'Conceptions of God' can vary widely, despite the use of the same term for them all.
Theologians and
philosophers have studied countless conceptions of
God since the dawn of
civilization.
The God of
monotheism,
pantheism or
panentheism, or the supreme deity of
henotheistic religions, may be conceived of in various degrees of abstraction:
★ as a powerful, human-like, supernatural being, or as the deification of an
esoteric,
mystical or
philosophical category;
★ the
Ultimate, the ''
summum bonum'', the
Absolute Infinite, the
Transcendent, or
Existence or
Being itself;
★ the
ground of being, the
monistic , that which we cannot understand, etc.
Religion and Theology
Abrahamic conceptions of God
Main articles: Abrahamic conceptions of God
Judaism, Christianity and Islam see God as a being who created the world and who rules over the universe. God is usually held to have the following properties: holiness, justice, sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience, benevolence, omnipresence, and immortality. It is also believed to be transcendent, meaning that God is outside space and time. Therefore, God is eternal and unable to be changed by earthly forces or anything else within its creation.
In the Abrahamic traditions there are many differences in how these properties are expressed. The importance placed upon those properties is often debated by each group. In the past, as well as modern times people have gone so far as to suggest each group is speaking of a different "god." These religions all share the same roots and God, yet simply differ on the details.
Trinitarian definition
Main articles: Trinity
Within
Christianity, the
doctrine of the 'Trinity' states that
God is a
single ''Being'' who exists, simultaneously and
eternally, as a
perichoresis of three persons (''personae'', ''prosopa''):
Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the
Son (the eternal
Logos or Word, human as
Jesus of Nazareth); and the
Holy Spirit (the
Paraclete or advocate). Since the 4th Century AD, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" or "
hypostases," share a single Divine
essence, being, or nature. Following
Thomas Aquinas and others, the Son is described as eternally begotten by the Father. This generation does not imply a beginning for the Son or an inferior relationship with the Father. The Son is the perfect image of His Father, and is
consubstantial with Him. Speaking in anthropomorphic terms (which necessarily must be analogous), the Father, upon seeing His own being in His Son, loves His Son and so loves Himself. The Son returns that love, and that union between the two is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Again, the Holy Spirit is consubstantial and co-equal with the Father and the Son. Thus God contemplates and loves Himself, enjoying infinite and perfect
beatitude within Himself. This relationship between the other two persons is called
procession. It should be noted that although the theology of the Trinity is accepted in most churches, there are theological differences, notably between Catholic and Orthodox thought on the procession of the Holy Spirit (see
filioque). Many Christian communions do not accept the Trinitarian doctrine, at least not in its traditional form. Notable dissenting groups include the
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Mormons,
Christadelphians,
Unitarians,
Arians, and
Adoptionists.
Kabbalistic definition
Main articles: Kabbalistic definition of God
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Islamic concept
Main articles: Islamic concept of God
Allah (
Arabic ''allāhu'' الله) is the Arabic word for "God", and is used by Arabic-speaking
Muslims,
Christians and
Jews and
Mizrahi Jews alike.
Muslims consider God to be perfect, unique, eternal, self-sufficient, omnipotent and omniscient. He is said not to resemble any of his creations in any way. The Qur'an describes God as being
fully aware of everything that happens in the universe, including private thoughts and feelings.
Muslims are not
iconodules and this extends to all religious aspects (including any
iconographic depiction other than in writing) so that it does not lead to
idolatry. Instead, they focus on His
99 "names" that are stated in the
Qur'an, the
holy book of the Muslims. Nearly one third of the book is used describing God's attributes and actions. Also, "
hadith qudsi" are special recorded sayings of Muhammad to Muslims where he quotes what God has taught him.
Negative theology
Main articles: Negative theology
Some Jewish, Christian and Muslim
Medieval philosophers, including
Moses Maimonides and
Pseudo-Dionysius, as well as many sages of other religions, developed what is termed as
Apophatic Theology or the
Via Negativa, the idea that one cannot posit attributes to God and can only be discussed by what God is not. For example, we cannot say that God "exists" in the usual sense of the term, because that term is human defined and God's qualities such as existence may not be accurately characterized by it. What we can safely say is that it cannot be proven empirically or otherwise that God is existent, therefore ''God is not non-existent''. Likewise God's "wisdom" is of a fundamentally different kind from limited human perception. So we cannot use the word "wise" to describe God, because this implies he is wise in the way we usually describe humans being wise. However we can safely say that ''God is not ignorant''. We should not say that God is One, because we may not truly understand his nature, but we can state that there is no multiplicity in God's being.
