone. The sages of the Upanishads made their pronouncements on the basis of experience as an essential component of their philosophical reflection. Several mahā-vākyas from the Upanisads indicate what the principle of Brahma is, In the Upanisads the sages teach that brahman is infinite Being, infinite Consciousness, and infinite Bliss. Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism posits that Brahman cannot be known by empirical means — that is to say, as an object of our consciousness — because Brahman is our very consciousness and being. Therefore, it may be said that moksha, yoga, samādhi, nirvana, etc. do not merely mean to know Brahman, but rather to realise ones brahman-hood, to actually realise that one is and always was Brahman. Indeed, closely related to the Self-concept of Brahman is the idea that it is synonymous with jiva-atma, or individual souls, according to Adi Shankara the nirguna brahman is non-different from the supreme personality, God, whatever qualities we attribute to the divine. By the power of Maya the supreme lord playfully creates multiple worlds and deludes all beings and this world is only relatively real and the real self is not affected by it
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God in Jainism
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In Jainism, godliness is said to be the inherent quality of every soul. This quality however is subdued by the association with karmic matter. All souls who have achieved the state of infinite bliss, infinite knowledge, infinite power. Jainism rejects the idea of a deity responsible for the manifestation, creation. According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents have always existed, all the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws and perfect soul, an immaterial entity cannot create or affect a material entity like the universe. From the essential perspective, the soul of every living organism is perfect in every way, is independent of any actions of the organism, but the epithet of God is given to the soul in whom its properties manifest in accordance with its inherent nature. There are countably infinite souls in the universe, there are two possible views after this point. One is to look at the soul from the perspective of the soul itself, another view is to consider things apart from the soul and its relationships with the soul. According to this view, the qualities of a soul are subdued due to karmas of the soul, Karmas are the fundamental particles of nature in Jainism. One who achieves this state of soul through right belief, right knowledge and this perfection of soul is called Kevalin. A god thus becomes a liberated soul – liberated of miseries, cycles of rebirth, world, karmas and this is called nirvana or moksha. Jainism does not teach the dependency on any supreme being for enlightenment, the Tirthankara is a guide and teacher who points the way to enlightenment, but the struggle for enlightenment is ones own. Jains believe that to attain enlightenment and ultimately liberation from all karmic bonding, one must practice the principles not only in thought. Such a practice through lifelong work towards oneself is regarded as observing the Mahavrata, Gods can be thus categorized into embodied gods also known as arihantas and non-embodied formless gods who are called Siddhas. Jainism considers the devīs and devas to be souls who dwell in heavens owing to meritorious deeds in their past lives and these souls are in heavens for a fixed lifespan and even they have to undergo reincarnation as humans to achieve moksha. Thus, there are gods in Jainism, all equivalent, liberated. The Self and karmas are separate substances in Jainism, the former living, the attainment of enlightenment and the one who exists in such a state, then those who have achieved such a state can be termed gods. Therefore, beings whove attained omniscience are worshipped as gods, the quality of godliness is one and the same in all of them
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Ahura Mazda
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Ahura Mazda is the Avestan name for the creator and sole God of Zoroastrianism, the old Iranian religion which spread across Asia predating Christianity. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest spirit of worship in Zoroastrianism, the literal meaning of the word Ahura is mighty or lord and Mazda is wisdom. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period under Darius Is Behistun Inscription, until Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was worshipped and invoked alone. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was invoked in a triad, with Mithra, images of Ahura Mazda began in the Parthian period, but were stopped and replaced with stone carved figures in the Sassanid period. Mazda, or rather the Avestan stem-form Mazdā-, nominative Mazdå and it is generally taken to be the proper name of the spirit, and like its Sanskrit cognate medhās, means intelligence or wisdom. Both the Avestan and Sanskrit words reflect Proto-Indo-Iranian *mazdhā-, from Proto-Indo-European *mn̩sdʰeh₁, literally meaning placing ones mind, the name was rendered as Ahuramazda during the Achaemenid era, Hormazd during the Parthian era, and Ohrmazd was used during the Sassanian era. The name may be attested on cuneiform tablets of Assyrian Assurbanipal, in the form Assara Mazaš, even though Ahura Mazda