122-605: B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt . The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion , which emerged sometime in prehistory . Deities represented natural forces and phenomena , and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat , or divine order. After
244-473: A creator , denies endorsing any views on creation and states that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. Some teachers instruct students beginning Buddhist meditation that the notion of divinity is not incompatible with Buddhism, but dogmatic beliefs in a supreme personal creator are considered a hindrance to the attainment of nirvana , the highest goal of Buddhist practice. Despite this apparent non- theism , Buddhists consider veneration of
366-416: A creator deity . According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents—soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion—have always existed. All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws . It is not possible to create matter out of nothing and hence the sum total of matter in the universe remains the same (similar to law of conservation of mass ). Jain text claims that
488-889: A perichoresis of three hypostases (i.e. persons; personae , prosopa ): the Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos ("Word"), manifest in human form as Jesus and thereafter as Christ ); 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
610-457: A "deity". One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann , says that a deity has a cult , is involved in some aspect of the universe, and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition. According to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, "gods" included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites , and deceased souls, who entered
732-695: A belief about the nature of Jesus Christ that affirmed God as a singular entity and rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. Universalism referred to a theological belief that all persons will be reconciled to God because of divine love and mercy (Universal Salvation). According to Brahma Kumaris , God is the incorporeal soul with the maximum degree of spiritual qualities such as peace and love. 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
854-550: A certain portion of space, in which he elects to create the 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
976-465: 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
1098-568: A deity to represent them, and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite-sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses. Kings were said to be divine, although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths. Some non-royal humans were said to have the favor of the gods and were venerated accordingly. This veneration was usually short-lived, but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes, as were some other officials. Through contact with neighboring civilizations,
1220-661: A discourse with siddhas (wandering Hindu adepts ), Nanak is asked where "the Transcendent God" was before creation. He 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). The esoteric Christian teachings of the Rosicrucian Fellowship , promulgated to the western world in the early 20th century as Western Wisdom Teachings , present
1342-470: A force the Egyptians called heka , a term usually translated as "magic". Heka was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves. The gods' actions in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast, mythology mainly concerns the gods' actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the gods were present on earth and interacted directly with humans. The events of this past time set
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#17327902083751464-678: A fundamental part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count. Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown, and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are "thousands upon thousands" of gods. The Egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr , "god", and its feminine form nṯrt , "goddess". Scholars have tried to discern
1586-496: A given deity's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin. The political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity. When kings from Thebes took control of the country at start of the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 –1650 BC), they elevated Thebes' patron gods—first the war god Montu and then Amun—to national prominence. In Egyptian belief, names express
1708-515: A human being. In addition, some Mahayana Buddhists worship their chief Bodhisattva , Avalokiteshvara and hope to embody him. Buddhists accept the existence of beings known as devas in higher realms , but they, like humans, are said to be suffering in samsara , and not necessarily wiser than us. In fact, the Buddha is often portrayed as a teacher of the gods, and superior to them. Despite this, there are believed to be enlightened deva s on
1830-604: A religious and virtuous life is possible without the idea of a creator god. The term for God in Sikhism is Waheguru . Guru Nanak describes God as nirankar (from the Sanskrit nirākārā , meaning "formless"), akal (meaning "eternal") and alakh (from the Sanskrit alakśya , meaning "invisible" or "unobserved"). Sikhism's principal scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib , starts with the figure " 1 ", signifying
1952-660: A sexually differentiated pair of deities: Shu and his consort Tefnut . Similarly, Neith, who was sometimes regarded as a creator goddess, was said to possess masculine traits but was mainly seen as female. God (male deity) Conceptions of God in classical theist , monotheist , pantheist , and panentheist traditions – or of the supreme deity in henotheistic religions – can extend to various levels of abstraction : The first recordings that survive of monotheistic conceptions of God , borne out of henotheism and (mostly in Eastern religions ) monism , are from
