God

Exemplary instances of globalization can be captured through a variety of economic, political, social, and cultural currents. One cultural current in particular that has spanned the entirety of the globe is the notion of God. Perhaps no other figure of worship has reached so extensively into the past of ancient history and geographically throughout all reaches of the world than the idea of God itself. Although there are religions that focus directly on the worship, existence, guidance, or tyranny of God, no tradition could be said to lay exclusive claim to His or Her invention or creation. It is with this notion of theocratic plurality that any religious tradition may hold insight into the concept of God. This entry will discuss references to God, Goddess, gods and goddesses; qualitative and quantitative theistic categories; attributes of God; globalization of God; and concepts of God.

As contentious differences among religious practitioners and academic scholars have had considerable influence over the interpretation of God-figures, the principles of objectivity and cultural consciousness surrounding depictions of God have always had a lesser role. Terms denoting precivilized, premodern, or even non-Western concepts of God, such as “primitive,” “savage,” “tribal,” or “pagan,” have demonstrated this type of politicism involved in a contextualization of God. Given the potential subjectivity of these discourses, there is little consensus over the religious and/or cultural origins of the idea of God.

The plurality of ideas found within globalization fortifies at least an accepted sense of diversity with regard to these interpretations. However, the notion of syncretism among religious beliefs challenges the linear historical models that situate the intersection of ideas about God and globalization as a new and/or emerging phenomenon. In fact, the foundations on which many of the modern religious traditions were built have had a number of transgeographical/transcultural origins. The building of the Etruscan-Roman mythology borrowed from the Greeks; the influence of Zoroastrianism on the Abrahamic traditions; the sects, chasms, and denominationalism emerging from the Judeo-Christian traditions; and the emergence of eclectic new religious movements in the 20th and 21st centuries are all telling examples of the religious integration prior to modern globalization.

Although God may have always been an eclectically devised entity cast throughout a globally [Page 470]historical and perceptively multidimensional world, the Enlightenment provided a momentum that would establish a footing for burgeoning ideas such as the creation of the nation-state, technological advance, and reasoning that has driven a more intense form of globalization. In an instance of this type of movement, the very etymology of the word God and the variety of terms by which God is referred to demonstrate the diverse ways of conceptualizing a God-figure. Despite specific names given to the deities of particular institutions of worship throughout history, the actual term God derives from the Proto-Germanic word guthan, meaning “to invoke.” While some traditions described God through parables and metaphysical concepts, others transformed God into a carnal living being, even developing hagiographies that support the indoctrination of particular beliefs. Still others understood God as a manifestation of nature and followed God's teachings to incur similar attributes within the harmony of life. Yet regardless of the ontological characteristics that distinguished these understandings of God, the geographical, social, and cultural conceptions that undergirded God's existence were the impetus for major wars, stretches of peace, grounds for exploration and conquest, and the establishment of ancient moral codes and ethical strictures.

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