was a spirit in the Old Iranian religion, he had not yet been given the title of uncreated spirit. This title was given by Zoroaster, who proclaimed Ahura Mazda as the spirit, wholly wise, benevolent and good, as well as the creator. As Ahura Mazda is described as the creator and upholder of Asha, he is a supporter and guardian of justice, as a result of this vision, Zoroaster felt that he was chosen to spread and preach the religion. He stated that source of all goodness was the only Ahura worthy of the highest worship. He further stated that Ahura Mazda created spirits known as yazatas to aid him, Zoroaster proclaimed that all of the Iranian daevas were bad spirits and deserved no worship. These bad spirits were created by Angra Mainyu, the hostile, the existence of Angra Mainyu was the source of all sin and misery in the universe. Zoroaster claimed that Ahura Mazda was not an omnipotent God, nonetheless, Ahura Mazda is Angra Mainyus superior, not his equal. Angra Mainyu and his daevas which attempt to attract humans away from the path of righteousness would eventually be destroyed, whether the Achaemenids were Zoroastrians is a matter of much debate. However, it is known that the Achaemenids were worshipers of Ahura Mazda, the representation and invocation of Ahura Mazda can be seen on royal inscriptions written by Achaemenid kings. The most notable of all the inscriptions is the Behistun Inscription written by Darius I which contains references to Ahura Mazda. An inscription written in Greek was found in a late Achaemenid temple at Persepolis which invoked Ahura Mazda, on the Elamite Persepolis Fortification Tablet 377, Ahura Mazda is invoked along with Mithra and Voruna. Artaxerxes III makes this invocation to the three again in his reign
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Chinese theology
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The God of Fuxi, Xuanyuan and Wang Yangming is in our space and time. To Chinese thought, ancestor is creator, the universal principle that gives origin to the world is conceived as transcendent and immanent to his creation, at the same time. The Chinese idea of the universal God is expressed in different ways and they express an integrated definition of the monistic world. The radical Chinese terms for the universal God are Tiān 天, there is also the concept of Tàidì 太帝. These names are articulated and combined in different ways in Chinese theological literature, one of the combinations is the name of God used at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which is the 皇天上帝 Huángtiān Shàngdì—Highest Deity the Heavenly King. Dì is literally a title expressing dominance over the all-under-Heaven, that is all created things and it is etymologically and figuratively analogous to the concept of di as the base of a fruit, which falls and produces other fruits. This analogy is attested in the Shuowen jiezi explaining deity as what faces the base of a melon fruit, Zhou furtherly connects Dì, through Old Chinese *Tees, to the Indo-European Deus. Medhurst also shows affinities in the usage of deity, Chinese di, Greek theos and Latin deus, the following list arranges the names of God in order of historical attestation and importance rather than in alphabetical order. Tian is both transcendent and immanent, manifesting in the three forms of dominance, destiny and nature. There are many cases of the name Tian, and many of these clearly distinguish a Heaven of dominance, a Heaven of destiny and a Heaven of nature as attributes of the supreme cosmic God. Tianzhu is used in The Document of Offering Sacrifices to Heaven, Shangdi means Highest Deity or Primordial Deity. The Classic of Poetry recites «How vast is the Highest Deity, another composite concept with the Deity term is Dìjūn 帝君, also used as a title for deities who come directly below the highest one in some Taoist pantheons. From that moment, the Jade Deity rose to prominence in Taoist, there are a great number of temples in China dedicated to the Jade Deity, and his birthday on the 9th day of the first month of the Chinese calendar is one of the biggest festivals. He is also celebrated on the 25th day of the 12th month, in everyday language the Jade Deity is also called the Old Heavenly Father and simply Heaven. Its worship continues to the present day, Taiyi was worshipped by the social elites in the Warring States, and is also the first god described in Nine Songs, shamanic hymns collected in the Chuci. During the Han dynasty Taiyi was adopted into the imperial cult, the Inscription for Laozi, a Han stela, describes the Taiyi as the source of inspiration and immortality for Laozi. In the Han apocryphal texts weishu the Big Dipper is described as the instrument of Taiyi, a part of the Shiji by Sima Qian identifies Taiyi as the Di and tells, The Dipper is the Thearchs carriage. It revolves around the point and majestically regulates the four realms
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Tian
