Divinity

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Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses (Juno, Minerva, and Venus), by Isaac Oliver, c. 1558 Isaac Oliver Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses.jpg
Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses (Juno, Minerva, and Venus), by Isaac Oliver, c. 1558

Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity. [1] [2] What is or is not divine may be loosely defined, as it is used by different belief systems. Under monotheism and polytheism this is clearly delineated. However, in pantheism and animism this becomes synonymous with concepts of sacredness and transcendence. [3] [4]

Contents

Etymology

The root of the word divinity is the Latin divus meaning of or belonging to a God (deus). The word entered English from Medieval Latin in the 14th century. [5]

Usages

Divinity as a quality has two distinct usages:

Overlap occurs between these usages because deities or godly entities are often identical with or identified by the powers and forces that are credited to them—in many cases, a deity is merely a power or force personified—and these powers and forces may then be extended or granted to mortal individuals. For instance, Jehovah is closely associated with storms and thunder throughout much of the Old Testament. He is said to speak in thunder, and thunder is seen as a token of his anger. This power was then extended to prophets like Moses and Samuel, who caused thunderous storms to rain down on their enemies. [6] Divinity always carries connotations of goodness, beauty, beneficence, justice, and other positive, pro-social attributes. In monotheistic faiths there is an equivalent cohort of malefic supernatural beings and powers, such as demons, devils, afreet, etc., which are not conventionally referred to as divine; demonic is often used instead. Polytheistic and animistic systems of belief make no such distinction; gods and other beings of transcendent power often have complex, ignoble, or even incomprehensible motivations for their acts. Note that while the terms demon and demonic are used in monotheistic faiths as antonyms to divine, they are in fact derived from the Greek word daimón (δαίμων), which itself translates as divinity.

Uses in religious discourse

There are three distinct usages of divinity and divine in religious discourse:

Entity

In monotheistic faiths, the word divinity is often used to refer to the singular God central to that faith. Often the word takes the definite article and is capitalized—"the Divinity"—as though it were a proper name or definitive honorific. Divine—capitalized—may be used as an adjective to refer to the manifestations of such a Divinity or its powers: e.g. "basking in the Divine presence..."

The terms divinity and divine—uncapitalized, and lacking the definite article—are sometimes used to denote 'god(s) [7] or certain other beings and entities which fall short of absolute Godhood but lie outside the human realm.

Divine force or power

As previously noted, divinities are closely related to the transcendent force(s) or power(s) credited to them, [8] so much so that in some cases the powers or forces may themselves be invoked independently. This leads to the second usage of the word divine (and less common usage of divinity): to refer to the operation of transcendent power in the world.

In its most direct form, the operation of transcendent power implies some form of divine intervention. For monotheistic and polytheistic faiths this usually implies the direct action of one god or another on the course of human events. In Greek legend, for instance, it was Poseidon (god of the sea) who raised the storms that blew Odysseus's craft off course on his return journey, and Japanese tradition holds that a god-sent wind saved them from Mongol invasion. Prayers or propitiations are often offered to specific gods to garner favorable interventions in particular enterprises: e.g. safe journeys, success in war, or a season of bountiful crops. Many faiths around the world—from Japanese Shinto and Chinese traditional religion, to certain African practices and the faiths derived from those in the Caribbean, to Native American beliefs—hold that ancestral or household deities offer daily protection and blessings. In monotheistic religions, divine intervention may take very direct forms: miracles, visions, or intercessions by blessed figures.[ citation needed ]

