Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

[xxxiv] The objects of worship, adoration, fear and obedience and the sources of obligations, commandments and forms of acceptable behaviour who speak to, appear to, and generally occupy positions of sacred or deeply significant existence for those who acknowledge them. Gods and goddesses vary from very local unseen spiritual beings to cosmic and universal divinities, their influence sometimes malign, sometimes benign. These beings are held to control the cosmic elements – there are gods of sky, earth, air, fire, thunder and fertility – and to control the destinies of peoples, through protection against enemies or diseases, or through the prosecution of wars. Human existence itself is held to depend on the favours or disapproval of gods and goddesses. In order to gain favour or avoid disapproval devotees offer prayers, gifts, sacrifices. Special boons demand special gifts. In all religious contexts gods and goddesses, or at least supernatural spiritual beings, are present. Even in the non-theistic religious context of the teaching of the Buddha there are references to gods, but these are not the determining powers of some other religious contexts; rather, they are spiritual beings who themselves are in need of deliverance from the bonds of existence. In some traditions the same god or goddess can be seen as either benign or malign. The Hindu goddess Kali is such an example. Religious ... log in or subscribe to read full text