A History Of God Part 9

Apatheia (Greek) Impa.s.sibility, serenity and invulnerability. These characteristics of the G.o.d of the Greek philosophers became central to the Christian conception of G.o.d, who was considered to be impervious to suffering and change.

Apophatic (Greek). Silent. Greek Christians came to believe that all theology should have an element of silence, paradox and restraint in order to emphasise the ineffability and mystery of G.o.d.

Archetype The original pattern or prototype of our world, which was identified with the divine world of the ancient G.o.ds. In the pagan world, everything here below was seen as a replica or copy of a reality in the celestial world. See also alam al-mithal.

Ashken.a.z.im (Hebrew corruption of 'Allemagne')- The Jews of Germany and parts of eastern and western Europe.

Atman (Hindi) The sacred power of Brahman (q.v.) which each individual experiences within him or herself.

Avatar In Hindu myth, the descent of a G.o.d to earth in human form. More generally used of a person who is believed to embody or incarnate the divine.

Axial Age The term used by historians to denote the period 800-200 BCE, a time of transition during which the major world religions emerged in the civilised world.

Aya (plural, Ayat) (Arabic) Sign, parable. In the Koran, the manifestations of G.o.d in the world.

-B-.

Banat al-Lah (Arabic) The Daughters of G.o.d: in the Koran, the phrase refers to the three pagan G.o.ddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat.

Baqa (Arabic) Survival. The return of the Sufi mystic to his enhanced and enlarged self after his climactic absorption (Tana) in G.o.d (q.v.).

Batin (Arabic) The inner meaning of the Koran. A batini is a Muslim who devotes himself to the esoteric, mystical understanding of the faith.

Bhakti (Hindi) Devotion to the person of the Buddha (q.v.) or to the Hindu G.o.ds who had appeared on earth in human form.

Bodhisattva (Hindi) The Buddhas-to-be. Those who have delayed their own private nirvana (q.v.) in order to guide and save suffering, unenlightened humanity.

Brahman The Hindu term for the sacred power that sustains all existing things; the inner meaning of existence.

Breaking of the Vessels A term in the Kabbalism of Isaac Luria that describes the primal catastrophe, when the sparks of divine light fell to the earth and were trapped in matter.

Buddha (Hindi) The enlightened one. The tide applies to the numerous men and women who have attained nirvana (q.v.) but it is often used of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism.

-D-.

Dhikr (Arabic) The 'remembrance' of G.o.d prescribed in the Koran. In Sufism dhikr takes the form of a recitation of the name of G.o.d as a mantra.

Dogma Used by Greek Christians to describe the hidden, secret traditions of the Church, which could only be understood mystically and expressed symbolically. In the West, dogma has come to mean a body of opinion, categorically and authoritatively stated.

Dynameis (Greek) The 'powers' of G.o.d. A term used by Greeks to denote G.o.d's activity in the world, which is to be regarded as quite distinct from his inaccessible essence.

-E-.

Ecstasy (Greek) Literally, a going out of the self. Applied to G.o.d, it indicates a kenosis (q.v.) of the hidden G.o.d who transcends his introspection to make himself known to humanity.

El The old High G.o.d (q.v.) of Canaan, who seems also to have been the G.o.d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the fathers of the people of Israel. Emanation A process whereby the various grades of reality were imagined to flow from a single, primal source, which the monotheists identified as G.o.d. Some Jews, Christians and Muslims, including philosophers and mystics, preferred to use this ancient metaphor to describe the origins of life than the more conventional biblical story of an instantaneous creation of all things by G.o.d in a moment of time.

En sof (Hebrew: 'without end'). The inscrutable, inaccessible and unknowable essence of G.o.d in the Jewish mystical theology of Kabbalah (q.v.).

Energeiai (Greek: 'energies') G.o.d's 'activities' in the world, which enable us to glimpse something of him. Like dynameis (q.v.) the term is used to distinguish the human conception of G.o.d from the ineffable and incomprehensible reality itself.

Enuma Elish The Babylonian epic recounting the creation of the world, chanted during the New Year Festival.

Epiphany The appearance of a G.o.d or G.o.ddess on earth in human form.

-F-.

Falsafah (Arabic) Philosophy. The attempt to interpret Islam in terms of ancient Greek rationalism.

'Fana (Arabic) Annihilation. The ecstatic absorption in G.o.d of the Sufi mystic.

Faylasuf (Arabic) Philosopher. Used of Muslims and Jews in the Islamic empire who were dedicated to the rational and scientific ideals of Falsafah (q.v.).

-G-.

Getik (Persian) The earthly world in which we live and which we can experience with our senses.

G.o.dhead The inaccessible, hidden source of the reality that we know as 'G.o.d'.

Goy (plural, goyim) (Hebrew) Non-Jews or Gentiles.

-H-.

Hadith (plural, ahadith) (Arabic) The traditions or collected maxims of the Prophet Muhammad.

Hajj (Arabic) The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

Hesychasm, hesychast From the Greek hesychia: interior silence, tranquillity. The silent contemplation cultivated by Greek Orthodox mystics which eschewed words and concepts.

High G.o.d The supreme deity worshipped by many peoples as the sole G.o.d, creator of the world, who was eventually superseded by a pantheon of more immediate and attractive G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses. Also known as Sky G.o.d.

Hijra (Arabic) The migration of the first Muslims from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, an event that marks the beginning of the Islamic era.

Holiness In Hebrew kaddosh: the absolute otherness of G.o.d; the radical separation of the divine from the profane world.

