Curious Christian

This is one for the theology buffs. I was dredging through some of my notes the other day when I came across a page outlining a variety of beliefs concerning gods and god. Unfortunately I have lost the source information, so I can’t tell you where I got it. But it does make for interesting reading, or at least I thought so, as it included a few terms here that even I hadn’t heard of before. Anyway take a look:

Polytheism   

The belief that there are several gods

Henotheism    

The belief that among several gods one is supreme

Kathenotheism   

The belief that among several gods one is supreme at a particular time and that different gids can be supreme in succession at other times

Hecastotheism   

The belief that all objects have sacred power

Ditheism   

The belief in two gods

Dualism   

The belief that cosmic history is a battle between the two great powers of divine goodness and malicious evil

Myriotheism   

The belief that the number of gods cannot be counted

Zootheism   

The belief in animal gods

Herotheism   

The belief in deified men

Anthropotheism   

The belief that gods are basically human in nature

Autotheism   

The belief that one is oneself divine

Pantheism   

The belief that god is in all things

Panentheism   

The belief that all things are in god

Emanationism   

The belief that all things are outgrowths of, or emanations from god

Theism   

The belief that there is a god

Monotheism   

The belief that there is only one god

Trinitarianism   

The belief that there are three persons in one god

Creationism   

The belief that each human soul is created individually by god or that god created the world in six days

Deism   

The belief that god created the world but does not act within it

Atheism   

The belief that there is no god

Agnosticism   

The belief that one lacks the means of knowing whether or not there is a god or many gods or no deities at all

Fideism   

The belief that religious faith confirms that there is a god without recourse to reason

Rationalism   

The belief that human reason is the High Court in which to decide what counts as knowledge (of God) or superstition.

Now, I should add that I do not agree with all the definitions here, these are not my definitions, but I reproduce it without editing, commentary, etc, as I think its a very good demonstration of the varieties of religious belief. Maybe you can think of a few more even?