Transcendent force or power may also operate through more subtle and indirect paths. Monotheistic faiths generally support some version of divine providence, which acknowledges that the divinity of the faith has a profound but unknowable plan always unfolding in the world. Unforeseeable, overwhelming, or seemingly unjust events are often thrown on 'the will of the Divine', in deferences like the Muslim inshallah ('as God wills it') and Christian 'God works in mysterious ways'. Often such faiths hold out the possibility of divine retribution as well, where the divinity will unexpectedly bring evil-doers to justice through the conventional workings of the world; from the subtle redressing of minor personal wrongs to such large-scale havoc as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or the biblical Great Flood. Other faiths are even more subtle: the doctrine of karma shared by Buddhism and Hinduism is a divine law similar to divine retribution but without the connotation of punishment: our acts, good or bad, intentional or unintentional, reflect back on us as part of the natural working of the universe. Philosophical Taoism also proposes a transcendent operant principle—transliterated in English as tao or dao, meaning 'the way'—which is neither an entity nor a being per se, but reflects the natural ongoing process of the world. Modern western mysticism and new age philosophy often use the term 'the Divine' as a noun in this latter sense: a non-specific principle or being that gives rise to the world, and acts as the source or wellspring of life. In these latter cases, the faiths do not promote deference, as happens in monotheisms; rather each suggests a path of action that will bring the practitioner into conformance with the divine law: ahimsa—'no harm'—for Buddhist and Hindu faiths; de or te—'virtuous action'—in Taoism; and any of numerous practices of peace and love in new age thinking.[ citation needed ]

Mortal

In the third usage, extensions of divinity and divine power are credited to living, mortal individuals. Political leaders are known to have claimed actual divinity in certain early societies—the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs being the premier case—taking a role as objects of worship and being credited with superhuman status and powers. More commonly, and more pertinent to recent history, leaders merely claim some form of divine mandate, suggesting that their rule is in accordance with the will of God. The doctrine of the divine right of kings was introduced as late as the 17th century, proposing that kings rule by divine decree; Japanese Emperors ruled by divine mandate until the inception of the Japanese constitution after World War II.

Less politically, most faiths have any number of people that are believed to have been touched by divine forces: saints, prophets, heroes, oracles, martyrs, and enlightened beings, among others. Saint Francis of Assisi, in Catholicism, is said to have received instruction directly from God and it is believed that he grants plenary indulgence to all who confess their sins and visit his chapel on the appropriate day. In Greek mythology, Achilles' mother bathed him in the river Styx to give him immortality, and Hercules—as the son of Zeus—inherited near-godly powers. In religious Taoism, Laozi is venerated as a saint with his own powers. Various individuals in the Buddhist faith, beginning with Siddhartha, are considered to be enlightened, and in religious forms of Buddhism they are credited with divine powers. Christ in the Bible is said to be God's Son and is said to have performed divine miracles.

In general, mortals with divine qualities are carefully distinguished from the deity or deities in their religion's main pantheon. [9] Even the Christian faith, which generally holds Christ to be identical to God, distinguishes between God the Father and Christ the begotten Son. [10] There are, however, certain esoteric and mystical schools of thought, present in many faiths—Sufis in Islam, Gnostics in Christianity, Advaitan Hindus, Zen Buddhists, as well as several non-specific perspectives developed in new age philosophy—which hold that all humans are in essence divine, or unified with the Divine in a non-trivial way. Such divinity, in these faiths, would express itself naturally if it were not obscured by the social and physical worlds we live in; it needs to be brought to the fore through appropriate spiritual practices. [11]

In religions

Christianity

In the New Testament the Greek word θεῖον (theion) in the Douay Version, is translated as "divinity". Examples are below:

"Being therefore the offspring of God, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of art, and device of man."
"For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable."
"Saying with a loud voice: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction."

The word translated as either "deity", "Godhead", or "divinity" in the Greek New Testament is also the Greek word θεότητος (theotētos), and the one verse that contains it is this: Colossians 2:9

"Quia in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis [divinity] corporaliter." (Vulgate)
"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." (KJV)
"Because it is in him that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily." (NWT)
"For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form." (NET)
"For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ." (TEV)

The word "divine" in the New Testament is the Greek word θείας (theias), and is the adjective form of "divinity". Biblical examples from the King James Bible are below:

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Latter-day Saints

The most prominent conception of divine entities in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is the Godhead, a divine council of three distinct beings: Elohim (the Father), Jehovah (the Son, or Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Joseph Smith described a nontrinitarian Godhead, with God the Father and Jesus Christ each having individual physical bodies, and the Holy Spirit as a distinct personage with a spirit body. [12] [13] Smith also introduced the existence of a Heavenly Mother in the King Follett Discourse, but very little is acknowledged or known beyond her existence. [14] [15]

