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The Jews never recited the Great Name of Jehovah. They spoke
of it as "the great and terrible name","the
peculiar name of God". Jehovah is translated
as `The Lord'. The true pronunciation of this name,
by which God was known to the Hebrews, has been entirely lost,
the Jews themselves scrupulously avoiding every mention of
it, and substituting in its stead one or other of the words
with whose proper vowel-points it may happen to be written.
This custom, which had its origin in reverence, and has almost
degenerated into a superstition, was founded upon an erroneous
rendering of Lev. xxiv-16:
'He that blasphemeth the name of God, shall surely
be put to death.'
From this it was inferred that the mere utterance
of the name constituted a capital offence. In the Rabbinical
writings it is distinguished by various euphemistic expressions;
as simply: (i) `the name' or (ii) `the name of four letters',
(the Greek tetragrammaton), or (iii) `the
great and terrible name', or (iv) `the peculiar name' (i.e.
appropriated to God alone), or (v) `the separate name' (i.e
either the name that is separated or removed from human knowledge),
or (vi) as some render `the name which has been interpreted
or revealed.' (Professor W.A.Wright, M.A., Smith's Dictionary
of the Bible, Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam,
p.226)
The Jews also adopted the concept of Trinity of
God, Moses and Ezra.
Christianity:Christianity
brought with it a renewed message of love, mercy and forgiveness..
God was portrayed like a father full of love and affection.
This concept of God appeared to be a revolutionary concept
to the Jews. Christianity formally teaches monotheism.
"..for, the Lord our God is Holy". Psalms
99:9
“ You should worship the Lord, your God,
and Him only shall you serve.” Mathew 4-10
"Now
unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible,
the Only Wise God,
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Timothy 1:17
" ..and there is no God else beside Me;
a Just God and a Saviour;
there is none beside Me."
Look unto Me, and be ye saved ,
all the ends of the earth:
for, I am God, and there is none else." Isaiah
45:21 , 22
But elements of polytheism have mingled up more
commonly at folk level in different countries. "Jesus
had an intense awareness of communion with God: he habitually
called him `Abba' (the domestic word for `father') and taught
his followers to do the same.” (Every language and its
terminology has its own nuances and shades of meanings relevant
to its space and time. It shows how the word `Abba' (`father'),
standing for love and affection, which was the message at
that time, came to be misinterpreted and misconceived). In
about 320 C.E., a fierce debate gripped the churches of Egypt,
Syria and Asia Minor. The controversy became so intense that
it threatened the power base of the empire. The emperor Constantine
himself intervened and summoned a synod to Nicaea in modern
Turkey to settle the conflict, in 325 A.C. Arius doctrine
(Arianism) held that Jesus Christ was not of one substance
with God, but had been created by God. Under the influence
of another priest Athanasius, Arian doctrine was condemned
at the Council, the ancient concept of trinity (Father, son
and holy spirit) was adopted, besides atonement and deification
of Christ, upholding the Alexandrian concept of image-worship.
Christianity was influenced by the ritual and
form of worship of the Romans’. The image of the Roman
Madonna was there, and it was made to hold in its lap the
infant, purported son of God. The second Council of Niceae
(787 CE) approved veneration of icons as signs of faith in
the Incarnation. The `Divine Logos' became fully human as
Jesus Christ, and portrayed as such. St Thomas Acquinas (1225-74
CE) justified reverence to the images, arguing that worship
is directed to the reality, which was symbolized. Protestantism
is generally against images. Icons are, however, revered and
used in religious ceremonies by orthodox Christians and form
integral part of decoration of churches.
Paul Davies, in his book `The Mind of God’(p.37),
has made following observations: "A systematic world
view that tackled seriously the paradox of time had to await
the fifth century A.D., and the work of Saint Augustine..
