Theism

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Theism at its most basic, is the believe in at least one god, or many gods. More modern definitions of theism suggest that the deity or deities in question must in some way impact the universe, separating theism from deism, which holds a god exists as the prime mover, but does not bother tampering with the world, if it even were able.

The belief in god(s) can be broken into a host of subsections, depending on the number of gods in question, and just what kind of gods there are.

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[edit] Monotheism

See the main article on this topic: Monotheism

In monotheism, only one God exists. There are no other gods in the world. Most monotheists, however, tend to hold some technically untenable positions about beings like Satan or the Trinity.

Monotheism can further be divided into personal transcendent gods, and impersonal or non-transcendent gods.

[edit] Personal gods

A personal god is one that involves him or herself in the world, engages with the prayerful, even perhaps asking people to fear and adore him. Some well-known examples of monotheistic religions with personal gods include the three Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

[edit] Impersonal gods

Pantheism is the description for God being all things. Theravada Buddhism could be said to be pantheistic or atheistic, depending on how you look at it. Atheist Wiccans often call themselves pantheistic. The difference becomes a political statement or position statement. If everything is god, then everything is the same, so what is the point of saying it is "god". Monists, like Spinoza are classical examples of true pantheists.

Panentheism the 'en' (Greek for in) gives away the difference. There is one god, and it is present in all things, but it is at the same time, a transcendent entity. God is separate from his creation, though he is within each bit of his creation.

[edit] Sorta' monotheism

There are definitions for religions where only one god is worshiped by a people, but they acknowledge the presence of other Gods in the Universe.

[edit] Monolatrism

See the main article on this topic: monolatrism

Monolatrists acknowledge only one true god, and all others are false or evil though those other gods do exist in the world. Ancient Christianity, with its placement in and around the polytheistic Greeks was Monolatrist, describing other Gods as shadows of Satan.

[edit] Henotheism

Henotheists acknowledges only one god, but admits that there are other gods, and that there is no universally correct path, all "good" gods are equally valid. But within their own community, only the one god is worshiped or valued as "real".

Many in the Universal Unitarian church, especially those who have come from Christianity, are Henotheistic.

[edit] Polytheism

See the main article on this topic: Polytheism

In a polytheistic religion, several gods are worshiped as part of that religion. The pantheon of deities in such religions tend to specialise, in contrast with the ubiquitous gods of monotheistic religions. Most of human's culture's religions are polytheistic in nature, from various Native american religions, to the Classical Greeks, ancient Celtic religions, to the early Israelites.

[edit] See also

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