Program / Course 18: World Religions / Lesson 6.2
What you will learn
- Compare what the traditions say about the nature of God or the ultimate: simple oneness, Trinity, one God in many forms, an impersonal Absolute and no creator.
- Explain why Christians, Jews and Muslims can all say God is one and still disagree.
- Describe how Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist views of the ultimate differ from the Abrahamic.
- State the Christian doctrine of the Trinity accurately and say why it matters to the comparison.
The big idea
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all confess one God who created the world, but they differ on who God is: Jews and Muslims hold to an undivided unity, and Christians confess one God in three persons. Sikhs also confess one God. Many Hindu traditions speak of Brahman, the ultimate, which some take to be personal and some not. Theravada Buddhism does not speak of a creator. The word God therefore means different things, and a comparison should ask first what each tradition holds the ultimate to be.
Key terms
- Monotheism
- Belief in one God. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism are monotheistic in different ways.
- Trinity
- The Christian doctrine that God is one being in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are co-equal and eternal.
- Transcendence and immanence
- Transcendence means God is beyond the world. Immanence means God is present in it. Traditions balance these differently.
- Pantheism and panentheism
- Pantheism holds that God and the world are identical. Panentheism holds that the world is in God, who also exceeds it. Christians reject the first. The second is used in different senses and is debated among Christian theologians.
- Nirguna and saguna Brahman
- In Hindu thought, Brahman without attributes (nirguna) and Brahman with attributes, as a personal Lord (saguna).
- Shirk
- In Islam, associating anything with God. The central sin.
- Divine simplicity
- The classical teaching that God is not made of parts. Held in various forms in Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophy.
Background
The word God is used by many religions, and it can hide as much as it reveals. Aquinas observed that people commonly agree on a name but disagree on what the name refers to. A Muslim, a Jew and a Christian each speak of the Creator, and each would describe the Creator’s nature in ways the others reject in part. A Hindu and a Buddhist may begin from different questions altogether.
This lesson takes the second question on the comparison grid, ultimate reality, and sets out the main positions side by side. It treats the Trinity with care, because that doctrine is the one most often misdescribed by those who reject it and the one most central to the Christian answer.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: One God, undivided (Judaism and Islam)
Jews confess, “The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Jewish thought, such as that of Maimonides, stresses that God is without body and without parts, wholly other than creation, and that no image can portray him. Muslims confess tawhid, the oneness of God, and the Qur’an declares that God is one, eternal, neither begetting nor begotten (112). Both traditions hold that God is merciful and just, and that he is not to be associated with any other.
For both, the oneness of God is the heart of faith, and it is the reason they find the Christian teaching of a Trinity and an incarnation problematic. They fear that it divides God or places a creature on God’s level.
Step 2: One God in three persons (Christianity)
Christians confess one God, the Creator, and hold that this one God is eternally Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The doctrine arose from the New Testament’s witness to Jesus as divine (John 1:1, John 20:28) and to the Spirit as God, together with its insistence that God is one (1 Corinthians 8:6). The councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) set out the doctrine: the Son is begotten of the Father, of one being with him, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father (with the Western addition of the Son, which Orthodox Christians reject).
The doctrine does not say that there are three gods, or that one God appears in three roles, since both were rejected. It says that the one God is three persons who are distinct in relation yet one in being. Christians admit that this is a mystery, not a puzzle to be fully solved. They hold that God has revealed himself this way, and that his inner life is love.
Step 3: One God, the Name and the Word (Sikhism)
Sikhism begins with Ik Onkar, the one Creator. God is without form yet present throughout creation, is not incarnate and is known by the Name. God is both transcendent and immanent. Sikhs often say that God has no color, form or mark, and is truth. They differ from Muslims in holding to karma and rebirth within a monotheism, and from Christians in rejecting incarnation.
Step 4: Brahman and the many (Hinduism)
Hindu thought is varied. Advaita Vedanta holds that ultimate reality is Brahman without attributes, which is identical to the inner self, so that the many forms of the world are appearance. Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita schools hold that Brahman is a personal Lord, Vishnu, in relation to real souls. Shaivas honor Shiva as supreme, and Shaktas the Goddess. Many Hindus honor many deities as forms of the One.
Christians hold that God is the creator and distinct from the world, not identical with it, and that the persons are real. Hindu thinkers of the devotional schools often agree about a personal God and a real creation. Advaita differs: for it, the distinction between creator and creature is not ultimate. This is a real disagreement, and it is not best described as a dispute between belief in one God and in many.
Step 5: No creator (Buddhism) and the nonreligious views
Buddhist teaching does not name a creator God. The gods of Buddhist cosmology are beings within the cycle of rebirth who are not saviors. The ultimate, in the sense of the goal, is nirvana, which is described as unconditioned and as peace, without being a being who creates. Mahayana schools speak of emptiness and of Buddha nature, and Pure Land devotion treats the Buddha Amitabha as a savior, but this is not the Creator of Abrahamic faith.
The nonreligious positions of deism, atheism and agnosticism answer the question differently again: a Creator without revelation, no God or an open question. A good comparison keeps these distinct. A Christian may say that the Christian account answers best to reason and revelation, and may still describe the others in their own terms.
- What does each tradition mean when it says God is one?
- Why do Jews and Muslims object to the Trinity, and what do Christians say in reply?
- Is a God who is both transcendent and immanent a contradiction?
- What is the difference between the Christian doctrine and the idea that God appears in three roles?
- In what sense can a Buddhist speak of an ultimate without speaking of a God?
- How would you explain the Trinity in your own words to a Muslim friend?
