What You Need to Know About the Supreme Being

The Seeds of Classical Theism Scattered Everywhere

Religion is the spiritual in practice. According to Bishop Robert Barron, it is life lived in purposeful relation to the Supreme Value. In classical theism, this is what we mean by God, who is also the source of all value.

Interestingly, despite significant differences, a survey of world religions reveals a pattern that consistently rises to the surface—

The belief in an all-encompassing Deus Altissimus, one Supreme Being.

The majority of the world’s religions describe such a deity. A supreme being who is immanent, i.e. active within the human world rather than detached from it. A supreme being who can be experienced, either through symbolism, literature, or mystical practice. A supreme being who is the ideal paradigm of moral perfection. And, a supreme being who is conceived of in highly personal terms and often profoundly linked with humanity.

For example,

• Zoroastrians (of the ancient Persian religion) in one of the earliest recorded revelations in human history, described a supreme being who was inherently good and all-encompassing.
• Hindus, in the Upanishads, described the supreme self as the basis of all things and therefore immanent within the universe. It is said to be the very same as Atman (the human soul), a concept which also emerged (in a tangential way) in Christian theosis.
• Lakotas, Algonquins and other American indigenous peoples believed in a supreme being known as the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit has at times been described as an anthropomorphic celestial deity, a life force, the god of creation, history and eternity, who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.
• Ancient Greeks described a supreme being who could interact with the human world, but without changing itself. According to Plato, this God designed the world on the pattern of Forms—the perfected iterations of any given object— and above all a notion of the “Good,” which is beyond thought and therefore transcendent.
• Jews describe a supreme being who created and continues to sustain the world. Without definite shape or form, this God is the one god for the entire world as well as its sole moral rubric. Though elusive, it is evident throughout the Hebrew Bible that He is still able to communicate with human beings and can be experienced. His actions foretell not only the rightful destiny of Israel, but that of the entire human race.
• Christians reflect much of this Jewish tradition, yet with a significant further step. The supreme being is described as dwelling in the heaven and bears the all-encompassing traits of transcendence, while possessing the ability to interact in human history. The fullest moment of this interaction: God’s incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. The messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible was an unexpected revelation — that God himself could be embodied and come to earth to identify with, be crucified for and ultimately save humanity in love, paving the way for all humanity to be filled with His Spirit.
• Muslims, in the footsteps of the two other Abrahamic faiths, regard the supreme being as One, indivisible, and in all things. God is typically described as unquestionably transcendent, and His immanence is reflected through instances of revelation to humanity through various prophets.
• Sikhs describe the supreme being as the One Creator of the universe, singular, supreme, perfectly moral, whose essence is unchanging Truth. However, He is also described in personal terms, e.g. “Creative Being Personified,” and as preserving the physical world from day to day without infringement on his transcendent character.
• Bahá’í adherents proclaim the existence of a single supreme being who has created everything within the universe. God is also described in personal terms, possessing a purposive will and a mind highly conscious of and involved with His creation.

As seen, classical theism “overflows the banks” in regards to borders and backgrounds. The names differ — Ahura Mazda, Brahman, Wakan Tanka, Gitche Manitou, El, YHWH, Allah, Ek Onkar —but all represent a similar conception of a supreme creator deity.

But, how? Why?

It is important here to note that this is not a plea for perennialism — the view that all of the world’s religious traditions share a single, metaphysical truth or a single origin.

In the novel, The Shack, when Mack asks Jesus if all roads will lead to Him, Jesus replies, “Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.”

No, the emergence of classical theism across the world, in so many times and places, is evidence that regardless of how the religion originated, people possess echoes of the divine. Seeds, if you will, that have been wittingly planted throughout the nations of the earth.

And this for a definite purpose. To borrow from Paul of Tarsus,

“So that they might seek God — though they might perhaps grope their way toward him to find him, even though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and are, as indeed some of the poets among you have said: ‘For we too are his offspring.’”

(With thanks to https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/theism)