The reason that this theology was developed was because it was felt that ascribing positive characteristics to God would imply that God could be accurately described with terms that were used to describe human qualities and perceptions. As humans cannot truly comprehend what kind of wisdom an eternal transcendent being might have, or what infinity might be like, we cannot in fact know or characterize His true nature. It is beyond human ability and would only mislead people. The proponents of this theory often experienced
meditation, which they viewed as the only effective way of having a personal relationship with God. It involved trying to reach beyond the words commonly used to describe Him and His more
ineffable characteristics, and to comprehend in a
mystical manner the truths about Him which could not be achieved through religious language. Thus many sages and saints of both monotheistic and other traditions experienced mystical trances, or
raptures and stated they were unable to describe God or their
visions fully.
God as unity or Trinity
Main articles: God as unity or trinity
Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and a small fraction of other nominal Christians are ''unitarian monotheists''. Unitarian monotheists hold that there is only one "person" (so to speak), or one basic substance, in
God. Some adherents of this position consider Trinitarianism to be a form of polytheism.
The vast majority of Christians have been and still are ''Trinitarian monotheists''. Trinitarian monotheists believe in one God that exists as three interdependent persons who share the same substance/essence; the Christian version of this is called the Trinity. The Hindu version
Trimurti, differs from Christianity in holding that God has three aspects, though shown as anthropomorphs.
While the
Hindu Trinity is not a unquestioned doctrine in
Hinduism, it is taught as one postulated understanding of the universe's divine order.
Binitarianism
Main articles: Binitarianism
A view within Christianity that there were originally two beings in the Godhead, the Father and the Word that became the Son (Jesus the Christ). Binitarians normally believe that God is a family, currently consisting of the Father and the Son. Some binitarians believe that others will ultimately be born into that divine family. Hence, binitarians are
nontrinitarian, but they are also not unitarian. Binitarians, like most
unitarians and
trinitarians, claim their views were held by the original New Testament Church. Unlike most unitarians and
trinitarians who tend to identify themselves by those terms, binitarians normally do not refer to their belief in the duality of the Godhead, with the Son subordinate to the Father; they simply teach the Godhead in a manner that has been termed as binitarianism.
"The word “binitarian” is typically used by scholars and theologians as a contrast to a trinitarian theology: a theology of “two” in God rather than a theology of “three”, and although some critics prefer to use the term ditheist or dualist instead of binitarian, those terms suggests that God is not one, yet binitarians believe that God is one family. It is accurate to offer the judgment that most commonly when someone speaks of a Christian “binitarian” theology the “two” in God are the Father and the Son...A substantial amount of recent scholarship has been devoted to exploring the implications of the fact that Jesus was ''worshipped'' by those first Jewish Christians, since in Judaism "worship" was limited to the worship of God" (Barnes M. Early Christian Binitarianism: the Father and the Holy Spirit. Early Christian Binitarianism — as read at NAPS 2001). Much of this recent scholarship has been the result of the translations of the ''
Nag Hammadi'' and other ancient manuscripts that were not available when older scholarly texts (such as
Wilhelm Bousset's ''Kyrios Christos'', 1913) were written.
Conception of God in Sikhism
Main articles: God in Sikhism
The Sikh term for God is ''
Vahigurū'' and Nānak describes him as '' (from the Sanskrit ''nirākārā'', meaning ''formless''), ''
akāl'' (meaning ''eternal'') and ''
alakh'' (from the Sanskrit ''alakśya'', meaning ''invisible'' or ''unobserved''). At the very beginning of the first composition of Sikh scripture is the figure "
1" — signifying the unity of God. Nānak's interpretation of God is that of a single, personal and
transcendental creator with whom the devotee must develop a most intimate faith and relationship to achieve
salvation.
