Twelve Major Theories of God
People have defined God in twelve main ways. This page lays them out side by side: what each says God is, how each relates God to the world, and who has believed it. These twelve, plus Looking for Footprints: A Forensic Approach to Finding God and The Resurrection, are the fourteen courses required for the Certified Godhunter credential. Some find this analogy helpful for remembering the distinction between the three “Pan” related theories:
Pantheism: God is the Paint. The painting is made of God; there is nothing in the artwork that is not paint.
Panentheism: God is the Gallery. The painting exists inside the Gallery. The Gallery contains the painting. The Gallery is also much larger than the painting and exists outside of it.
Classical Theism: God is the Painter. The Painter created the art and loves it, but the Painter is a separate being who is not physically made of canvas and oil.
Do All the Major Theories of God Lead to the Same Place?
No. Read the twelve below and you will see that they cannot all be describing the same thing.
| Theory | What God is | Relationship to the universe | Who has held it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classical Theism | God is the ultimate, perfect, personal creator. Attributes usually include omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), immutability (unchanging nature), and omnipresence (present everywhere at all times) | Transcendent & Immanent. God created the universe and is distinct from it, but remains actively involved in it (e.g., through prayer and miracles). | Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Vishishtadvaita Vedanta (Ramanuja). |
| Deism | God is a “Supreme Architect” or “Watchmaker” who created the earth and set its natural laws in motion | Strictly Transcendent. God exists apart from the universe but does not intervene in it: no miracles or revelations. | Enlightenment thinkers (Voltaire, Thomas Paine). Aristotle’s “Prime Mover” is a precursor. |
| Pantheism | God and the Universe are identical. God is not a person, but the total of reality and nature. | Strictly Immanent. There is no distinction between God and the universe. To look at a tree or a star is to look at a part of God. | Baruch Spinoza, Stoicism, and some interpretations of Daoism. |
| Panentheism | The world is in God, but God is also more than the world. (An analogy: A sponge in the ocean; the water is in the sponge, but the sea is greater than the sponge). | Inclusive. The universe is a part of God’s being, but God’s consciousness extends beyond the physical universe. | Process Theism (see below), Sikhism, some Christian Mysticism, and Chasidic Judaism. |
| Polytheism | God is not a single entity but a category of beings. There are multiple distinctive divine entities with specific powers or domains. | Variable. Gods often inhabit the universe but live at a specific location (e.g., a mountain), frequently having human-like temperaments. | Ancient Greek and Roman religions, Shinto, and ancient Norse mythology |
| Henotheism | God is not a single entity but a category of beings, but one is supreme and the only one to be worshiped by a specific community. | Hierarchical. Only the supreme God is to be worshiped. Other gods exist but are secondary or irrelevant to the believers’ devotion. | Early Vedic religion (Brahmanism) and some interpretations of the early Israelite religion. |
| Monism | There is only one substance or principle in existence. God is the one absolute reality. The physical world is often seen as an illusion (Maya) or an emanation. | Unified. The diversity of the universe is an illusion. Everything is the one God (Brahman). | Advaita Vedanta (Shankara), Neoplatonism (The One) |
| Process Theism | God is not static or immutable. God affects the world, and the world affects God. God is evolving and changing along with the universe. | Interdependent. God lures the universe toward potentiality rather than commanding it through omnipotence. | Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne. |
| Moral (Ethical) Theism | God (reality) is not a physical or metaphysical being but is the supreme moral ideal or the ethical order of the universe. | Regulative. God is the standard of goodness required for morality to make sense. | Immanuel Kant as a postulate of practical reason. |
| Dualism | God is not a physical or metaphysical being, but consists of two coeternal, opposing forces (e.g., Good vs. Evil). | Struggling. Each God is an alternative force that can be superior in certain situations. | Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Pop Culture (e.g., The Force in Star Wars). |
| Animism | God is a spiritual essence that exists in distinct natural objects, such as rocks, rivers, and animals. | Pluralistically Immanent. There is no distinction between God and “Mother Nature”. | Foundational definition of the divine that predates Polytheism. |
| Atheism and Agnosticism | There is no God, or if there is, humans have not proven that God exists. | Nonexistent or unprovable. | Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Sagan. |
Our Are All Religions the Same? page shows how little the twelve overlap.