He recognized that time was part of the physical universe
- part of creation - and so he placed the Creator firmly outside
the stream of time. (But) The idea of a timeless Deity did
not rest easily within Christian doctrine, however. Special
difficulty surrounded the role of Christ: What can it mean
for a timeless God to become incarnate and die on the cross
at some particular epoch in history? The debate was continuing
in the thirteenth century.. A young friar in Paris, Thomas
Aquinas, set out to combine the Christian religion with the
Greek methods of rational philosophy. He conceived a transcendent
God inhabiting a Platonic realm beyond space and time. He
then attributed a set of well-defined qualities to God...and
attempted to argue.. after the fashion of geometrical theorems.
"The philosopher John
O'Donnel... (in) his book `Trinity and Temporarility' addresses
the conflict between Platonic timelessness and Christian-Judaic
historicity.. I am suggesting that as Christianity came into
greater contact with Hellenism.. it sought to achieve a synthesis
which was bound to break down precisely at this point.. The
gospel, combined with certain Hellenistic presuppositions
about the nature of God, led to impasses from which the church
has yet to extricate itself."
Iconography:A
symbolic image, considered sacred, is known as `icon'. It
is venerated and used in religious ceremonies. Icons are used
as material embodiments of spiritual meaning and power. They
are believed to `represent the return of the material creation
to God'; as `the access points to the realities of the Divine
Kingdom.’
Roman
di Deaeque:The gods and goddesses of Rome.
They varied widely. There were high gods, e.g. Jupiter, the
chief of state-gods, coming down to gods for specific purposes,
e.g. just for one stage of growth of crop of corn, etc. Names
of deities and formulae were used in prayers. It is thought
that Romans originally had no gods, but spirits only. With
time under foreign influence, e.g. Greek, they were given
personality, relations and adventure. The number of gods and
goddesses increased because of various reasons.
Greek
Philosophy:The `historical' Greek religion
began in the 8th century BCE. Greece had no canonical body
or belief or myth. There were no structures, clergy or scriptural
texts. The local variants flourished.
Theoi:It
means gods. Greek deities were considered to be anthropomorphic,
possessing immortality, extensive powers, knowledge, happiness
and beauty. They were neither transcendental nor omnipresent.
They protected morality but sometimes cheated and committed
adultery. Each had a mythos (myth connected with him), a cult-corpus,
certain functions and concepts. Deities, it was thought, helped,
but did not generally have affection for humans, although
they occasionally showed compassion. No god was entirely dangerous
but each had a dangerous side too.
School
of Alexandria: According to the oldest ‘Ionic’
school of Greek Philosophy, planets and stars possessed souls.
They visualized soul of a reality behind this universe. In
Greece the gods of Olympus were presented with a god of gods.
Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle:About 500 years before
Christ the belief in the Unity of God re-emerged, e.g., in
Greece, Socrates called God “The Good, the All Good
and Absolute Beauty.” He believed in The One Eternal
and Intelligent Being. Plato invented two gods for dominion
over the two worlds. At the pinnacle of the world of forms
was the Good, an eternal and immutable being, beyond space
and time. The other one, called Demiurge, was supposed to
fashion existing matter into an ordered state. Plato recognized
a fundamental tension between `being' and `becoming', between
the time-less and eternal forms and the changing world of
experience, but did not reconcile the two. Aristotle rejected
the concept of timeless forms and instead developed a picture
of the world as a living organism. This animistic view of
the universe laid stress on `process' through progressive
goal- oriented change. It was thought that the universe contained
objects which were `ungenerated, imperishable, eternal' and
moving forever along fixed and perfect circular orbits.
The
Neo-Platonism:It is the version of the Platonic
philosophy, developed by Plotinus as the mystical interpretation
of Plato's teaching. `Plotinus postulated three `hypostases'
or levels of true reality beyond the material world: (i) the
Soul (Psyche), (ii) The Intellect (Nous), (iii) The One or
The Good. They were viewed as metaphysical entities. The One
or The Good was God, the Ultimate Reality; hence indescribable.
In third century A.C, Neo-Platonism, the School
of Alexandria, reached the conclusion of denial of attributes.
It was considered that the Absolute Being was beyond human
perception. Clement of Alexandria summed this up as follows:
“We can not specify Him by simply saying what He is.