2074-538: A single divine essence , being, or nature. Following the First Council of Constantinople , the Son is described as eternally begotten by the Father ("begotten of his Father before all worlds" ). 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. The Son returns that love, and that union between
2196-416: A variety of animal and human figures. Some of these images, such as stars and cattle, are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times, but in most cases, there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities. As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated, clearer signs of religious activity appeared. The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of
2318-552: A very similar conception of God during his work of codifying Spiritism , this differs from the interpretation of God in most religions, where he is seen to be personally involved in his creation. In the ancient Greek philosophical Hermetica , the ultimate reality is called by many names, such as God, Lord, Father, Mind ( Nous ), the Creator, the All, the One, etc. However, peculiar to
2440-522: Is Vishnu , and the text identifies this being as Krishna , sometimes referred as svayam bhagavan . The term isvara - from the root is, to have extraordinary power. Some traditional sankhya systems contrast purusha (divine, or souls) to prakriti (nature or energy), however the term for sovereign god, ishvara is mentioned six times in the Atharva Veda , and is central to many traditions. As per Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy
2562-627: Is personal yet also transcendent , while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is a force or ideal. Jewish monotheism is a continuation of earlier Hebrew henotheism , the exclusive worship of the God of Israel as prescribed in the Torah and practiced at the Temple of Jerusalem . Strict monotheism emerges in Hellenistic Judaism and Rabbinical Judaism . Pronunciation of
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#17327902083752684-545: Is a metaphor for a transcendent reality. Some believe in a female god (goddess), a passive god (Deism), an Abrahamic god, or a god manifested in nature or the universe (pantheism). Many UUs reject the idea of deities and instead speak of the "spirit of life" that binds all life on Earth. UUs support each person's search for truth and meaning in concepts of spirituality. Historically, unitarianism and universalism were denominations within Christianity. Unitarianism referred to
2806-732: Is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller (i.e. God) in a monotheistic or the Supreme Being or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought. Ishvara is a transcendent and immanent entity best described in the last chapter of the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita, known as the Ishavasya Upanishad . It states " ishavasyam idam sarvam " which means whatever there is in this world
2928-612: Is a primordial Buddha (or, in Vajrayana , the Adi-Buddha , a representation of immanent enlightenment in nature), its representation as a creator is a symbol of the presence of a universal cyclical creation and dissolution of the cosmos and not of an actual personal being. An intelligent, metaphysical underlying basis, however, is not ruled out by Buddhism, although Buddhists are generally very careful to distinguish this idea from that of an independent creator God . In Hinduism ,
3050-758: Is a strict monotheism called tawḥīd . God is described in the surah Al-Ikhlas as: "Say: He is God, the One; God, the Eternal, the Absolute; He begot no one, nor is He begotten; Nor is there to Him equivalent anyone." Muslims deny the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus , comparing it to polytheism . In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension or equal and does not resemble any of his creations in any way. Thus, Muslims are not iconodules and are not expected to visualize God. The message of God
3172-422: Is also transcendent , meaning that he is outside space and outside time and therefore not subject to anything within his creation , but at the same time a personal God , involved, listening to prayer and reacting to the actions of his creatures. The Baháʼí Faith believes in a single , imperishable God , the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe. In Baháʼí belief, God
3294-525: Is beyond space and time but is also described as "a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty." Though inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of creation, possessing a mind, will and purpose. Baháʼís believe that God expresses this will at all times and in many ways, including Manifestations , a series of divine "messengers" or "educators". In expressing God's intent, these manifestations are seen to establish religion in
3416-553: Is carried by angels to 124,000 messengers starting with Adam and concluding with Muhammad . God is described and referred in the Quran by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahman , meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim , meaning "Most Merciful" (see Names of God in Islam ). Muslims believe that creation of everything in the universe is brought into being by God's sheer command “‘Be’ and so it is.” and that
3538-483: Is covered and filled with Ishvara. Ishvara not only creates the world, but then also enters into everything there is. In Saivite traditions, the term is used as part of the compound " Maheshvara " ("great lord") later as a name for Siva . Bhagavan literally means "possessing fortune, blessed, prosperous" (from the noun bhaga , meaning "fortune, wealth", cognate to Slavic bog "god"), and hence "illustrious, divine, venerable, holy", etc. In some traditions of Hinduism it
3660-448: Is demonstrated by a myth in which Isis poisons the superior god Ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her. Upon learning the name, she tells it to her son, Horus, and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power. In addition to their names, gods were given epithets , like "possessor of splendor", "ruler of Abydos ", or "lord of the sky", that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship. Because of
