deity
Sign in to saveA deity or god is a supernatural being considered to have authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life, with many also being considered as sacred and worthy of worship. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".
AI overview
A deity is a supernatural being believed to have special powers over some part of the world or human life, and many religions consider deities sacred and worthy of worship. Deities matter because they play central roles in religious and cultural systems worldwide, shaping how people understand the divine, find meaning, and relate to forces beyond ordinary human experience.
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36 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Definitions
- Prehistoric
- Religions and cultures
- Sub-Saharan African
- Ancient Near Eastern
- Egyptian
- Levantine
- Mesopotamian
- Indo-European
- Germanic
- Greek
- Roman
- Native American
- Inca
- Maya and Aztec
- Polynesian
- Abrahamic
- Christianity
- Islam
- Judaism
- Mandaeism
- Asian
- Anitism
- Buddhism
- Hinduism
- Shinto
- Taoism
- Jainism
- Zoroastrianism
- Local, regional, and universal deities
- Skeptical interpretations
- See also
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to have authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life, with many also being considered as sacred and worthy of worship. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines deity as a god or goddess, or anything revered as divine. C. Scott Littleton defines a deity as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life".
Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as "God"), whereas polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle. Nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity, but may accept a pantheon of deities which live, die and may be reborn like any other being.