Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 17:22, 8 August 2011

This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Misplaced Pages's quality standards. You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions.

Template:Histinfo

This article may be weighted too heavily toward only one aspect of its subject. Please help by introducing more general information to this article. Feel free to discuss the issue on the talk page.

This article lacks an overview of its topic. You can help by writing the lead section.

This article has no lead section. Please improve this article by adding one in your own words. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article needs attention from an expert on the subject. Please add a reason or a talk parameter to this template to explain the issue with the article. When placing this tag, consider associating this request with a WikiProject.

Theism, in the broadest sense, is the belief that at least one deity exists. In a more specific sense, theism refers to a doctrine concerning the nature of a monotheistic God and God's relationship to the universe. Theism, in this specific sense, conceives of God as personal, present and active in the governance and organization of the world and the universe. The use of the word theism as indicating a particular doctrine of monotheism arose in the wake of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century to contrast with the then emerging deism that contended that God, though transcendent and supreme, did not intervene in the natural world and could be known rationally but not via revelation.

The term theism derives from the Greek theos meaning "god". The term theism was first used by Ralph Cudworth (1617–88). Atheism is rejection of theism in the broadest sense of theism; i.e. the rejection of belief that there is even one deity. Rejection of the narrower sense of theism can take forms such as deism, pantheism, and polytheism. The claim that the existence of any deity is unknown is agnosticism, and can be compatible with theism and with atheism. The positive assertion of knowledge, either of the existence of gods or the absence of gods, can also be attributed to some theists and some atheists. Put simply theism and atheism deal with belief, and agnosticism deals with (absence of) knowledge; they are not mutually exclusive as they deal with different domains.

Types

Monotheism

Monotheism (from Greek μόνος) is the belief in theology that only one deity exists. Some modern day monotheistic religions include Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism.

Polytheism

While a specific definition of theism may exclude polytheism, it is included by the most general definition. Polytheism is the belief that there is more than one deity. In practice, polytheism is not just the belief that there are multiple gods; it usually includes belief in the existence of a specific pantheon of distinct deities.

Within polytheism there are hard and soft varieties:

• Hard polytheism views the gods as being distinct and separate beings; an example of this would be the Egyptian and Greek Religions; along with certain schools of Hinduism.
• Soft polytheism views the gods as being subsumed into a greater whole. Some forms of Hinduism such as Smartism/Advaita Vedanta serve as examples of soft polytheism.

Polytheism is also divided according to how the individual deities are regarded:

• Henotheism: The viewpoint/belief that there may be more than one deity, but worship of only one of them.
• Kathenotheism: The viewpoint/belief that there is more than one deity, but only one deity is worshipped at a time or ever, and another may be worthy of worship at another time or place. If they are worshipped one at a time, then each is supreme in turn.
• Monolatrism: The belief that there may be more than one deity, but that only one is worthy of being worshipped. Most of the modern monotheistic religions may have begun as monolatric ones.

Pantheism and panentheism

While a specific definition of theism may exclude pantheism, it is included by the most general definition.

• Pantheism: The belief that the physical universe is equivalent to a god or gods, and that there is no division between a Creator and the substance of its creation. Examples include many forms of Saivism.
• Panentheism: Like Pantheism, the belief that the physical universe is joined to a god or gods. However, it also believes that a god or gods are greater than the material universe. Examples include most forms of Vaishnavism.

Some people find the distinction between these two beliefs as ambiguous and unhelpful, while others see it as a significant point of division.

Deism

While the specific definition of theism given above may exclude deism, deism is included as a form of theism by the most general definition given above.

• Deism is the belief that at least one deity exists and created the world, but that the creator(s) does/do not alter the original plan for the universe.

Deism typically rejects supernatural events (such as prophecies, miracles, and divine revelations) prominent in organized religion. Instead, Deism holds that religious beliefs must be founded on human reason and observed features of the natural world, and that these sources reveal the existence of a supreme being as creator.

