Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a
deity.
[divine](_blank)
– Dictionary.com. What is or is not divine may be loosely defined, as it is used by different
belief systems.
Etymology
The root of the word ''divine'' is literally "godly", but the use varies significantly depending on which deity is being discussed.
Usages
Divinity as a quality has two distinct usages:
*Divine force or power - Powers or forces that are universal, or transcend human capacities
*Divinity applied to mortals - Qualities of individuals who are considered to have some special access or relationship to the divine.
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
The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...
. 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. Divinity always carries connotations of
goodness
Goodness may refer to:
* Good
* ''Goodness!'', a 1969 album by jazz saxophonist Houston Person
* Goodness and value theory
* Goodness (band)
* Goodness (Goodness album), ''Goodness'' (Goodness album)
* Goodness (The Hotelier album), ''Goodness'' ( ...
,
beauty
Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...
, beneficence,
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
, and other positive, pro-social attributes. In
monotheistic faiths there is an equivalent cohort of malefic
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
beings and powers, such as
demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in Media (communication), media such as comics, video ...
,
devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of ...
s,
afreet, etc., which are not conventionally referred to as divine; ''demonic'' is often used instead.
Pantheistic
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which ha ...
and
polytheistic faiths make no such distinction; gods and other beings of
transcendent power often have complex, ignoble, or even
irrational 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
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
word ''
daimón'' (δαίμων), which itself translates as ''divinity''.
Uses in religious discourse
There are three distinct usages of ''divinity'' and ''divine'' in religious
discourse
Discourse is a generalization of the notion of a conversation to any form of communication. Discourse is a major topic in social theory, with work spanning fields such as sociology, anthropology, continental philosophy, and discourse analysis. ...
:
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
An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech.
In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ...
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) 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, 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 pan- and polytheistic faiths this usually implies the direct action of one god or another on the course of human events. In Greek
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...
, for instance, it was
Poseidon
Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ch ...
(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 of
pantheisms 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
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintoist ...
and Chinese traditional religion, to certain African practices and the faiths derived from those in the Caribbean, to Native American beliefs — hold that
ancestral
An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...
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.
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
Evil, in a general sense, is defined as the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, although in everyday usage it is often more narrowly used to talk about profound wickedness and against common good. It is general ...
-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
Sodom and Gomorrah () were two legendary biblical cities destroyed by God for their wickedness. Their story parallels the Genesis flood narrative in its theme of God's anger provoked by man's sin (see Genesis 19:1–28). They are mentioned frequ ...
or the biblical
Great Flood. Other faiths are even more subtle: the doctrine of ''
karma'' shared by
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
and
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global po ...
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
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. A ...
. Philosophical
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
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.
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
Mandate most often refers to:
* League of Nations mandates, quasi-colonial territories established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919
* Mandate (politics), the power granted by an electorate
Mandate may also ...
, suggesting that their rule is in accordance with the will of God. The doctrine of the
divine right of kings
In European Christianity, the divine right of kings, divine right, or God's mandation is a political and religious doctrine of political legitimacy of a monarchy. It stems from a specific metaphysical framework in which a monarch is, befor ...
was introduced as late as the 17th century, proposing that
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...
s rule by divine decree; Japanese Emperors ruled by divine mandate until the inception of the
Japanese constitution
The Constitution of Japan ( Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , Hepburn: ) is the constitution of Japan and the supreme law in the state. Written primarily by American civilian officials working under the Allied occupation of Japan, the constitution ...
after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Less politically, most faiths have any number of people that are believed to have been touched by divine forces:
saints,
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
s,
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''hero ...
es,
oracles,
martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...
s, and enlightened beings, among others.
Saint Francis of Assisi, in Catholicism, is said to have received instruction directly from
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
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
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pe ...
' mother bathed him in the
river Styx to give him immortality, and
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted th ...
— as the son of
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, ...
— inherited near-godly powers. In religious
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
,
Lao Tsu 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. Even the Christian faith, which generally holds Christ to be identical to God, distinguishes between God the Father and Christ the begotten Son. There are, however, certain esoteric and mystical schools of thought, present in many faiths —
Sufis in Islam,
Gnostic
Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...
s 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 practice
A spiritual practice or spiritual discipline (often including spiritual exercises) is the regular or full-time performance of actions and activities undertaken for the purpose of inducing spiritual experiences and cultivating spiritual developme ...
s.
Christianity
In the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
the Greek word θεῖον (''theion'') in the
Douay Version, is translated as "divinity". Examples are below:
*Acts 17:29
:"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."
*Romans 1:20
:"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."
*Revelation 5:12
:"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
ivinitycorporaliter." (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:
*2 Peter 1:3
:"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."
*2 Peter 1:4
:"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
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...
(LDS Church) is the
Godhead
Godhead (from Middle English ''godhede'', "godhood", and unrelated to the modern word "head"), may refer to:
* Deity
* Divinity
* Conceptions of God
* In Abrahamic religions
** Godhead in Judaism, the unknowable aspect of God, which lies beyo ...
, a divine council of three distinct beings:
Elohim (
the Father
Father is the male parent of a child.
Father may also refer to:
Name
* Daniel Fathers (born 1966), a British actor
* Father Yod (1922–1975), an American owner of one of the country's first health food restaurants
Cinema
* ''Father'' (1966 f ...
),
Jehovah (
the Son, or
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
), and the
Holy Spirit
In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts ...
.
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, h ...
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
A spirit body is, according to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the organization of a spiritual element, made into the spiritual form of man, which was made in the same likeness (shape and form) of God the Father.Onli ...
. Smith also introduced the existence of a
Heavenly Mother in the
King Follett Discourse, but very little is acknowledged or known beyond her existence.
Mormons
Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the mov ...
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
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
and
exaltation
Exalt or exaltation may refer to:
* Exaltation (astrology), a characteristic of a planet in astrology
* Exaltation (Mormonism), a belief in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
* Exaltation of Christ or "Session of Christ", a Christian ...
.
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."
Epicureanism
Epicurean
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy founded around 307 BC based upon the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism. Later its main opponent became Stoicism.
Few writings b ...
philosophy admits the existence of gods, but since it does not accept the supernatural and teaches that all things are material, posits a theology where the Epicurean gods are physical beings whose bodies are made of atoms and who live in the region between the words (intermundia). Needless to say, these gods do not need our worship, are not creators or maintainers of the cosmos, nor do they answer prayers. Therefore, Epicurean theology belongs properly in the realm of speculation about super-evolved, intelligent extraterrestrial life.
However,
Epicurus of Samos
Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenc ...
(the founder of the School) recognized the utility of religiosity and its central, unifying symbols. He was adamant in his requirement that his disciples be pious, and established two taboos concerning their conception of the gods: they had to believe that their gods were immortal (that is, indestructible and fully self-sufficient) and blessed (happy, or blissful). Outside of that, Epicureans are free to speculate concerning the nature of the highest life forms in the cosmos.
See also
*
Apotheosis
*
Christology
In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Differ ...
*
Deity
*
Divinization (Christian)
*
Ho'oponopono (Morrnah section)
*
List of deities
*
Sacred
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity
A deity or god is a supernatural being who is considered divine or sacred. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines deity as a god or godd ...
References
External links
{{Authority control
Conceptions of God
Religious belief and doctrine
Philosophy of religion
Deities