Holy Spirit Term used by the Rabbis, often interchangeably with Shekinah (q.v.) to denote G.o.d's presence on earth. A way of distinguishing the G.o.d we experience and know from the utterly transcendent divinity which forever eludes us. In Christianity the Spirit would become the third 'person' of the Trinity.

h.o.m.oousion (Greek) Literally, made of the same stuff or substance. The controversial term used by Athanasius and his supporters to express their conviction that Jesus was of the same nature (ousia) as G.o.d the Father and was, therefore, divine in the same way as he.

Hypostasis (Greek) The exterior expression of a person's inner nature, as compared with ousia (essence) (q.v.) which represents a person or object seen from within. An object or person viewed from the outside. Term used by the Greeks to describe the three manifestations of the hidden essence of G.o.d: as Father, Son and Spirit.

-I-.

Idolatry The worship or veneration of a human or man-made reality instead of the transcendent G.o.d.

Ijtihad (Arabic) Independent reasoning.

Ilm (Arabic) The secret 'knowledge' of G.o.d, which Shiite Muslims believe to have been the sole possession of the Imams (q.v.).

Imam (Arabic) In the Shiah (q.v.) the Imam is a descendent of Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law. Imams were revered as avatars (q.v.) of the divine. Sunni Muslims, however, simply use the term to describe the person who leads the prayers in the mosque.

Incarnation The embodiment of G.o.d in human form.

Ishraq (Arabic) Illumination. The Ishraqi school of philosophy and spirituality was founded by Yahya Suhrawardi.

Islam (Arabic) Surrender [to G.o.d].

-J-.

Jahiliyyah (Arabic) The time of ignorance: the term used by Muslims to describe the pre-Islamic period in Arabia.

-K-.

Kabah (Arabic) The cube-shaped granite shrine dedicated to al-Lah in Mecca.

Kalam (Arabic) Literally, 'debates'. Muslim theology: the attempt to interpret the Koran in a rational way.

Kenosis (Greek) Self-emptying.

Kerygma (Greek) Term used by the Greek Christians to denote the public teaching of the Church, which can be expressed clearly and rationally, as opposed to its dogma (q.v.) which could not.

-L-.

Logos (Greek) Reason; definition; word. G.o.d's 'Logos' was identified by Greek theologians with the Wisdom (q.v.) of G.o.d in the Jewish scriptures or with the Word mentioned in the prologue of St John's Gospel.

-M-.

Madrasah (Arabic) College of Islamic studies.

Mana Term originally used in the South Sea Islands to describe the unseen forces that pervade the physical word and were experienced as sacred or divine.

Menok (Persian) The heavenly, archetypal realm of being.

Merkavah (Hebrew) Chariot. See Throne Mysticism.

Mishnah (Hebrew) The code of Jewish law, collated, edited and revised by the early Rabbis known as the tannaim (q.v.). The code, divided into six major units and sixty-three minor ones, is the basis of the legal discussion and commentaries of the Talmud (q.v.).

Mitzvah (plural, mitzvot) (Hebrew) Commandment.

Muslim (Arabic) One who surrenders him or herself to G.o.d.

Mutazilah (Arabic) The Muslim sect which attempted to explain the Koran in rational terms.

-N-.

Nirvana (Hindi) Literally 'cooling off or 'going out' like a flame; extinction. Term used by Buddhists to denote the ultimate reality, the goal and fulfilment of human life and the end of pain. Like G.o.d, the end of the monotheistic quest, it is not capable of definition in rational terms but belongs to a different order of experience.

Numinous From the Latin numen: spirit. The sense of the sacred, of transcendence and holiness (q.v.) which has always inspired awe, wonder and terror.

-O-.

Oik.u.mene (Greek) The civilised world.

Orthodox, Orthodoxy Literally, 'right teaching'. Term used by the Greek Christians to distinguish those who adhered to the correct doctrines of the Church from heretics, such as the Arians or Nestorians, who did not. The term is also applied to the traditional Judaism which adheres to a strict observance of the Law.

Ousia (Greek) Essence, nature. That which makes a thing what it is. A person or object seen from within. Applied to G.o.d, the term denotes that divine essence which eludes human understanding and experience.

-P-.

Parzuf (plural, parzufim) (Hebrew) Countenance. Like the personae (q.v.) of the Trinity; some types of Kabbalah (q.v.) have imagined the inscrutable G.o.d revealing himself to humanity in a number of different 'countenances', each of which has distinctive features.

Patriarchs The term used of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the ancestors of the Israelites.

Persona (plural, personae) (Latin) The mask worn by an actor to define the character he is presenting to the audience and make his voice audible in the theatre. The term preferred by the Western Christians to denote the three hypostases (q.v.) of the Trinity. The three 'persons' are Father, Son and Spirit.

Pir (Arabic) The spiritual director of Muslim mystics.

Prophet One who speaks on G.o.d's behalf.

-R-.

Rig-Veda The collection of odes, dating from 1500-900 BCE., which expressed the religious beliefs of the Aryans who invaded the Indus valley and imposed their faith on the indigenous people of the subcontinent.

-S-.

Sefirah (plural, sefiroth) (Hebrew) 'Numerations'. The ten stages of G.o.d's unfolding revelation of himself in Kabbalah (q.v.) The ten sefiroth are: 1. Kether Elyon: The Supreme Crown.

2. Hokhmah: Wisdom.

3. Binah: Intelligence.

4. Hesed: Loving Kindness.

5. Din;. Stern Judgement.

6. Tifereth: Beauty.

7. Netsah: Endurance.

8. Hod: Majesty.

9. Yesod: Foundation.

10. Malkuth: Kingdom. Also called Shekinah (q.v.).

Sephardim The Jews of Spain.

Shahadah The Muslim proclamation of faith: 'I bear witness that there is no G.o.d but al-Lah and that Muhammad is his Messenger.'