• Pandeism: The belief that a god preceded the universe and created it, but is now equivalent with it.
• Panendeism combines deism with panentheism, believing the universe is a part (but not the whole) of deity
• Polydeism: The belief that multiple gods existed, but do not intervene with the universe.

Autotheism

While a specific definition of theism may exclude autotheism, it is included by the most general definition. Autotheism is the viewpoint that, whether divinity is also external or not, it is inherently within 'oneself' and that one has a duty to become perfect (or divine). This can either be in a selfish, wilful, egotistical way or a selfless way following the implications of statements attributed to ethical, philosophical, and religious leaders (such as Jesus, Buddha, Mahavira and Socrates).

Autotheism can also refer to the belief that one's self is a deity (often the only one), within the context of subjectivism. This is a fairly extreme version of subjectivism, however.

Value-judgment theisms

• Eutheism is the viewpoint/belief that a deity(ies) is wholly benevolent; dystheism allows for there being evil in the divine realm.
• Maltheism is the belief that a deity exists, but that god is wholly malicious and abusive.

See also

• Open theism
• Theistic evolution
• Animism
• Nontheistic religions

References

1. "Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary". Retrieved 2011-03-18.
2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Second Edition and The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1997).
3. Encyclopedia Britannica.
4. John Orr (English Deism: Its Roots and Its Fruits, 1934) explains that before the seventeenth century theism and deism were interchangeable terms but during the course of the seventeenth century they gained separate and mutually exclusive meanings (see deism)
5. Halsey, William (1969). Louis Shores (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. 22 (20 ed.). Crowell-Collier Educational Corporation. pp. 266–7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. • Nielsen, Kai (2010). "Atheism". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2011-01-26. Atheism, in general, the critique and denial of metaphysical beliefs in God or spiritual beings.... Instead of saying that an atheist is someone who believes that it is false or probably false that there is a God, a more adequate characterization of atheism consists in the more complex claim that to be an atheist is to be someone who rejects belief in God for the following reasons (which reason is stressed depends on how God is being conceived)...
   • Edwards, Paul (2005) . "Atheism". In Donald M. Borchert (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA (Gale). p. 359. ISBN 0028657802. On our definition, an 'atheist' is a person who rejects belief in God, regardless of whether or not his reason for the rejection is the claim that 'God exists' expresses a false proposition. People frequently adopt an attitude of rejection toward a position for reasons other than that it is a false proposition. It is common among contemporary philosophers, and indeed it was not uncommon in earlier centuries, to reject positions on the ground that they are meaningless. Sometimes, too, a theory is rejected on such grounds as that it is sterile or redundant or capricious, and there are many other considerations which in certain contexts are generally agreed to constitute good grounds for rejecting an assertion. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |isbn13= ignored (help)(page 175 in 1967 edition)
7. Carroll, Robert (2009-02-22). "agnosticism". The Skeptic's Dictionary. skepdic.com. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
8. Hepburn, Ronald W. (2005) . "Agnosticism". In Donald M. Borchert (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Vol. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). MacMillan Reference USA (Gale). p. 92. ISBN 0028657802. In the most general use of the term, agnosticism is the view that we do not know whether there is a God or not. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |isbn13= ignored (help) (page 56 in 1967 edition)
9. Rowe, William L. (1998). "Agnosticism". In Edward Craig (ed.). Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780415073103. In the popular sense, an agnostic is someone who neither believes nor disbelieves in God, whereas an atheist disbelieves in God. In the strict sense, however, agnosticism is the view that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist. In so far as one holds that our beliefs are rational only if they are sufficiently supported by human reason, the person who accepts the philosophical position of agnosticism will hold that neither the belief that God exists nor the belief that God does not exist is rational.
10. “Monotheism”, in Britannica, 15th ed. (1986), 8:266.
11. AskOxford: polytheism
12. "Philosophical Dictionary: Pacifism-Particular".
13. "What is Panentheism?". About.Com: Agnosticism/Atheism. Retrieved 2011-03-18.
14. AskOxford: deism
15. Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language (G. & C. Merriam, 1924) defines deism as "belief in the existence of a personal god, with disbelief in Christian teaching, or with a purely rationalistic interpretation of Scripture".
16. Matthew 5:38 "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
17. Luke 17:21 "The Kingdom of God is within you"