3782-478: 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
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3904-452: Is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition. The two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the gods and their nature. Most Egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena . The gods were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena—to be present within nature. The types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces. The god Shu
4026-465: Is not strictly monotheistic . There are different Unitarian views on Jesus, ranging from seeing him purely as a man who was chosen by God, to seeing him as a divine being, as the Son of God who had pre-existence . Thus, Unitarianism is typically divided into two principal groups: Even though the term "unitarian" did not first appear until the 17th century in reference to the Polish Brethren,
4148-412: Is talked of at two levels ( apara and para ). He is the fountainhead of all concepts but he himself cannot be conceived. He is the universal conceiver, universal concept and all the means of concept. Apara-Brahman is the same Para Brahma but for human understanding thought of as universal mind cum universal intellect from which all human beings derive an iota as their mind, intellect etc. Ishvara
4270-502: Is that there is nothing in existence outside of God – all being is within God, and yet all of existence cannot contain him. Regarding this, Solomon stated while dedicating the Temple , "But will God in truth dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You." Modern Jewish thinkers have constructed a wide variety of other ideas about God. Hermann Cohen believed that God should be identified with
4392-575: Is the Supreme God from which all things emanate . He is also known as 'The First Life', since during the creation of the material world, Yushamin emanated from Hayyi Rabbi as the "Second Life." According to Qais Al-Saadi, "the principles of the Mandaean doctrine: the belief of the only one great God, Hayyi Rabbi, to whom all absolute properties belong; He created all the worlds, formed the soul through his power, and placed it by means of angels into
4514-414: Is the effort of the gods to maintain maat against the forces of disorder. They fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation. Ra and Apep, battling each other each night, continue this struggle into the present. Another prominent theme is the gods' death and revival. The clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of Osiris's murder , in which that god is resurrected as ruler of
4636-409: Is unlimited in essence and expression, because it is experienced by the soul through the soul itself. The sojourn of the soul is a thrilling divine romance in which the lover, who in the beginning is conscious of nothing but emptiness, frustration, superficiality and the gnawing chains of bondage, gradually attains an increasingly fuller and freer expression of love and ultimately disappears and merges in
4758-506: Is used as a representation of personal liberty and individualism. LaVey discusses this extensively in The Book of Lucifer , explaining that the gods worshipped by other religions are also projections of man's true self. He argues that man's unwillingness to accept his own ego has caused him to externalize these gods so as to avoid the feeling of narcissism that would accompany self-worship. "If man insists on externalizing his true self in
4880-509: Is used to indicate the Supreme Being or Absolute Truth, but with specific reference to that Supreme Being as possessing a personality (a personal God). This personal feature indicated in Bhagavan differentiates its usage from other similar terms such as Brahman, the "Supreme Spirit" or "spirit", and thus, in this usage, Bhagavan is in many ways analogous to the general Christian and Islamic conception of God. Jainism does not support belief in
5002-490: Is what enables communication between God and human beings. Sikhs believe in a single God that has existed from the beginning of time and will survive forever. God is genderless, fearless, formless, immutable, ineffable, self-sufficient, omnipotent and not subject to the cycle of birth and death. God in Sikhism is depicted in three distinct aspects: God as deity; God in relation to creation; and God in relation to man. During
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5124-559: The Hellenistic period . Of the many objects and entities that religions and other belief systems across the ages have labeled as divine, the one criterion they share is their acknowledgment as divine by a group or groups of human beings. In his Metaphysics , Aristotle discusses the meaning of "being as being". Aristotle holds that "being" primarily refers to the Unmoved Movers , and assigned one of these to each movement in
5246-459: The Hermetic view of the divinity is that it is both the all ( Greek : to pan ) and the creator of the all: all created things pre-exist in God, and God is the nature of the cosmos (being both the substance from which it proceeds and the governing principle which orders it), yet the things themselves and the cosmos were all created by God. Thus, God creates itself, and is both transcendent (as
5368-575: The Holy Spirit . The Father and Son have perfected, material bodies, while the Holy Spirit is a spirit and does not have a body. This conception differs from the traditional Christian Trinity ; in Mormonism, the three persons are considered to be physically separate beings, or personages, but indistinguishable in will and purpose. As such, the term " Godhead " differs from how it is used in traditional Christianity. This description of God represents