Sikhism advocates the belief in one God who is
omnipresent and has infinite qualities. This aspect has been repeated on numerous occasions in the Gurū Granth Sāhib and the term ''
ik ōaṅkār'' signifies this. In the Sikh teachings, there is no gender for God. When translating, the proper meaning cannot be correctly conveyed without using a gender definition, but this distorts the meaning by giving the impression that God is masculine, which is not the message in the original script.
Nānak further emphasizes that a full understanding of God is beyond human beings. However, Nānak also describes God, who in his fullness is unknowable, is not wholly unknowable. God is ''
sarav vi'āpak'' (''omnipresent'') in all creation and visible everywhere to the spiritually awakened. Nānak stresses that God must be seen from "the inward eye," or the "heart" of a human being — that
meditation must take place inwardly to achieve enlightenment progressively. Nānak emphasizes this revelation in creation as crucial, as its rigorous application permits the existence of communication between God and human beings.
The
Sikhs believe in one God who is the God of all the peoples of the World; the Creator; has existed from the beginning of time; never dies and will survive forever. He/She is genderless; without form; fearless; without enemies; self sufficient; not subject of the cycle of birth and death; All Powerful; etc. — God's qualities are too many for people to narrate. Many names are used for God: ''
Waheguru'' — The Wonderful Lord; ''
Satnam'' — Thy True Name is TRUTH . ''Malik'' — Master; ''Karta Purakh'' — The Creator, etc.
God in
Sikhism is depicted in three distinct aspects, viz. God in Himself, God in relation to creation, and God in relation to man. God by himself is the one Ultimate, Transcendent Reality, Nirguna (without attributes), Timeless, Boundless, Formless, Ever-existent, Immutable, Ineffable, All-by Himself and even Unknowable in His entirety. The only nomenclatures that can rightly be applied to Him in this state of
sunn (
Sanskrit, sunya or void) are Brahma and Parbrahma (
Sanskrit, Parbrahman) or the pronouns He and Thou. During a discourse with Siddhas, Hindu recluses,
Guru Nanak in reply to a question as to where the Transcendent God was before the stage of creation replies, "To think of the Transcendent Lord in that state is to enter the realm of wonder. Even at that stage of sunn, he permeated all that Void" (GG, 940). This is the state of God's sunn samadhi, self-absorbed trance.
Conceptions of God in Hinduism
Main articles: Conceptions of God in Hinduism
The
Sanskrit word for God, that is used most commonly, is '''Ishvara''' (IAST: '' IPA: / /, originally a title comparable to "Lord" or "Excellency" < from the roots '', lit., powerful/supreme/lord/owner, + ''vara'', lit., choicest/most excellent). Hindus believe that '''Ishvara''' is only One. This must not be confused with the numerous deities of the Hindus known as
devas, are said to number up to 330 million. '' may be translated into English as "god" (sic), "deity", "demi-god", "
angel" or any celestial being or thing of high excellence, and hence is venerable. The word is, in fact, cognate to Latin ''deus'' "god".
The
Vedantic school of Hindu philosophy also has a notion of a Supreme Cosmic Spirit called ''
Brahman'', pronounced as / /. '''Brahman''' is (at best) described as that infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent, incorporeal, transcendent and immanent reality that is the divine ground of all existence in this universe. In the two largest branches of Hinduism,
Shaivism and
Vaishnavism, it is believed that 'Ishvara' and Brahman are identical, and God is in turn anthropomorphically identified with Shiva or Vishnu. God, whether in the form of Shiva or Vishnu has six attributes. However, the actual number of auspicious qualities of God, are 'countless'.
Conception of God in Buddhism
Main articles: God in Buddhism
Buddhism is non-theistic: instead of extolling an anthropomorphic creator God,
Gautama Buddha taught that there was no creator god and believed the more important issue was to bring beings out of suffering to liberation. Enlightened ones are called
Arhats or Buddha (e.g, the ''Buddha''
Sakyamuni), and are venerated. A
bodhisattva is an altruistic being who has vowed to attain Buddhahood in order to help others to become Awakened ("Buddha") too. Buddhism also teaches of the existence of the
devas or heavenly beings who temporarily dwell in celestial states of great happiness but are not yet free from the cycle of reincarnations (
samsara). Some
Mahayana and Tantra Buddhist scriptures do express ideas that are extremely close to pantheism, with a cosmic Buddha (
Adibuddha) being viewed as the sustaining Ground of all being — although this is very much a minority vision within Buddhism.
