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Christian Agnosticism Christian agnostics practice a distinct form of agnosticism that applies only to the properties of God. They hold that it is difficult or impossible to be sure of anything beyond the basic tenets of the Christian faith. They believe that God or a higher power exists, that Jesus may have a special relationship with God and...
Household Deity A household deity ( or Household gods) is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess –...
Sacred King In many historical societies, the position of kingship carries a sacral meaning, that is, it is identical with that of a high priest and judge. The concept of theocracy is related, although a sacred king need not necessarily rule through his religious authority; rather, the temporal position has a religious significance. History Sir James George Frazer used the concept...
Son of Heaven Son of Heaven, or Tianzi (天子; Tiānzǐ), was the sacred imperial title of the Chinese emperor. It originated with the ancient Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. The secular imperial title of the Son of Heaven was “Emperor of China“. The title,...
Christ The King Christ the King is a title of Jesus in Christianity referring to the idea of the Kingdom of God where the Christ is described as seated at the Right Hand of God (as opposed to the secular title of King of the Jews mockingly given at the crucifixion). Many Christian denominations consider the kingly office of Christ to be one...
King of Kings King of Kings was a ruling title employed primarily by monarchs based in the Middle East. Though most commonly associated with Iran (historically known as Persia in the West), especially the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires, the title was originally introduced during the Middle Assyrian Empire by king Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1233–1197 BC) and was subsequently used in a number of...
Gender of the Holy Spirit In Christian theology, the gender of the Holy Spirit has been the subject of some debate in recent times. The grammatical gender of the word for “spirit” is feminine in Hebrew (רוּחַ, rūaḥ), neuter in Greek (πνεῦμα, pneûma) and masculine in Latin (spiritus). The neuter Greek πνεῦμα is used in the Septuagint to...
Divine Judgment Divine judgment means the judgment of God or other supreme beings within a religion. Divine judgment (Latin judicium divinum), as an imminent act of God, denotes the action of God’s retributive justice by which the destiny of rational creatures is decided according to their merits and demerits. Ancient beliefs See also: Ancient...
Socinianism Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Italians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle and nephew, respectively, which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 16th and 17th centuries and embraced by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period. It is most...
Cosmological Argument A cosmological argument, in natural theology and natural philosophy (not cosmology), is an argument in which the existence of God is inferred from alleged facts concerning causation, explanation, change, motion, contingency, dependency, or finitude with respect to the universe or some totality of objects. It is traditionally known as an...
Demigod A demigod or demi-god is a minor deity, or a mortal or immortal who is the offspring of a god and a human, or a figure who has attained divine status after death. Etymology The English term “demi-god” is a calque of the Latin word semideus, “half-god“. The Roman poet Ovid probably coined semideus to refer to less important gods, such as dryads. Compare the Greek hemitheos....
Monad in Philosophy Monad (from monas, “singularity” in turn from monos, “alone“) refers, in cosmogony, to the Supreme Being, divinity or the totality of all things. The concept was reportedly conceived by the Pythagoreans and may refer variously to a single source acting alone, or to an indivisible origin, or to both. The concept was...
Omnism Omnism is the recognition and respect of all religions or lack thereof; those who hold this belief are called omnists (or Omnists). The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) quotes as the term’s earliest usage by English poet Philip J. Bailey: in 1839 “I am an Omnist, and believe in all religions”. In recent years, the term...
Ignosticism Ignosticism or igtheism is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless unless the word “God” is given a coherent and unambiguous definition, preferably yielding falsifiable logical consequences. Also, Ignosticism — a personal discipline that holds that the concept ‘god’ bears no deductive or falsifiable (Popper) definition (Wittgenstein), and therefore prohibits...
Monolatry Monolatry (single worship) is belief in the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity. The term “monolatry” was perhaps first used by Julius Wellhausen. Monolatry is distinguished from monotheism, which asserts the existence of only one god, and henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one...
Form of The Good “Form of the Good“, or more literally “the idea of the good” (ἡ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἰδέα) is a concept in the philosophy of Plato. It is described in Plato’s dialogue the Republic (508e2–3), speaking through the character of Socrates. This form is the one that allows a philosopher-in-training to advance to a philosopher-king. It...
Summum Bonum Summum bonum is a Latin expression meaning “the highest good“, which was introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero, to correspond to the Idea of the Good in ancient Greek philosophy. The summum bonum is generally thought of as being an end in itself, and at the same time containing many other pursuits typified as Good...
God the Sustainer God the Sustainer is the conception of God who sustains and upholds everything in existence. Ar-Razzāq (The Provider, The Providence, The Supplier, The Bestower of Sustenance), The One who creates all means of nourishment and subsistence. The One who is the giver of all things beneficial, both physical and spiritual....
Spiritual Gift A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata) is a concept in Christianity that refers to an endowment or extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit. These are believed by followers to be supernatural graces which individual Christians need (and needed in the days of the Apostles) to fulfill the mission of the Church. In the...
Higher Power Higher Power is a term used in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other twelve-step programs. The same groups use the phrase “a power greater than ourselves” synonymously. The term sometimes refers to a supreme being or deity, or other conceptions of God. Definition and usage In current twelve-step program usage, a higher power can be anything...
Ietsism Ietsism (Dutch: ietsisme) – “somethingism“) is an unspecified belief in an undetermined transcendent reality. It is a Dutch term for a range of beliefs held by people who, on the one hand, inwardly suspect – or indeed believe – that “there must be something undefined beyond the mundane and that which can be known or...
Aztec Philosophy Aztec philosophy was a school of philosophy that developed out of Aztec culture. The Aztecs had a well-developed school of philosophy, perhaps the most developed in the Americas and in many ways comparable to Ancient Greek philosophy, even amassing more texts than the ancient Greeks. Aztec cosmology was in some sense dualistic, but exhibited a less common form...
Transtheism Transtheism refers to a system of thought or religious philosophy which is neither theistic nor atheistic, but is beyond them. The word was coined by either philosopher Paul Tillich or Indologist Heinrich Zimmer. Zimmer applies the term to Jainism, which is theistic in the limited sense that gods exist but are irrelevant as they are transcended...
Religious Philosophy Religious philosophy is philosophical thinking that is influences and directed as a consequence to teachings from a particular religion. It can be done objectively, but may also be done as a persuasion tool by believers in that faith. Religious philosophy is predominantly concerned with the concept of god, gods, and/or the divine....
Argument from Nonbelief An argument from nonbelief is a philosophical argument that asserts an inconsistency between the existence of God and a world in which people fail to recognize him. It is similar to the classic argument from evil in affirming an inconsistency between the world that exists and the world that would exist if God had certain...
Argument From Inconsistent Revelations The argument from inconsistent revelations, also known as the avoiding the wrong hell problem, is an argument against the existence of God. It asserts that it is unlikely that God exists because many theologians and faithful adherents have produced conflicting and mutually exclusive revelations. The argument states that since...
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