Examples
The same word, different referents
A Christian and a Muslim both pray to the Creator and ask for mercy. Their prayers use the same word for God in Arabic-speaking regions. Yet the Christian prays to the Father through the Son in the Spirit, and the Muslim to the One who has no partner. The same word and prayer rest on different teaching.
Three persons, one nature
The Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century used the terms one ousia (being) and three hypostases (persons) to say that God is one and that Father, Son and Spirit are distinct. They did not offer a picture, and many warned against pictures, but a vocabulary to guard the biblical witness. (A summary of a historical teaching.)
A Hindu on God
A Vaishnava in a temple says that God is Vishnu, who is infinite and loving, and that the other deities are his servants. A neighbor who follows Advaita says that all names are forms of the one Brahman beyond names. Both are Hindu, and their pictures of God differ.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catholic Church teaches that God is one in being and three in persons, that God is simple, transcendent and the creator of all things (Catechism 232-267). Nostra Aetate states that Muslims worship the one God, and that Jews are bound to Christians by their common patrimony.
Orthodox
Orthodox theology emphasizes the Trinity as a communion of persons and the Father as the source of the Son and Spirit. It stresses that God’s essence is beyond knowing while his energies are shared. Orthodox writers regard the doctrine as the root of the Christian understanding of love and personhood.
Protestant
Protestants confess the Trinity in the creeds and in the confessions of the Reformation, such as Calvin’s Institutes and Luther’s Small Catechism. They emphasize that the doctrine is drawn from Scripture and has practical meaning for worship and for salvation. Some modern Protestant movements deny it, and the major churches do not count them as part of the historic faith.
Jewish, Muslim and Sikh
Jews and Muslims hold that God is one without any internal plurality, and a number of Jewish and Muslim writers have said that Christians nonetheless worship the one God, while holding the Trinity to be a mistake. Sikhs hold God to be one and formless and reject incarnation, which they regard as a limit on God.
Hindu and Buddhist
Hindu thinkers differ on whether the ultimate is personal. Buddhist thinkers hold that speculation about a creator is not necessary for liberation, and some argue against such a being. Many Hindu and Buddhist writers ask Christians to see that their traditions are not simple polytheism or simple atheism.
Why it matters
The nature of God is the most basic of the five questions, and misunderstandings about it spoil many discussions. Knowing precisely what Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Buddhists say, and what Christians say about the Trinity, allows an honest conversation about the real difference and prevents a careless comparison.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Christians worship three gods.
Correction: Christianity teaches one God in three persons, and has condemned the teaching of three gods. The Trinity is a mystery to be confessed and not a puzzle to be fully explained.
Misunderstanding: Hindus are polytheists and Christians are monotheists, end of story.
Correction: Many Hindus understand the many gods as forms of one reality, or are devoted to one supreme Lord. Hindu and Christian teaching differ, but not simply as many versus one.
Misunderstanding: Buddhists are atheists in the Western sense.
Correction: Buddhists do not teach a creator, but they accept beings that Westerners may call gods, and their concern is liberation. The label atheist may not fit how they describe themselves.
Misunderstanding: Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God and so teach the same thing.
Correction: They address the Creator of Abraham, but they teach different things about his nature and his relation to the world. Both facts should be stated.
Knowledge check
What does the Christian doctrine of the Trinity say?
It says that there is one God who exists eternally as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are distinct in relation and one in being. It rejects the view that there are three gods and the view that one God merely appears in three roles. Christians hold it as a mystery revealed in Scripture.
Why do Jews and Muslims object to the Trinity?
They hold that God is absolutely one and indivisible, wholly other than creation. The Trinity and the incarnation seem to them to divide God or to place a creature on a level with him. Christians reply that the doctrine safeguards God’s unity and expresses what the New Testament says of the Son and Spirit.
How do Advaita Vedanta and devotional Hindu schools differ about the ultimate?
Advaita holds that the ultimate is Brahman without attributes, identical with the inner self, so that the distinctions of the world are not finally real. Devotional schools hold that Brahman is a personal Lord, such as Vishnu, who is distinct from souls and the world and is to be loved.
Does Buddhism teach a creator God?
Theravada and most Buddhist traditions do not teach a creator who made the world and judges it. They speak of gods as beings within the cycle of rebirth and aim at nirvana. Pure Land devotion trusts the Buddha Amitabha as a savior, but this figure is not a creator in the Abrahamic sense.
Think it through
- What do you think it means for a Christian to say that God is love, and how does the Trinity bear on it?
- How can a Christian speak about the Trinity without making it sound like arithmetic?
- In what respects does your view of God differ from that of a Muslim or a Jew, and in what respects is it the same?
- Why might it matter that a tradition has no creator?
Independent assignment
God in six traditions
In your notebook, write about 80 words on each of the following in the tradition’s own terms: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism, stating what each holds the ultimate to be. Then write about 250 words on the Trinity, as a Catholic, an Orthodox and a Protestant Christian would each affirm it, and on the strongest objection raised by Judaism or Islam. Update your comparison grid.
Further study
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Trinity Read for an accurate account of the doctrine and the history of its development.
- Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381), The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Read the creed’s statements on the Father, Son and Spirit.
- Gregory of Nyssa, Dogmatic Treatises, etc. (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 5) Read for a Cappadocian treatment of one being and three persons.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Divine Simplicity Read for the classical teaching that God has no parts.
- David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss Read selectively for the argument that classical theism spans traditions.
- Deuteronomy 6:4 The Shema.
- Matthew 28:19 Baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
- 1 Corinthians 8:6 One God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ.