by Richard Dance

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

Notions of Divinity

We live in a time when people are exploring many approaches to spirituality. There are also new dialogues emerging among our traditional religions that explore common threads, reinterpret religious messages, etc. This exchange of ideas always arrives at fundamental questions about how God(dess) is perceived and experienced. Though this is a very subjective issue, we find interestingly that every religion, every metaphysical system, whether contemporary or primitive, new age or archaic, masculine or feminine, somehow falls into one of two very general categories regarding its notions of divinity. We can use the classic East/West comparison as an example to demonstrate this, because it is here that the two general categories have been fairly well delineated in the philosophy of religion.

In the West, God is traditionally seen as a conscious intelligent being with definable qualities, and with whom one has an intimate relationship. This God is personal, knowable, and can be named. The deity is communicated to through worship and prayer in a posture of outward address, evident in the architecture of churches and templestypically tall structures with religious imagery and art portrayed at significant heights.

Western traditions are religions of duality, where good does battle with evil, and eventually the former will win. This dualism places prime emphasis on social morality through clearly detailed laws and beliefs.

In Western creation stories, God is the source of creation but separate from it, viewing it as the artisan admires or critiques his own work. Though there is individual will and choice, God is in ultimate control of all creation and its destiny. There is a strong accent on teleology, that is, a divine purpose behind the design and final result of creation.

In the East, God is not a conscious intelligent being, but a super-psychological state of realization. This realized "Source" is not named or known through the senses, feelings, or thinking. It is a Mystery beyond all categories that is directly experienced through mystical intuition. Thus, the religious posture is inward turned through meditation.

Though there are many deities worshipped in Eastern religions, they are only metaphorical symbols of the Source's infinite variety. They are not the Source but its vehicles. While these multiple god(desses) provide for many intimate relationships to divinity, such relationships are seen only as steps to eventual identity with the Source lying

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