“Windows To Spirituality”
Sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a “sacred artifact” that is venerated and blessed), or places (“sacred ground“). French sociologist Émile Durkheim considered the dichotomy between...
Holy The word Holy (from Old English: hālig meaning “wholeness”) denotes the presence of sacredness in an object, being, person, place or idea. It can also indicates an experience of numinosity, (from the adjective numenous “all-inspiring” or embued with sacredness). Alternatively, it refer to items set aside for divine liturgies. Holiness, or the state of being holy is...
Aseity Aseity (from Latin a “from” and se “self”, plus -ity) is the property by which a being exists in and of itself, from itself, or exists as so-and-such of and from itself. The word is often used to refer to the Christian belief that God contains within himself the cause of himself, is the first cause, or rather is...
Grace In Christianity Grace in Christianity is “the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not necessarily because of anything we have done to earn it”. It is not a created substance of any kind. “Grace is favour, the free and undeserved help that God gives us...
Omnipotence Paradox The omnipotence paradox is a family of paradoxes that arise with some understandings of the term omnipotent. The paradox arises, for example, if one assumes that an omnipotent being has no limits and is capable of realizing any outcome, even logically contradictory ideas such as creating square circles. A no-limits understanding of omnipotence...
Transcendence (religion) In religion, transcendence is the aspect of a deity‘s nature and power that is wholly independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is contrasted with immanence, where a god is said to be fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious...
God And Eternity This article covers God And Eternity. The idea of eternity as it relates to God is an important concept in theology. Theists say that God is eternally existent. How this is understood depends on which definition of eternity is used. On one hand, God may exist in eternity. One other definition states that God exists outside...
Eternity Eternity in common parlance means the infinite time that never ends (or the quality, condition, or fact of being eternal). In classical philosophy, however, it is defined as what exists outside time as describing supranatural beings and forces, whereas sempiternity corresponds to the infinitely temporal, non-metaphoric definitions, as recited...
Immanence The doctrine or theory of immanence holds that the divine encompasses or is manifested in the material world. It is held by some philosophical and metaphysical theories of divine presence. Immanence is usually applied in monotheistic, pantheistic, pandeistic, or panentheistic faiths to suggest that the spiritual world permeates the mundane. It is often contrasted with theories of transcendence, in which...
Incorporeality Incorporeality is “the state or quality of being incorporeal or bodiless; immateriality; incorporealism.” Incorporeal (σώματοςm) means “Not composed of matter; having no material existence.” Incorporeality is a quality of souls, spirits, and God in many religions, including the currently major denominations and schools of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. In ancient...
Metaphysical Necessity In philosophy, metaphysical necessity, sometimes called broad logical necessity, is one of many different kinds of necessity, which sits between logical necessity and nomological (or physical) necessity, in the sense that logical necessity entails metaphysical necessity, but not vice versa, and metaphysical necessity entails physical necessity, but not vice versa. A proposition is...
Omnipotence Omnipotence is the quality of having fully unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to God or deity of their faith. In the monotheistic philosophies of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of God’s characteristics among many, including omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. The presence of all these properties in...
Divine Simplicity In theology, the doctrine of divine simplicity says that God is without parts. The general idea can be stated in this way: The being of God is identical to the “attributes” of God. Characteristics such as omnipresence, goodness, truth, eternity, etc., are identical to God’s being, not qualities that...
Theodicy Theodicy means the vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. Some theodicies also address the evidential problem of evil by attempting “to make the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful and all-good or omnibenevolent God consistent with the existence of evil...
Theodicy And The Bible Relating theodicy and the Bible is crucial to understanding Abrahamic theodicy because the Bible “has been, both in theory and in fact, the dominant influence upon ideas about God and evil in the Western world”. Theodicy, in its most common form, is the attempt to answer the...
Impeccability Impeccability is the absence of sin. Christianity teaches this to be an attribute of God (logically God cannot sin, it would mean that he would act against his own will and nature) and therefore it is also attributed to Christ. Roman Catholic teaching Impeccability and Heaven Early Christians questioned whether the victorious saints in heaven could sin....
Omnipresence Omnipresence or ubiquity is the property of being present everywhere. The term omnipresence is most often used in a religious context as an attribute of a deity or supreme being, while the term ubiquity is generally used to describe something “existing or being everywhere at the same time, constantly encountered, widespread, common.”...
What Is Righteousness? Righteousness is defined as “the quality of being morally correct and justifiable.” It can also be considered synonymous with “rightness”. It is a concept that can be found in Indian religions and Abrahamic traditions as a theological concept. For example, from various perspectives in Hinduism, Christianity, and Judaism it is considered an attribute that implies that a person’s actions are justified,...
God’s Attributes Of Glory Like His Essence, God’s Attributes of Glory are eternal, having neither a beginning nor an end. According to the religious methodology or the basic principles of religion, God’s Attributes consist of certain transcending and blessed concepts—whose transcendence and blessedness come from the Being Whom they describe;...
Ilm Ladun (The Special Knowledge from God’s Presence) What is meant by ilm ladun (The special knowledge from God’s Presence), is knowledge of the Unseen or knowledge of mysteries, or knowledge which God imparts into one’s heart and the truths occurring to it. Primarily included is the knowledge of all the...