Mormons hold a belief in the divine potential of humanity; Smith taught a form of divinization where mortal men and women can become like god through salvation and exaltation. Lorenzo Snow succinctly summarized this using a couplet, which is often repeated within the LDS Church: "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be." [16] [17]

Wicca

Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic. In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share a similar duotheistic theology, the Horned God is given precedence over the Goddess. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities that may be worshipped. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primitive monotheism among ancient Greeks.

Monotheism is the belief that one god is the only, or at least the dominant deity. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, in which the one God is a singular existence, and both inclusive and pluriform monotheism, in which multiple gods or godly forms are recognized, but each are postulated as extensions of the same God.

Panentheism is the belief that the divine intersects 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 Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) about the relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of Baruch Spinoza. Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are identical, panentheism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theism</span> Belief in the existence of at least one deity

Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of at least one deity. In common parlance, or when contrasted with deism, the term often describes the philosophical conception of God that is found in classical theism—or the conception found in monotheism—or gods found in polytheistic religions—or a belief in God or gods without the rejection of revelation, as is characteristic of deism.

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 the divine is seen to be outside the material world.

Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the orthodox Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence. Certain religious groups that emerged during the Protestant Reformation have historically been known as antitrinitarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Divine providence</span> Gods intervention in the Universe

In theology, divine providence, or simply providence, is God's intervention in the Universe. The term Divine Providence is also used as a title of God. A distinction is usually made between "general providence", which refers to God's continuous upholding of the existence and natural order of the Universe, and "special providence", which refers to God's extraordinary intervention in the life of people. Miracles and even retribution generally fall in the latter category.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">God in Mormonism</span> Mormon conception of God

In orthodox Mormonism, the term God generally refers to the biblical God the Father, whom Latter Day Saints also refer to as Elohim or Heavenly Father, while the term Godhead refers to a council of three distinct divine persons consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. However, in Latter Day Saint theology the term God may also refer to, in some contexts, the Godhead as a whole or to each member individually.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apotheosis</span> Glorification of a subject to divine level

Apotheosis, also called divinization or deification, is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goddess movement</span> Modern revival of divine feminine or female-centered spirituality

The Goddess movement is a revivalistic Neopagan religious movement which includes spiritual beliefs and practices that emerged primarily in the United States in the late 1960s and predominantly in the Western world during the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction both against Abrahamic religions, which exclusively have gods who are referred to using masculine grammatical articles and pronouns, and secularism. It revolves around Goddess worship and the veneration for the divine feminine, and may include a focus on women or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.

Nature worship, also called naturism or physiolatry, is any of a variety of religious, spiritual and devotional practices that focus on the worship of the nature spirits considered to be behind the natural phenomena visible throughout nature. A nature deity can be in charge of nature, a place, a biotope, the biosphere, the cosmos, or the universe. Nature worship is often considered the primitive source of modern religious beliefs and can be found in pantheism, panentheism, deism, polytheism, animism, Taoism, totemism, Hinduism, shamanism, some theism and paganism including Wicca. Common to most forms of nature worship is a spiritual focus on the individual's connection and influence on some aspects of the natural world and reverence towards it. Due to their admiration of nature, the works of Edmund Spenser, Anthony Ashley-Cooper and Carl Linnaeus were viewed as nature worship.

Binitarianism is a Christian theology of two persons, personas, or aspects in one substance/Divinity. Classically, binitarianism is understood as a form of monotheism—that is, that God is absolutely one being—and yet with binitarianism there is a "twoness" in God, which means one God family. The other common forms of monotheism are "unitarianism", a belief in one God with one person, and "trinitarianism", a belief in one God with three persons.

The gender of God can be viewed as a literal or as an allegorical aspect of a deity.

