God (A.S. God; Germ. Gott; akin to Persian khoda; Hindu khooda), (1) the proper name of the one Supreme and Infinite Personal Being, the Creator and Ruler of the universe, to whom man owes obedience and worship; (2) the common or generic name of the several supposed beings to whom, in polytheistic religions, Divine attributes are ascribed and Divine worship rendered; (3) the name sometimes applied to an idol as the image or dwelling-place of a god. The root-meaning of the name (from Gothic root gheu; Skt. ha or hu, “to invoke or to sacrifice to”) is either “the one invoked” or “the one sacrificed to” (see Murray, “New Dict. of the Engl.’ Language”, s.v.). From different Indo-Germanic roots (div, “to shine’, “ give light”; thes in thessasthai, “to implore’) come the Indo-Iranian deva, Skt. dyaus (gen. divas), Lat. deus, Gr. 6e6s, Irish and Gaelic, dia, all of which are generic names; also Gr. Zeus (gen. Amos), Lat. Jupiter (jovpater), Old Teut. Tiu or Tiw (surviving in Tuesday), Lat. Janus, Diana, and other proper names of pagan deities. The common name most widely used in Semitic occurs as ’el in Hebr., ilu in Babylonian, “blah in Arabic, etc.; and though scholars are not agreed on the point, the root-meaning most probably is “the strong or mighty one”.
Scope and Plan of Treatment.—For ethnic conceptions of Deity the reader is referred to the article under that title. The present article is concerned exclusively with the God (1) of monotheistic philosophy and (II) of Old- and New-Testament theology, 1.e. with the one true God as He can be known by the light of unaided reason and as He is actually known, much more perfectly than reason could know Him, by His free revelation of Himself in the Jewish and Christian religions. It is necessary up to a certain point to observe the distinction here implied between philosophical and theological Theism—between the God of reason and of Revelation. For it is clear that, if the acceptance of Christianity is to be justified as a reasonable act of faith, the human mind must be capable of knowing naturally that a God exists who is free to reveal Himself supernaturally, in such wise that men may be rationally certain that He has done so through the ministry of Jesus Christ. In other words philosophical Theism as such ought to furnish the rational data which are implied in the possibility of revelation and the credibility of the Christian system; but more than this it need not undertake to do. Now all these data—in so far as they relate strictly to Theism—are contained in the comprehensive truth of the self-existence of a free and intelligent First Cause and Moral Ruler, a personal God, distinct from but immanent in the universe, which is subject to His infinite power and wisdom; and we shall, therefore, confine our strictly philosophical treatment of the subject to the discussion of this fundamental truth. A good deal more than this is usually included in the systematic philosophy of Theism as developed by Christian, and more especially by Catholic, writers, but in accordance with our present scope, which is theological as well as philosophical, it will be more convenient to adopt the combined viewpoint of philosopher and theologian in treating many questions which might be treated separately from either point of view. In doing so, moreover, we are but following the line along which theistic doctrine has been developed. It is a fact that no adequate system of rational Theism and of natural religion has ever been developed and maintained independently of Revelation, and it would be a mistake to infer from the admitted capacity of the human mind to arrive at a true knowledge of God as the Creator and Ruler of the universe that the systematic Theism of Christian philosophers is de facto the product of unaided reason. It is legitimate for the philosopher, while retaining the strictly rational view-, point, to improve and perfect his philosophy in the reflected light of Revelation, and Christian philosophers have used this advantage freely.