“Windows To Spirituality”
Who Is Allah? Some of the biggest misconceptions that many non-Muslims have about Islam have to do with the word “Allah“. For various reasons, many people have come to believe that Muslims worship a different God than Christians and Jews. This is totally false, since “Allah” is simply the Arabic...
Classical Theism Classical theism is a form of theism in which God is characterized as the absolutely metaphysically ultimate being, in contrast to other conceptions such as pantheism, panentheism, polytheism, deism, and process theism. Classical theism is a form of monotheism. Whereas most monotheists agree that God is, at minimum,...
God In Islam God in Islam, (الله, Allāh, contraction of الْإِلٰه al-ilāh, lit. “the God“) is indivisible, the God, the absolute one, the all-powerful and all-knowing ruler of the universe, and the creator of everything in existence. Islam emphasizes that God is strictly singular (tawḥīd ): unique (wahid ), inherently One (ahad ), also all-merciful and omnipotent. God is neither a material nor...
God In Mormonism In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter-day Saints sometimes call Elohim, and the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus (His firstborn Son, whom Latter-day Saints sometimes call Jehovah), and the Holy Ghost (Holy...
God In Catholicism God in Catholicism is YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom the Catholic Church teaches Jesus Christ revealed to be the Trinity. Names The Old Testament names of God in Judaism are the names of God in Catholicism since they originate in the Bible, which...
God In Judaism In Judaism, God has been conceived in a variety of ways. Traditionally, Judaism holds that YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the national god of the Israelites, delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and gave them the Law of Moses at biblical Mount Sinai...
God The Son God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus as the incarnation of God, united in essence (consubstantial) but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (the first and third...
God In Abrahamic Religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are sometimes called Abrahamic religions because they all accept the tradition of the God, Yahweh, (known as Allah in Arabic), that revealed himself to the prophet Abraham. The theological traditions of all Abrahamic religions are thus to some extent influenced by the...
Creator Deity A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity or god responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a secondary creator from a...
What Is The Gender Of God? The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity. In polytheistic religions, gods are more likely to have literal sexes which would enable them to interact with each other, and even with humans, in a sexual...
Gender Of God In Sikhism Irrespective of the native-language meaning of the Mantra, the standard English translation neutralises the implied gender of God in Sikhism. Nonetheless, the Guru Granth consistently refers to God as He, even in English. He is also predominantly referred to as Father. Gurū Granth The scripture of Sikhism is the Gurū...
Ontological Argument For The Existence of God An ontological argument is a philosophical argument for the existence of God that uses ontology. Many arguments fall under the category of the ontological, and they tend to involve arguments about the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological arguments tend to start with a priori theory about...
Five Ways (Aquinas’ The Quinque Viae) The quinque viae (Latin “Five Ways“) (sometimes called “five proofs”) are five logical arguments regarding the existence of God summarized by the 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his book Summa Theologica. They are: the argument from metaphysical motion; the argument from efficient causation; the argument from contingency; the argument from degrees of being; the argument from...
Existence Of God The existence of God is a subject of debate in the philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God can be categorized as metaphysical, logical, empirical, or subjective. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God...
Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to abstract concepts such as nations, emotions, and natural forces, such as seasons and weather....
Theism Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of the Supreme Being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with deism, the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to as classical theism) – or gods found in polytheistic...
What Is Panentheism? Panentheism (meaning “all-in-God”) is the belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 to distinguish the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and...
What Is Pantheism? Pantheism is the belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all-things compose an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct personal anthropomorphic god and instead characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships between reality and divinity. Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years, and pantheistic elements...
What is Henotheism? Henotheism (meaning ‘one god‘) is the worship of a single god while not denying the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks. Max Müller (1823–1900), a German philologist and orientalist, brought the term into wider usage in his...
Gitche Manitou Gitche Manitou (Gitchi Manitou, Kitchi Manitou, etc.) means “Great Spirit” in several Algonquian languages. Christian missionaries have translated God as Gitche Manitou in scriptures and prayers in the Algonquian languages. Manitou is a common Algonquian term for spirit, mystery, or deity. Native American Churches in Mexico, United States and Canada often use this...