Esotericism and Hermeticism
An Hermeticist conception of God
Main articles: The All
'The All' is the
Hermetic version of
God, to some and not to others. Alternatively, it has been called ''The One,'' ''The Great One,'' ''The Creator,'' ''The Supreme Mind,'' ''The Supreme Good,'' ''The Father,'' and ''The Universal Mother''. In essence, The All is, as seen by some to be a
panentheistic view of God, which is that everything that is, or at least that can be experienced, collectively makes up The All. One Hermetic
maxim states, "While All is in THE ALL, it is equally true that THE ALL is in All." (Three Initiates p. 95) The All can also seen to be
hermaphroditic, possessing both masculine and feminine qualities in equal part (The Way of Hermes p. 19 Book 1:9). These qualities are, however, of
mental gender, as The All lacks
physical gender.
According to Hermetic doctrine, The All is a bit more complicated than simply being the sum total of the
universe. Rather than The All being simply the physical universe, it is more correct to say that everything in the universe is within the mind of The All, since the ALL can be looked at as Mind itself. (Three Initiates pp. 96–7) The All's mind can be seen as infinitely more powerful and vast than any of us could hope to achieve. (Three Initiates p. 99) Therefore, it may be capable of keeping track of each and every
particle across the expanse of the Universe, as well as maintain symbolism that applies to many lesser entities such as that seen in
astrology and
numerology. However, even with everything in the universe being part of The All, it is possible that other things exist outside of The All.
The Rosicrucian conception of God
Main articles: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception#The Rosicrucian conception of God and the scheme of evolution,
The Western Wisdom Teachings present the conception of '
The Absolute' (unmanifested and unlimited "Boundless Being" or "Root of Existence", beyond the whole universe and beyond comprehension) from Whom proceeds the '
Supreme Being' at the dawn of manifestation: The One, the "
Great Architect of the Universe", Whose three aspects are ''Power'', ''the Word'', and ''Motion''. From the threefold Supreme Being proceed the "seven Great
Logoi" Who contain within Themselves all the great Hierarchies that differentiate more and more as they diffuse through the six lower Cosmic Planes. In the Highest World of the seventh (lowest) Cosmic Plane dwells the '
God' of the Solar Systems in the Universe. These great Beings are also threefold in manifestation, like the Supreme Being; their three aspects are ''Will'', ''Wisdom'' and ''Activity''.
According these
Rosicrucian teachings, in the beginning of a ''Day of Manifestation'' a certain collective Great Being, God, limits Himself to a certain portion of space, in which He elects to create a
Solar System for the evolution of added self-
consciousness. In God there are contained hosts of glorious Hierarchies and lesser beings of every grade of intelligence and stage of
consciousness, from
omniscience to an
unconsciousness deeper than that of the deepest
trance condition.
During the current period of manifestation these various grades of beings are working to acquire more experience than they possessed at the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in previous manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development work on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness.
In the Solar system, God's Habitation, there are
seven Worlds differentiated by God, within Himself, one after another. The
mankind's evolutionary scheme is slowly carried through five of these Worlds in seven great Periods of manifestation, during which the evolving virgin
spirit becomes first human and, then, a God.
Metaphysics and Philosophy
Aristotelian definition of God
Main articles: Aristotelian view of God
In his
Metaphysics,
Aristotle discusses meaning of "being as being". Aristotle holds that "being" primarily refers to the
Unmoved Movers, and assigned one of these to each movement in the heavens. Each Unmoved Mover continuously contemplates its own contemplation, and everything that fits the second meaning of "being" by having its source of motion in itself, moves because the knowledge of its Mover causes it to emulate this Mover (or should).
Aristotle's definition of God attributes perfection to this being, and as a perfect being can only contemplate upon perfection and not on imperfection, otherwise perfection would not be one of his attributes. God, according to Aristotle, is in a state of "stasis" untouched by change and imperfection. 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 that every other domino in the set is pushed over as well, without the being having to do anything about it. Although, in the 18th century, the French educator
Allan Kardec brought a very similar conception of God during his work of codifying
Spiritism, this differs to the interpretation of God in most religions, where he is seen to be
personally involved in his creation.