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Tiān is one of the oldest Chinese terms for heaven and a key concept in Chinese mythology, philosophy, and religion. During the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese referred to their god as Shàngdì or Dì. During the following Zhou Dynasty, Tiān became synonymous with this figure, Heaven worship was, before the 20th century, an orthodox state religion of China. In Taoism and Confucianism, Tiān is often translated as Heaven and is mentioned in relationship to its aspect of Dì. These two aspects of Daoist cosmology are representative of the nature of Taoism. They are thought to maintain the two poles of the Three Realms of reality, with the middle realm occupied by Humanity, the ancient oracle and bronze ideograms for dà 大 depict a stick figure person with arms stretched out denoting great, large. The oracle and bronze characters for tiān 天 emphasize the cranium of this great, either with a square or round head, two variant Chinese characters for tiān 天 heaven are 兲 and the Daoist coinage 靝. The sinologist Herrlee Creel, who wrote a study on The Origin of the Deity Tien. For three thousand years it has believed that from time immemorial all Chinese revered Tien 天, Heaven, as the highest deity. But the new materials that have available in the present century. It appears rather that Tien is not named at all in the Shang inscriptions, Tien appears only with the Chou, and was apparently a Chou deity. After the conquest the Chou considered Tien to be identical with the Shang deity Ti, first, Creel analyzes all the tian and di occurrences meaning god, gods in Western Zhou era Chinese classic texts and bronze inscriptions. His corpus of authenticated Western Zhou bronzes mention tian 91 times, second, Creel contrasts the disparity between 175 occurrences of di or shangdi on Shang era oracle inscriptions with at least 26 occurrences of tian. Upon examining these 26 oracle scripts that scholars have identified as tian 天 heaven, god, according to tradition, Tang of Shang assembled his subjects to overthrow King Jie of Xia, the infamous last ruler of the Xia Dynasty, but they were reluctant to attack. The king said, Come, ye multitudes of the people, listen all to my words. It is not I, the child, who dare to undertake what may seem to be a rebellious enterprise. Now, ye multitudes, you are saying, Our prince does not compassionate us, I have indeed heard these words of you all, but the sovereign of Hsiâ is an offender, and, as I fear God, I dare not but punish him. Now you are saying, What are the crimes of Hsiâ to us, the king of Hsiâ does nothing but exhaust the strength of his people, and exercise oppression in the cities of Hsiâ
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Shangdi
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Shangdi is the pinyin romanization of two Chinese characters. The word itself is derived from Three Huang and Five Di, including Yellow Emperor, the originator of the Chinese civilization. However, 帝 refers to the High God of Shang, thus means deity, thus, the name Shangdi should be translated as Highest Deity, but also have the implied meaning of Primordial Deity or First Deity in Classical Chinese. The deity preceded the title and the emperors of China were named after him in their role as Tianzi, Shangdi seems to have ruled a hierarchy of other gods controlling nature, as well as the spirits of the deceased. These ideas were later mirrored or carried on by the Taoist Jade Emperor, Shangdi was probably more transcendental than immanent, only working through lesser gods. Shangdi was considered too distant to be worshiped directly by ordinary mortals, the emperors could thus successfully entreat Shangdi directly. Many of the oracle bone inscriptions record these petitions, usually praying for rain, in the later Shang and Zhou dynasties, Shangdi was conflated with Heaven. Shangdi was not just a tribal but instead a good moral force. It could thus be lost and even inherited by a new dynasty, nonetheless, the connection of many rituals with the Shang clan meant that Shang nobles continued to rule several locations and to serve as court advisors and priests. Likewise, the Shangs lesser houses, the shi knightly class, developed directly into the learned Confucian gentry and scholars who advised the Zhou rulers on courtly etiquette, the Confucian classics carried on and ordered the earlier traditions, including the worship of Shangdi. All of them include references, The Four Books mention Shangdi as well but, as it is a later compilation, by the time of the Han dynasty, the influential Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan glossed, Shangdi is another name for Heaven. Dong Zhongshu said, Heaven is the authority, the king of gods who should be admired by the king. In later eras, he was known by the name Heavenly Ruling Highest Deity and, in this usage. In Shang sources, Di is already described as the supreme ordainer of the events occur in nature, such as wind, lightning and thunder. All the gods of nature are conceived as his envoys or manifestations, Shang sources also attest his cosmological Five Ministries. Di, or Tian, as later texts explain, did not receive cult for being too remote for living humans to sacrifice to directly, instead, an intermediary such as an ancestor was necessary to convey to Di the offerings of the living. According to this interpretation, this identification had profound political implications, moreover, Kui is frequently appealed in horizontal relationship with other powers, undermining any portrait of him as the apex of the pantheon. Especially intriguing is the fact that palatial and ceremonial structures of these cultures were carefully aligned to the celestial pole, the interpretation of Shangdi as the celestial pole, Taiyi and as Ku the progenitor of the Shang is not contradictory