External links

Articles Related to Theism

v t e Philosophy Branches Branches Applied philosophy Logic Metaphilosophy Philosophy of information Philosophy of language Philosophy of mathematics Philosophy of religion Philosophy of science Political philosophy Practical philosophy Social philosophy Theoretical philosophy Aesthetics Aesthetic response Formalism Institutionalism Epistemology Empiricism Fideism Naturalism Particularism Rationalism Skepticism Solipsism Ethics Consequentialism Deontology Virtue Free will Compatibilism Determinism Hard Incompatibilism Hard Libertarianism Metaphysics Atomism Dualism Idealism Monism Naturalism Realism Mind Behaviorism Eliminativism Emergentism Epiphenomenalism Functionalism Objectivism Subjectivism Normativity Absolutism Particularism Relativism Nihilism Skepticism Universalism Ontology Action Event Process Reality Anti-realism Conceptualism Idealism Materialism Naturalism Nominalism Physicalism Realism By era By era Ancient Western Medieval Renaissance Early modern Modern Contemporary Ancient Chinese Agriculturalism Confucianism Legalism Logicians Mohism Chinese naturalism Taoism Yangism Greco-Roman Presocratic Ionians Pythagoreans Eleatics Atomists Sophists Cyrenaics Cynicism Eretrian school Megarian school Academy Peripatetic school Hellenistic philosophy Pyrrhonism Stoicism Epicureanism Academic Skepticism Middle Platonism School of the Sextii Neopythagoreanism Second Sophistic Neoplatonism Church Fathers Indian Hindu Samkhya Nyaya Vaisheshika Yoga Mīmāṃsā Ājīvika Ajñana Cārvāka Jain Anekantavada Syādvāda Buddhist Abhidharma Sarvāstivadā Pudgalavada Sautrāntika Madhyamaka Svatantrika and Prasangika Śūnyatā Yogacara Tibetan Persian Mazdakism Mithraism Zoroastrianism Zurvanism Medieval East Asian Neotaoism Tiantai Huayan Chan Zen Neo-Confucianism Korean Confucianism European Christian Augustinianism Scholasticism Thomism Scotism Occamism Renaissance humanism Indian Vedanta Acintya bheda abheda Advaita Bhedabheda Dvaita Nimbarka Sampradaya Shuddhadvaita Vishishtadvaita Navya-Nyāya Islamic Aristotelianism Averroism Avicennism Illuminationism ʿIlm al-Kalām Sufi Jewish Judeo-Islamic Modern Anarchism Classical Realism Collectivism Conservatism Determinism Dualism Edo neo-Confucianism Empiricism Existentialism Foundationalism Historicism Holism Humanism Anti- Idealism Absolute British German Objective Subjective Transcendental Individualism Kokugaku Liberalism Materialism Modernism Monism Naturalism Natural law Nihilism New Confucianism Neo-scholasticism Pragmatism Phenomenology Positivism Reductionism Rationalism Social contract Socialism Transcendentalism Utilitarianism People Cartesianism Kantianism Neo Kierkegaardianism Krausism Hegelianism Marxism Newtonianism Nietzscheanism Spinozism Contemporary Analytic Applied ethics Analytic feminism Analytical Marxism Communitarianism Consequentialism Critical rationalism Experimental philosophy Falsificationism Foundationalism / Coherentism Internalism and externalism Logical positivism Legal positivism Meta-ethics Moral realism Quinean naturalism Normative ethics Ordinary language philosophy Postanalytic philosophy Quietism Rawlsian Reformed epistemology Systemics Scientism Scientific realism Scientific skepticism Transactionalism Contemporary utilitarianism Vienna Circle Wittgensteinian Continental Critical theory Deconstruction Existentialism Feminist Frankfurt School Hermeneutics Neo-Marxism New Historicism Phenomenology Posthumanism Postmodernism Post-structuralism Social constructionism Structuralism Western Marxism Miscellaneous Kyoto School Objectivism Postcritique Russian cosmism more... By region By region African Bantu Egyptian Ethiopian Africana Eastern Buddhist Chinese Indian Indonesian Japanese Korean Taiwanese Vietnamese Middle Eastern Iranian Islamic Jewish Pakistani Turkish Western American Australian British Scottish Canada Czech Danish Dutch Finland French German Greek Italian Maltese Polish Slovene Spanish Miscellaneous Amerindian Aztec Romanian Russian Yugoslav Philosophy portal Category v t e Philosophy of religion Concepts in religion Afterlife Euthyphro dilemma Faith or religious belief Intelligent design Miracle Problem of evil