The Ultimate
Main articles: The Ultimate
Arguably, Eastern conceptions of
The Ultimate (this, too, has many different names), except for Shaivism and Vaishnavism, which do focus on a personal God, are not conceptions of a ''personal'' divinity, though certain Western conceptions of what is at least ''called'' "God" (e.g.,
Spinoza's pantheistic conception and various kinds of mysticism) resemble Eastern conceptions of The Ultimate. Christian theologian
Paul Tillich, in the first volume of his
Systematic Theology defines God as being that factor about which we have, in his language,
ultimate concern. In this view,
true self,
zero, God, or
the Absolute all have legitimate grounds to be called
the Ultimate.
Modern views
Process philosophy and Open Theism
Main articles: Process theology,
Open theism
'Process theology' is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical
process philosophy of
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), and 'Open theism' is a theological movement that began in the 1990s, is similar, but not identical, to Process theology.
In both views, God is not omnipotent in the classical sense of a coercive being. Reality is not made up of material substances that endure through time, but serially-ordered events, which are experiential in nature. The universe is characterized by process and change carried out by the agents of free will. Self-determination characterizes everything in the universe, not just human beings. God and creatures co-create. God cannot force anything to happen, but rather only influence the exercise of this universal free will by offering possibilities. Process theology is compatible with
panentheism, the concept that God contains the universe (
pantheism) but also
transcends it. God as the ultimate logician — God may be defined as the only entity, by definition, possessing the ability to reduce an infinite number of logical equations having an infinite number of variables and an infinite number of states to minimum form instantaneously.
Posthuman God
Main articles: Posthuman God
A Posthuman God is a hypothetical future entity descended from or created by humans, but possessing capabilities so radically exceeding those of present humans as to appear godlike. One common variation of this idea is the belief or aspiration that humans will create a
God entity emerging from an
artificial intelligence. Another variant is the hypothesis that humanity will create or
evolve into a
posthuman God by itself; for some examples, see
technological singularity, and
omega point.
The concept of a posthuman god has become common in
science fiction.
Arthur C. Clarke, world-renowned science fiction author, said in an interview, "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." Clarke's friend and colleague, the late
Isaac Asimov, postulated in his story "
The Last Question" a merger between humanity and machine intelligence that ultimately produces a deity capable of reversing
entropy and subsequently initiates a new Creation trillions of years from the present era when the Universe is in the last stage of
heat death. In
Frank Herbert's science-fiction series
Dune, a messianic figure is created after thousands of years of controlled breeding. The
Culture Series by
Iain M. Banks represents a blend in which a
transhuman society is guarded by godlike machine intelligences. A stronger example is posited in the novel
Singularity Sky by
Charles Stross, in which a future artificial intelligence is capable of changing events even in its own past, and takes strong measures to prevent any other entity from taking advantage of similar capabilities.
Extraterrestrials
Main articles: God as an extraterrestrial
Some comparatively new belief systems and books portray
God as
extraterrestrial life. Many of these theories hold that intelligent beings from another world have been visiting Earth for many thousands of years, and have influenced the development of our religions. Some of these books posit that prophets or messiahs were sent to the human race in order to teach morality and encourage the development of civilization. (See e.g.
Rael).
Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of
DNA, suggested that life on Earth
originated far away because of what he considered to be a minuscule timeframe allotted by scientists for the
emergence of life on Earth.
Phenomenological definition
Main articles: Phenomenological definition of God
The philosopher
Michel Henry defines
God in a phenomenological point of view. He says: "God is Life, he is the essence of
Life, or, if we prefer, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what is God, we know it not by the effect of a learning or of some knowledge, we don’t know it by the thought, on the background of the truth of the world ; we know it and we can know it only in and by the Life itself. We can know it only in God." (''I Am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity'').
This Life is not biological life defined by objective and exterior properties, nor an abstract and empty philosophical concept, but the absolute
phenomenological life, a radically immanent life that possesses in it the power of showing itself in itself without distance, a life that reveals permanently itself.
See also
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