5490-589: The Opening of the Mouth ritual, while one in the Pyramid Texts says the name is based on words shouted by Osiris in a moment of distress, connecting Sokar with the most important funerary deity. The gods were believed to have many names. Among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others. To know the true name of a deity was to have power over it. The importance of names
5612-468: The University of Heidelberg in 1976, where he taught until his retirement in 2003. He was then named an Honorary Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Constance . In the 1990s, Assmann and his wife Aleida Assmann developed a theory of cultural and communicative memory that has received much international attention. He is also known beyond Egyptology circles for his interpretation of
5734-571: The orthodoxy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), established early in the 19th century. However, the Mormon concept of God has expanded since the faith's founding in the late 1820s. Allāh , without plural or gender , is the divine name of God mentioned in the Quran , while " ʾilāh " is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Islam's most fundamental concept
5856-465: The purpose of existence is to please God, both by worship and by good deeds. There are no intermediaries, such as clergy , to contact God: “He is nearer to his creation than the jugular vein ” In Judaism , God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that Yahweh , the God of Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites , delivered
5978-498: The "archetype of morality," an idea reminiscent of Plato's idea of the Good . Mordecai Kaplan believed that God is the sum of all natural processes that allow man to become self-fulfilled, and Humanistic Judaism fully rejects the notion of the existence of a God. In Mandaeism , Hayyi Rabbi ( Classical Mandaic : ࡄࡉࡉࡀ ࡓࡁࡉࡀ , romanized: Hiia Rbia , lit. 'The Great Life'), or 'The Great Living God'
6100-730: The Divine Beloved to realize the unity of the Lover and the Beloved in the supreme and eternal fact of God as Infinite Love." Anton LaVey , founder of the Church of Satan , espoused the view that "god" is a creation of man, rather than man being a creation of "god". In his book, The Satanic Bible , the Satanist's view of god is described as the Satanist's true "self"—a projection of his or her own personality—not an external deity. Satan
6222-463: The Duat. The sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky, sink into the Duat at night, and emerge as a young child at dawn. In the process, he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of Nun , the primordial chaos. Funerary texts that depict Ra's journey through the Duat also show the corpses of gods who are enlivened along with him. Instead of being changelessly immortal,
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#17327902083756344-591: The Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . The goddess Miket , who occasionally appeared in Egyptian texts beginning in the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 –1650 BC), may have been adopted from the religion of Nubia to the south, and a Nubian ram deity may have influenced the iconography of Amun. During the New Kingdom ( c. 1550 –1070 BC), several deities from Canaanite religion were incorporated into that of Egypt, including Baal , Resheph , and Anat . In Greek and Roman times, from 332 BC to
6466-705: The Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form, and finally deities in human form, whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the gods must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning. Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic, and more current ones, such as Siegfried Morenz' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from their environment, and to 'personify' ideas relating to deities. Such theories are difficult to prove. Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small, independent villages. Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions, many scholars have suggested that
6588-416: The Egyptians' many-faceted approach to religious belief—what Henri Frankfort called a "multiplicity of approaches" to understanding the gods. In myth, the gods behave much like humans. They feel emotion; they can eat, drink, fight, weep, sicken, and die. Some have unique character traits. Set is aggressive and impulsive, and Thoth , patron of writing and knowledge, is prone to long-winded speeches. Yet overall,
6710-476: 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
6832-629: 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
6954-678: The Israelites from slavery in Egypt , and gave them the Law of Moses at biblical Mount Sinai as described in the Torah . According to the rationalist stream of Judaism articulated by Maimonides , which later came to dominate much of official traditional Jewish thought, God is understood as the absolute one , indivisible, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God
7076-478: The Jain concept of divinity, any soul who destroys its karmas and desires, achieves liberation/Nirvana. A soul who destroys all its passions and desires has no desire to interfere in the working of the universe. Moral rewards and sufferings are not the work of a divine being, but a result of an innate moral order in the cosmos ; a self-regulating mechanism whereby the individual reaps the fruits of his own actions through
7198-467: The Nile, no god personified it in the way that Ra personified the sun. Short-lived phenomena, such as rainbows or eclipses, were not represented by gods; neither were fire, water, or many other components of the world. The roles of each deity were fluid, and each god could expand its nature to take on new characteristics. As a result, gods' roles are difficult to categorize or define. Despite this flexibility,
7320-471: The Noble Ones very important although the two main schools of Buddhism differ mildly in their reverential attitudes. While Theravada Buddhists view the Buddha as a human being who attained nirvana or arahanthood through human efforts, Mahayana Buddhists consider him an embodiment of the cosmic dharmakaya (a notion of transcendent divinity), who was born for the benefit of others and not merely