Soul Spirit Theodicy Theological veto Conceptions of God Brahman Demiurge Divine simplicity Egoism Holy Spirit Misotheism Pandeism Personal god Process theology Supreme Being Unmoved mover God in Abrahamic religions Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism Mormonism Sikhism Baháʼí Faith Wicca Existence of God For Beauty Christological Consciousness Cosmological Kalam Contingency Degree Desire Experience Fine-tuning of the universe Love Miracles Morality Necessary existent Ontological Pascal's wager Proper basis and Reformed epistemology Reason Teleological Natural law Watchmaker analogy Transcendental Against 747 gambit Atheist's Wager Evil Free will Hell Inconsistent revelations Nonbelief Noncognitivism Occam's razor Omnipotence Poor design Russell's teapot Theology Acosmism Agnosticism Animism Antireligion Atheism Creationism Dharmism Deism Demonology Divine command theory Dualism Esotericism Exclusivism Existentialism Christian Atheistic Feminist theology Thealogy Womanist theology Fideism Fundamentalism Gnosticism Henotheism Humanism Religious Secular Christian Inclusivism Theories about religions Monism Monotheism Mysticism Naturalism Metaphysical Religious Humanistic New Age Nondualism Nontheism Pandeism Panentheism Pantheism Perennialism Polytheism Possibilianism Process theology Religious skepticism Spiritualism Shamanism Taoic Theism Transcendentalism more... Religious language Eschatological verification Language game Logical positivism Apophatic theology Verificationism Problem of evil Augustinian theodicy Best of all possible worlds Euthyphro dilemma Inconsistent triad Irenaean theodicy Natural evil Theodicy Philosophers of religion (by date active) Ancient and medieval Anselm of Canterbury Augustine of Hippo Avicenna Averroes Boethius Gaudapada Gaunilo of Marmoutiers Pico della Mirandola Heraclitus King James VI and I Marcion of Sinope Maimonides Adi Shankara Thomas Aquinas William of Ockham Early modern Augustin Calmet René Descartes Blaise Pascal Desiderius Erasmus Baruch Spinoza Nicolas Malebranche Gottfried W Leibniz William Wollaston Thomas Chubb David Hume Baron d'Holbach Immanuel Kant Johann G Herder 1800 1850 Friedrich Schleiermacher Karl C F Krause Georg W F Hegel Thomas Carlyle William Whewell Ludwig Feuerbach Søren Kierkegaard Karl Marx Albrecht Ritschl Afrikan Spir 1880 1900 Ernst Haeckel W K Clifford Friedrich Nietzsche Harald Høffding William James Vladimir Solovyov Ernst Troeltsch Rudolf Otto Lev Shestov Sergei Bulgakov Pavel Florensky Ernst Cassirer Joseph Maréchal 1920 postwar George Santayana Bertrand Russell Martin Buber René Guénon Paul Tillich Karl Barth Emil Brunner Rudolf Bultmann Gabriel Marcel Reinhold Niebuhr Charles Hartshorne Mircea Eliade Frithjof Schuon J L Mackie Walter Kaufmann Martin Lings Peter Geach George I Mavrodes William Alston Antony Flew 1970 1990 2010 William L Rowe Dewi Z Phillips Alvin Plantinga Anthony Kenny Nicholas Wolterstorff Richard Swinburne Robert Merrihew Adams Ravi Zacharias Peter van Inwagen Daniel Dennett Loyal Rue Jean-Luc Marion William Lane Craig Ali Akbar Rashad Alexander Pruss Related topics Criticism of religion Desacralization of knowledge Ethics in religion Exegesis History of religion Religion Religious language Religious philosophy Relationship between religion and science Faith and rationality more... Portal Category v t e God Deity Divinity Goddess List Conceptions of God Existence Gender of God Agnostic theism Animism Antitheism Apatheism Atheism Agnostic atheism Christian atheism Implicit and explicit atheism Jewish atheism Negative and positive atheism New Atheism Theological noncognitivism Binitarianism Classical theism Deism Ceremonial deism Christian deism Pandeism Polydeism Dipolar theism Dystheism Egotheism Misotheism Henotheism Ietsism Kathenotheism Liberal theism Monolatry Monotheism Ethical monotheism Post-monotheism Mysticism Nontheism Post-theism Nontrinitarianism Open theism Panentheism Pantheism Classical pantheism Hylotheism Naturalistic pantheism Philosophical theism Physitheism Euhemerism Polytheism Skeptical theism Spiritualism Theism Theistic finitism Transtheism Trinitarianism Tritheism Unitarianism Religion portal