We can only do so by saying what he is not. The negative way
is the only way open to us. The positive way blocks itself”
Khudaa:`Khudaa'
(from `Khud' meaning `self’), in Persian means The Self-Existing
One.
Sikh
Doctrine:`Akal Purakh' is the term used for
the `Eternal'. He is also called `Vahiguru'. One, in an ultimate
sense God, is unknowable. However, it is believed that a sufficient
revelation has been communicated by the grace of the Guru
- the `voice' of God mystically uttered within him. They believe
in the Unity of God and His creative power. He is `without
form'. His presence is visible to the enlightened believer.
They believe that God is immanent in all creation. Nanak laid
the foundation but as Sikh Panth evolved, so too, the concept
of God underwent changes - eternal Guru merged with the godhead
(Vahiguru).
Germans,
Celts, Slavs and Balts:Their religions were
never centralized. The sky-god fought monsters with club or
hammer, controlling weather and protecting law and the community.
Perun was god of eloquence, magic and the dead. There were
fertility deities and female battle spirits. In the Viking
Age (9th-11th century) there were four main deities. Among
their gods, Freyr and Freyia were fertility deities.
Concepts
and Philosophies of God and god(s):The `beings'
figuring in myths or as objects of religious ritual, worship
or belief resemble creatures, in significant ways. They are
considered to be higher in power, intelligence and worth,
than humans. It would be misleading to confuse the word `god'
(a super human- being or creature) with the word `God' (with
the capital letter `G') used philosophically for the Supreme
Being in theism and religiously in monotheism. The gods referred
in myths and rites are considered to mean `spirits'. In the
ancient, Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Sumerian, etc,
religions also, they were not considered to be as perfect,
eternal or infinite in the same sense as applied by the philosophers
and theologians to The Supreme Being-God. In some religions,
different names of different `gods' are considered to be different
aspects or attributes of the single ultimate reality. It is
a very complicated matter, which needs, a detailed explanation.
But that is not the subject presently under discussion.
Animism:The
term has different connotations: (i) A belief that spirit
or spirits are active in aspects of environment. The term
may cover Animatism - the belief that life,
power and feeling are all-pervading, even in the physical
environment. Animism, more strictly defined, has reference
to belief only in personal powers. (ii) The theory that the
origin of religion lies in the `belief in spirits'. (iii)
A loose, misleading, designation for religion in any tribal
culture.
Theology:It
is the discourse about God or the science that deals with
the concepts about divinity. Western thought has traditionally
recognized, two kinds of Theology Natural Theology: As accessible
to human reason, and Revealed Theology: Based on divine revelation.
Theologians, however, argue that all valid theology is `revealed'.
Theosophy:A
system of thought concerned with the relationship between
God and His creation, specially that helps man achieve direct
experience of the divine, is termed as Theosophy. It is an
articulate mystical system.
Theosis:It
is the concept of `deification'."In the theology of Orthodox
Churches, the vocation of man is to become god. Man comes
by faith, by virtue, by prayer and mysteries, to participate
in the divine Energies, which divinize and transform until
the human being, while remaining fully a human being, is totally
united with God", e.g. in Hesychasm. (John R. Hinnells,Dictionary
of Religions)
False Claims of Relationship with Divinity
or Spirit
Ancestor Worship:Devotion
to persons who have died - to honour them and hallow their
memory, forms the ancestor worship. Some believe that their
ancestors live and can affect the life of later generations.
Veneration of ancestors is one of the most ancient, persistent
and influential themes in Chinese religion. Like Egyptians,
they provide all the essentials for their dead. Similarly
in most, although not all, African religions, ancestor veneration
plays a very important role. Like the Chinese they consult
`them', seek their help and offer ritual for them. They are
approached as intermediaries also. In some religions a wide
range of males, females, collective dead, jurial line of authority
holders, etc are venerated. Since ritual, petition and sacrifice
are directed to ancestral spirits, it is a worship.
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