7442-408: The basic tenets of Unitarianism go back to the time of Arius in the 4th century, an Alexandrian priest that taught the doctrine that only the Father was God, and that the Son had been created by the Father. Arians rejected the term " homoousios " (consubstantial) as a term describing the Father and Son, viewing such term as compromising the uniqueness and primacy of God, and accused it of dividing
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#17327902083757564-548: 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. Mankind's evolutionary scheme is slowly carried through five of these Worlds in seven great Periods ("Days") of manifestation --
7686-925: The cobra to depict many female deities. The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw , "gods", from rmṯ , "people", but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life. Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods, whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt's lesser supernatural beings, which modern scholars often call "demons". Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, that may be little more than metaphors. Confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of
7808-447: The complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos. The period following creation, in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society, is the setting for most myths. The gods struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place. A recurring theme in these myths
7930-459: The concept of god is complex and depends on the particular tradition. The concept spans conceptions from absolute monism to henotheism , monotheism and polytheism . In the Vedic period monotheistic god concept culminated in the semi-abstract semi-personified form of creative soul dwelling in all god such as Vishvakarman , Purusha , and Prajapati . In the majority of Vaishnavism traditions, he
8052-511: 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 ". 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
8174-400: The context of creation myths, in which the androgynous deity represents the undifferentiated state that existed before the world was created. The Ogdoad , a group of eight primordial gods all had a female form and consort. Atum was primarily male but had a feminine aspect within himself, who was sometimes seen as a goddess, known as Iusaaset or Nebethetepet . Creation began when Atum produced
8296-567: The creator of the cosmos) and immanent (as the created cosmos). These ideas are closely related to the cosmo-theological views of the Stoics . 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, omnibenevolence and omnipresence . Proponents of Abrahamic faiths believe that God
8418-451: 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, for example, Rael and Zecharia Sitchin ). The spiritual teacher Meher Baba described God as infinite love: "God is not understood in His essence until He is also understood as Infinite Love. Divine Love
8540-529: The divine realm through funeral ceremonies . Likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt. The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 3100 –2686 BC). Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period (before 3100 BC) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts
8662-480: The early centuries AD, deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt, but the native gods remained, and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship. Modern knowledge of Egyptian beliefs about the gods is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by the nation's scribes and priests . These people were the elite of Egyptian society and were very distinct from
8784-469: The entire country. These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the right to interact with the gods, and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion. New deities continued to emerge after this transformation. Some important deities such as Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c. 2686 –2181 BC). Places and concepts could inspire the creation of
8906-399: The entrances of temples , representing the presence of a deity, throughout ancient Egyptian history . Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, reflecting the use of
9028-401: The form of "God," then why fear his true self, in fearing "God,"—why praise his true self in praising "God,"—why remain externalized from "God" in order to engage in ritual and religious ceremony in his name? Man needs ritual and dogma, but no law states that an externalized god is necessary in order to engage in ritual and ceremony performed in a god's name! Could it be that when he closes
9150-644: The founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC, the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh , who claimed to be the gods' representative and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out. The gods' complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities: family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities' diverse appearances in art —as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold
9272-415: The fundamental nature of the things to which they refer. In keeping with this belief, the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins. The name of the predatory goddess Sekhmet means "powerful one", the name of the mysterious god Amun means "hidden one", and the name of Nekhbet , who was worshipped in the city of Nekheb , means "she of Nekheb". Many other names have no certain meaning, even when
9394-444: The gap between himself and his "God" he sees the demon of pride creeping forth—that very embodiment of Lucifer appearing in his midst?" Process theology is a school of thought influenced by the metaphysical process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), while open theism is a similar theological movement that began in the 1990s. Jan Assmann Johann Christoph " Jan " Assmann (7 July 1938 – 19 February 2024)