v t e Theology
Conceptions of God Theism Forms Deism Dystheism Henotheism Hermeticism Kathenotheism Nontheism Monolatry Monotheism Urmonotheismus Mysticism Panentheism Pandeism Pantheism Polydeism Polytheism Spiritualism Theistic finitism Theopanism Concepts Deity Divinity Gender of God and gods Goddess Numen Singular god theologies By faith Abrahamic religions Baháʼí Faith Judaism Christianity Islam Buddhism Hinduism Jainism Sikhism Zoroastrianism Concepts Absolute Brahman Emanationism Logos Supreme Being God as Sustainer Time Good (Ahura Mazda, Father of Greatness) Trinitarianism Athanasian Creed Comma Johanneum Consubstantiality Homoousian Homoiousian Hypostasis Perichoresis Shield of the Trinity Trinitarian formula Trinity Trinity of the Church Fathers Trinitarian universalism Eschatology Afterlife Apocalypticism Fate of the unlearned Fitra Heaven / Hell By religion Buddhist Christian Hindu Islamic Jewish Taoist Zoroastrian Feminist Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Judaism Mormonism Goddesses Other concepts Attributes of God in Christianity / in Islam Binitarianism Demiurge Divine simplicity Divine presence Egotheism Exotheology Holocaust Godhead in Christianity Latter Day Saints Great Architect of the Universe Great Spirit Apophatic theology Olelbis Open theism Personal god Phenomenological definition Philo's view Process Tian Unmoved mover Names of God in Christianity Hinduism Islam Jainism Judaism
By faith Christian History Outline Biblical canon Glossary Paterology Christology Pneumatology Cosmology Ecclesiology Eschatology Ethics Hamartiology Messianism Philosophy Political Practical Public Sophiology Soteriology Hindu Ayyavazhi theology Krishnology Islamic Oneness of God Prophets Holy Scriptures Angels Predestination Last Judgment Jewish Abrahamic prophecy Aggadah Denominations Kabbalah Philosophy Pagan Slavic Native Faith Wiccan
Religion portal

• Theism
• Theology