Theism

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Theism

Theism refers to belief in the divine. It is a personal choice that forms part of the social fabric as "believers" come together to form religious groups based on such beliefs. The opposite of theism is atheism, the denial that there is anything beyond human reason.

Theism is closely related to polytheism, the belief in many divinities, as well as to pantheism, the belief that everything is divine, and also to panentheism, the idea that everything is in the divine. Theism is a characteristic that many diverse religious traditions share, whether they call their divinity or divinities God, Goddess, the Buddha, Allah, Supreme Being, or the like.

As a belief system, theism has played a central role in the development of U.S. culture during the twentieth century. As a country founded on the principle of freedom to worship as well as on the separation of church and state (or of religion and government), the United States is a unique laboratory allowing competing forms of theism to coexist, if not always peaceably. In study after study, an overwhelming majority of the population call themselves "believers," though virtually no study has sorted out what the American people believe.

At the beginning of the twentieth century the United States was largely a three-religion culture. Protestants were in the majority, Catholics a growing second, and Jews a distant third. Native Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, and other small groups were all but ignored. The "God" of that society resembled most closely the liberal Protestant deity—a strong father figure who put emphasis on hard work and whose very presence was seen as ensuring progress.

Two world wars dampened this view. The magnitude of evil embodied in the Holocaust, the sheer numbers of war dead, and the inability of those who believed in God to stop the slaughter left a chastened neo-orthodoxy in its wake. What kind of God would have permitted such cosmic destruction? In reaction, revelation came back into vogue as the source of knowledge about the divine. The Swiss theologian Karl Barth described "the God of the Gospels" as the real thing.

However, other intellectual and social factors came into play as well. Karl Marx's economic and political teachings regarded religion as "the opiate of the people." Sigmund Freud's increasingly influential writing took all theistic propositions to be mere projections of the psyche, naive at best and neurotic at worst. Darwin's theory of evolution cast aspersions on biblical creation stories and left little scientific room for a creator God. But the urge to believe persisted for most Americans despite these moves toward postmodernity.

Political theology was one such response in the 1960s. Far from being a way to placate the poor, a figment of a fertile imagination, or a sop for biblicists, the divine in this framework is a full-fledged player in social justice efforts. Humans cooperate with the divine in building a just society. Political theology laid the groundwork for the many liberation theologies to follow.

Meanwhile, a small but influential movement held sway in the 1960s and early 1970s. Radical theology, better known as the "Death of God" movement, proclaimed the end of belief in a personal God, the brand of theism that had predominated since the founding of the republic. As described in a cover story in Time magazine, the personal God of Christian and Jewish theism was pronounced dead on arrival in a culture that was increasingly secular, increasingly pluralistic religiously, and increasingly skeptical that any divine force could be at play. Whether the word "God" had lost its usefulness, or whether all theistic affirmations were considered intellectually bankrupt, the impact of this short-lived movement was undeniable. One could be a socially acceptable atheist in the United States.

From the 1970s on, in the wake of the Vietnam War, the civil rights and women's movements, and in the face of the sexual revolution, most claims to theism in the form of a personal God who ruled the universe, a reference point for universal laws and a moral compass, prompted questions and doubts. As a result, perhaps as a kind of backlash, two competing constructive theistic tracks emerged: progressive or liberation theologies, and conservative or evangelical approaches.

The progressive or liberation schools were built on the political theology model. Beginning in Latin America, where economic and political oppression was rampant, and proceeding north, where the gap between rich and poor was growing, the idea that "Yahweh, who does what is right, is always on the side of the oppressed" (Psalm 103:6) gave rise to a range of related but unique theistic strands in Christianity.

In the Latin American line, the God of liberation theology is a source of justice and mercy, a friend to people who are poor. Black theology takes a similar approach. In its lexicon, God is black, at one with those who suffer racial injustice. Likewise, feminist theology developed a radical critique of the patriarchal nature of even the most progressive approaches. Feminists connected patriarchal language and imagery for the divine with male power in society. Words such as "Father," "Lord," "Ruler," and "King" were replaced by inclusive, nonhierarchical imagery such as "Source," "Companion," "Friend," and "Spirit." Female images were rediscovered and/or introduced: "Shekinah," "Sophia-Wisdom," "God the Mother." Goddess worship returned to favor among some theistic people.

By the 1990s, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people were initiating their theological arguments. One result was the claim that God is "queer." Ecological, and especially ecofeminist, models of the divine put special emphasis on natural images of the divine, including wind, breath, and cosmic spirit.

Given this diversity, theists could and did choose from among a wide variety of options in the linkage between their faiths and their worldviews. What all of these articulations have in common is an explicit appeal to the divine as an expression of and support for a particular social concern. Such forms of theism assume that images of the divine and names used to describe the divine are human constructs that have real economic and political consequences.

The same assumption is true of the other movement that grew from the aftermath of the 1970s and is often in conflict with the progressive approach. The conservative or evangelical movement, sometimes referred to as the "religious right," has a particular theism at its heart. By contrast with the progressive movement, its God is the God of the Christian scriptures understood in very literal terms such as Lord and Father. This God—and in this view there is only one—is in charge of the universe. Biblical authority is absolute. Conformity to the will of God is the human goal.

Late-twentieth-century culture in the United States has been shaped in large measure by these competing views of the divine. Such issues as abortion and the death penalty, for instance, are debated and voted on largely on the basis of conflicting theistic assumptions. Progressives generally tend to favor reproductive choice and oppose the death penalty; this position is based on their view of a divinity who encourages human freedom and gives life to all. Conservatives generally tend to oppose abortion and favor capital punishment; this is based on their view of a God who judges wrong deeds and exacts retribution.

These are complicated and difficult social conflicts in a society in which the normative position is theistic, albeit in a range of interpretations of the word. The U.S. religious landscape comprises all manner of belief systems now, including Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, not to mention sects and cults of various stripes, all of which place their faith in something more than human reason can grasp, thus qualifying as theistic. Such variety broadens the definition and expands the percentages of those who affirm the divine.

By contrast, in many European countries, and in Australia and New Zealand, the percentage of theists is much smaller. One reason for this is that in the United States there are a wide variety of options for theism—including New Age and other unaffiliated groups—that are readily available and socially acceptable. To be a believer is sometimes taken to be more important than what one believes.

Theism is so prevalent in the United States that a certain generic Protestant brand of it was dubbed "civil religion." It is expressed by the phrase "In God we trust" found on money and in prayers as part of the presidential inaugural ceremonies. Strong legal challenges to the "right" of communities to display a crèche at Christmastime or the "right" of military services to prohibit the wearing of religious gear are slowly eroding some of the liberal Protestant assumptions of God the Father that were so pervasive at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Capitalism places supreme value on money and the accumulation of resources, leading some to say that in the United States "money is God." The new rapprochement between science and religion is perhaps the most challenging dimension of contemporary theism. Whether the "big bang" was caused, allowed, or ignored by the divine, it is sure to influence the way Americans think about God. Thus far, theism reigns. Surely not all of the definitions of the divine correspond to what the country's founders had in mind when they conceived of "one nation under God." But the liberty to be theistic or not, as one chooses, and the justice required to respect people's various choices remain cherished American values. In the twenty-first century, the United States will still be, it seems, a theistic if differently theistic country. While most people still believe in what they call God, it takes a great deal of imagination and religious tolerance to discern just what they mean by it and how to live fruitfully with the diversity.