9516-412: The general populace, most of whom were illiterate. Little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed. Commoners' perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests. The populace may, for example, have treated the religion's symbolic statements about the gods and their actions as literal truth. But overall, what little
9638-399: The gods are more like archetypes than well drawn characters. Deities' mythic behavior is inconsistent, and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated. Most myths lack highly developed characters and plots, because their symbolic meaning was more important than elaborate storytelling. Characters were even interchangeable. Different versions of a myth could portray different deities playing
9760-448: The gods had limited abilities and spheres of influence. Not even the creator god could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that he created, and even Isis, though she was said to be the cleverest of the gods, was not omniscient . Richard H. Wilkinson , however, argues that some texts from the late New Kingdom suggest that as beliefs about the god Amun evolved he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence , and to transcend
9882-462: The gods periodically died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation, thus renewing the whole world. Nonetheless, it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return. Some poorly understood Egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen—that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world, leaving only himself and Osiris amid the primordial chaos. Gods were linked to specific regions of
10004-476: The gods who bear them are closely tied to a single role. The names of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb do not resemble the Egyptian terms for sky and earth . The Egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names. A passage in the Coffin Texts renders the name of the funerary god Seker as sk r , meaning "cleaning of the mouth", to link his name with his role in
10126-406: The gods' multifarious nature. The Egyptians regarded the division between male and female as fundamental to all beings, including deities. Male gods tended to have a higher status than goddesses and were more closely connected with creation and with kingship, while goddesses were more often thought of as helping and providing for humans. Some deities were androgynous , but most examples are found in
10248-409: The gods' multiple and overlapping roles, deities can have many epithets—with more important gods accumulating more titles—and the same epithet can apply to many deities. Some epithets eventually became separate deities, as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning "great enchantress", which came to be treated as an independent goddess. The host of divine names and titles expresses
10370-516: The greater gods or as roving spirits that caused illness or other misfortunes among humans. Demons' position in the divine hierarchy was not fixed. The protective deities Bes and Taweret originally had minor, demon-like roles, but over time they came to be credited with great influence. The most feared beings in the Duat were regarded as both disgusting and dangerous to humans. Over the course of Egyptian history, they came to be regarded as fundamentally inferior members of divine society and to represent
10492-514: 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, i.e., 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, it can only contemplate upon perfection and not on imperfection; otherwise perfection would not be one of his attributes. God, according to Aristotle,
10614-413: The highest position in divine society, including the solar deity Ra , the mysterious god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life-giving power of the sun. Some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and
10736-514: The human body. So He created Adam and Eve , the first man and woman." Mandaeans recognize God to be the eternal, creator of all, the one and only in domination who has no partner. The non-adherence to the notion of a supreme God or a prime mover is seen as a key distinction between Buddhism and other religious views. In Buddhism, the sole aim of the spiritual practice is the complete alleviation of distress ( dukkha ) in samsara , called nirvana . The Buddha neither denies nor accepts
10858-419: The human realm, take place in an earthly setting. The deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky. The underworld, in contrast, is treated as a remote and inaccessible place, and the gods who dwell there have difficulties in communicating with those in the world of the living. The space outside the cosmos is also said to be very distant. It too is inhabited by deities, some hostile and some beneficial to
10980-486: The indivisible unit of the divine essence. Unitarians trace their history back to the Apostolic Age , arguing, as do Trinitarians and Binitarians , that their Christology most closely reflects that of the early Christian community and Church Fathers . Binitarianism is the view that there exist two equal co-ruling powers in heaven. Within Christianity, it is the belief that there were originally two beings in
11102-480: The limits of the world in a way that other deities did not. The deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called "minor divinities" or "demons" in modern writing, although there is no firm definition for these terms. Some demons were guardians of particular places, especially in the Duat , the realm of the dead. Others wandered through the human world and the Duat, either as servants and messengers of
11224-408: The newly formed world; Ptah , who embodies thought and creativity, gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them; Atum produces all things as emanations of himself; and Amun, according to the theology promoted by his priesthood, preceded and created the other creator gods. These and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory. Each gives a different perspective on