In religion, transcendence is the aspect of existence that is completely independent of the material universe, beyond all known physical laws. This is related to the nature and power of deities as well as other spiritual or supernatural beings and forces. 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 experience, transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence, and by some definitions, has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, rituals, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal visions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarnation (Christianity)</span> Belief that Jesus was made flesh by being conceived in the womb of a woman

In Christian theology, the incarnation is the belief that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and the Logos, "was made flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos. The doctrine of the incarnation then entails that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">God</span> Principal object of faith in monotheism

In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the universe or life, for which such a deity is often worshipped". Belief in the existence of at least one god is called theism.

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:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiccan views of divinity</span>

Wiccan views of divinity are generally theistic, and revolve around a Goddess and a Horned God, thereby being generally dualistic. In traditional Wicca, as expressed in the writings of Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente, the emphasis is on the theme of divine gender polarity, and the God and Goddess are regarded as equal and opposite divine cosmic forces. In some newer forms of Wicca, such as feminist or Dianic Wicca, the Goddess is given primacy or even exclusivity. In some forms of traditional witchcraft that share a similar duotheistic theology, the Horned God is given precedence over the Goddess.

Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god. According to Oxford Reference, it is not easy to count gods, and so not always obvious whether an apparently polytheistic religion, such as Chinese Folk Religions, is really so, or whether the apparent different objects of worship are to be thought of as manifestations of a singular divinity. Polytheistic belief is usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God who is, in most cases, transcendent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Spirit (Christian denominational variations)</span> Christian denominations have variations in their teachings regarding the Holy Spirit.

The different Denominations of Christianity have variations in their teachings regarding the Holy Spirit.

References

  1. ↑ divine Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine – Dictionary.com.
  2. ↑ divine Archived 2020-10-13 at the Wayback Machine – Merriam Webster.
  3. ↑ "Pantheism".
  4. ↑ "The Matter with Pantheism: Race, Gender, Divinity, and Dirt". 22 September 2016.
  5. ↑ "Divinity". Merriam-Wester. Archived from the original on 13 October 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  6. ↑ see Exodus 9:23 and 1 Samuel 12:18
  7. ↑ See, for example "The Great Stag: A Sumerian Divinity" Archived 2020-09-30 at the Wayback Machine by Bobula Ida (Yearbook of Ancient and Medieval History 1953)
  8. ↑ note Augustine's argument that divinity is not a quality of God, but that "God is [...] Divinity itself" (Nature and Grace, part I, question 3, article 3) "Whether God is the Same as His Essence or Nature" Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ This is sometimes a controversial issue, however; see The Divinity of the Emperor, for example, for a discussion of the status of the Japanese emperor.
  10. ↑ See, for example, "The Divinity of Alpha's Jesus" Archived 2020-10-22 at the Wayback Machine by Peterson & McDonald (Media Spotlight 25:4, 2002)
  11. ↑ See, for example, "Twelve Signs of Your Awakening Divinity" Archived December 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine by Geoffrey Hoppe and Tobias
  12. ↑ D&C 130:22 Archived 2019-07-14 at the Wayback Machine "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us."
  13. ↑ "Godhead", True to the Faith, LDS Church, 2004. See also: "God the Father", True to the Faith, LDS Church, 2004
  14. ↑ "Chapter 2: Our Heavenly Family". Gospel Principles . LDS Church. 2009. Archived from the original on 2019-10-15. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  15. ↑ Kimball, Spencer W. (May 1978). "The True Way of Life and Salvation". Ensign . LDS Church. Archived from the original on 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  16. ↑ Lund, Gerald N. (February 1982). "I Have a Question: Is President Lorenzo Snow's oft-repeated statement—"As man now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be"—accepted as official doctrine by the Church?". Ensign . Archived from the original on 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  17. ↑ Millet, Robert L.; Reynolds, Noel B. (1998), "Do Latter-day Saints believe that men and women can become gods?", Latter-day Christianity: 10 Basic Issues , Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, ISBN   0934893322, OCLC   39732987
  18. ↑ "Traditional Witchcraft Compared to Wicca".
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