11346-400: The notion of Brahman (the highest Universal Principle) is akin to that of god; except that unlike most other philosophies Advaita likens Brahman to atman (the true Self of an individual). For Sindhi Hindus, who are deeply influenced by Sikhism , God is seen as the omnipotent cultivation of all Hindu gods and goddesses. In short, the soul paramatma of all gods and goddesses are
11468-478: The omnipresent Brahman and are enlightened beings. Brahman is the eternal, unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the divine ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being and everything beyond in this Universe. The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools. The word Brahman is derived from the verb brh (Sanskrit: to grow), and connotes greatness and infinity. Brahman
11590-468: The opposite of the beneficial, life-giving major gods. Yet even the most revered deities could sometimes exact vengeance on humans or each other, displaying a demon-like side to their character and blurring the boundaries between demons and gods. Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature. Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order, the gods' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things. They did this work using
11712-454: 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
11834-419: The original nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance, and the terms' origin remains obscure. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity. The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at
11956-571: The origins of monotheism , which he considers as a break from earlier cosmotheism , first with Atenism and later with the Exodus from Egypt of the Israelites . Assmann died on 19 February 2024, at the age of 85. Assmann suggested that the ancient Egyptian religion had a more significant influence on Judaism than is generally acknowledged. He used the term "normative inversion" to suggest that some aspects of Judaism were formulated in direct reaction to Egyptian practices and theology. He ascribed
12078-481: The other gods and their orderly world. In the time after myth, most gods were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world. Temples were their main means of contact with humanity. Each day, it was believed, the gods moved from the divine realm to their temples, their homes in the human world. There they inhabited the cult images , the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals. This movement between realms
12200-463: The pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states, spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities. Others have argued that the most important predynastic gods were, like other elements of Egyptian culture, present all across the country despite its political divisions. The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt, in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of
12322-406: The path of Buddhahood. In Buddhism, the idea of the metaphysical absolute is deconstructed in the same way as of the idea of an enduring "self", but it is not necessarily denied. Reality is considered as dynamic, interactive and non-substantial, which implies rejection of brahman or of a divine substratum . A cosmic principle can be embodied in concepts such as the dharmakaya . Though there
12444-444: The pattern for the events of the present. Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past; the succession of each new pharaoh, for instance, reenacted Horus's accession to the throne of his father Osiris . Myths are metaphors for the gods' actions, which humans cannot fully understand. They contain seemingly contradictory ideas, each expressing a particular perspective on divine events. The contradictions in myth are part of
12566-583: The pilgrimage through a succession of Solar systems throughout the Cosmic Day of the Universe; billions and billions of years during which the evolving virgin Spirit becomes first human and, then, a God. Concepts about deity are diverse among UUs. Some have no belief in any gods (atheism); others believe in many gods (polytheism). Some believe the question of the existence of any god is most likely unascertainable or unknowable (agnosticism). Some believe God
12688-407: The predynastic era, along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities: the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods, the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic " Set animal " that represents Set . Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the gods developed in these early times. Gustave Jéquier , for instance, thought
12810-693: The procession of the Holy Spirit (see filioque ). Some Christian communions do not accept the Trinitarian doctrine, at least not in its traditional form. Notable groups include the Jehovah's Witnesses , Mormons , Christadelphians , Unitarians , Arians , and Adoptionists . Within Christianity, Unitarianism is the view that God consists of only one person, the Father , instead of three persons as Trinitarianism states. Unitarians believe that mainstream Christianity has been corrupted over history, and that it
12932-692: The proper name of the God of Israel came to be avoided in the Hellenistic era ( Second Temple Judaism ) and instead Jews refer to God as HaShem , meaning "the Name". In prayer and reading of scripture, the Tetragrammaton is substituted with Adonai ("my Lord"). Some Kabbalistic thinkers have held the belief that all of existence is itself a part of God, and that we as humanity are unaware of our own inherent godliness and are grappling to come to terms with it. The standing view in Hasidism currently,
13054-576: 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. In the Mormonism represented by most of Mormon communities, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , "God" means Elohim (the Father), whereas "Godhead" means a council of three distinct entities; Elohim, Jehovah (the Son, or Jesus), and
13176-519: The same role, as in the myths of the Eye of Ra , a feminine aspect of the sun god who was represented by many goddesses. The first divine act is the creation of the cosmos, described in several creation myths . They focus on different gods, each of which may act as creator deities. The eight gods of the Ogdoad , who represent the chaos that precedes creation, give birth to the sun god, who establishes order in
13298-480: 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 to these teachings, in the beginning of a Day of Manifestation a certain collective Great Being, God, limits himself to
13420-451: The term Ek Onkar . Nanak further emphasizes that a full understanding of God is beyond human beings, but that God is also not wholly unknowable. God is considered omnipresent in all creation and visible everywhere to the spiritually awakened. Nanak stresses that God must be seen by human beings from "the inward eye" or "heart" and that meditation must take place inwardly to achieve this enlightenment progressively; its rigorous application
13542-469: The two is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. 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 . Although the theology of the Trinity is accepted in most Christian churches, there are theological differences, notably between Catholic and Orthodox thought on
13664-472: The unity of God. Nanak'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 ( sarav vi'āpak ), whose qualities are infinite and who is without gender, a nature represented (especially in the Guru Granth Sahib) by
13786-465: The universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess. Yet some deities represented disruption to maat . Most prominently, Apep was the force of chaos, constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe, and Set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it. Not all aspects of existence were seen as deities. Although many deities were connected with
13908-421: The universe consists of Jiva (life force or souls) and Ajiva (lifeless objects). Similarly, the soul of each living being is unique and uncreated and has existed since beginningless time. The Jain theory of causation holds that a cause and its effect are always identical in nature and hence a conscious and immaterial entity like God cannot create a material entity like the universe. Furthermore, according to
14030-405: The universe. In Egyptian tradition, the world includes the earth, the sky, and the underworld. Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation. The gods in general were said to dwell in the sky, although gods whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead. Most events of mythology, set in a time before the gods' withdrawal from
14152-573: The workings of the karmas. Through the ages, Jain philosophers have adamantly rejected and opposed the concept of creator and omnipotent God. This has resulted in Jainism being labeled as nastika darsana ( atheist philosophy ) by rival religious philosophies . The theme of non-creationism and absence of omnipotent God and divine grace runs strongly in all the philosophical dimensions of Jainism, including its cosmology , concepts of karma and moksa and its moral code of conduct. Jainism asserts
14274-555: The world. Baháʼí teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully comprehend, nor to create a complete and accurate image. Bahá'u'lláh often refers to God by titles, such as the "All-Powerful" or the "All-Loving". In many Gnostic systems, God is known as the Monad , or the One . Within Christianity , the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single being that exists, simultaneously and eternally , as
14396-605: Was a German Egyptologist , cultural historian , and religion scholar . Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in Munich , Heidelberg , Paris , and Göttingen . In 1966–67, he was a fellow of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo , where he continued as an independent scholar from 1967 to 1971. After completing his habilitation in 1971, he was named a professor of Egyptology at
14518-445: Was credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the country's farmland. Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life-giving function, he was said to create all living things, fashioning their bodies on a potter's wheel . Gods could share the same role in nature; Ra , Atum , Khepri , Horus, and other deities acted as sun gods . Despite their diverse functions, most gods had an overarching role in common: maintaining maat ,
14640-710: Was present in all the other deities. Yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world, except possibly during the era of Atenism in the 14th century BC, when official religion focused exclusively on an abstract solar deity, the Aten . Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives. People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for divine help, used rituals to compel deities to act, and called upon them for advice. Humans' relations with their gods were
14762-491: Was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth. As temples were the focal points of Egyptian cities, the god in a city's main temple was the patron deity for the city and the surrounding region. Deities' spheres of influence on earth centered on the towns and regions they presided over. Many gods had more than one cult center and their local ties changed over time. They could establish themselves in new cities, or their range of influence could contract. Therefore,
14884-522: Was the deification of all the world's air; the goddess Meretseger oversaw a limited region of the earth, the Theban Necropolis ; and the god Sia personified the abstract notion of perception . Major gods were often involved in several types of phenomena. For instance, Khnum was the god of Elephantine Island in the midst of the Nile , the river that was essential to Egyptian civilization. He
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