The universal search for the Divine

Archaeologists and historians have found religious artefacts in every civilisation back to prehistoric humans. The form of that religion may have varied a lot but the fact of this devotion is testimony to a sense of something beyond ourselves.

It would be impossible to give an exhaustive list of religions in the world but here is an attempt to classify the main ‘families’ of religions:

Animism. This would include the faith of Cro-Magnon early humans and many modern day tribal religions. While there might be a concept of a ‘high God’ much of the everyday focus is on placating spirits, often seen in common objects, e.g. trees, stones, etc. This is the sort of faith that I have encountered among the non-Christian Maasai in Kenya, where the witchdoctor is still a key religious figure.
Polytheistic faiths. The most well-known of these is Hinduism where there are many deities. Some Hindus will say that their faith ultimately is about one God but this view is far from universal in the ordinary people. In common practice people pray to different deities who are seen to govern particular areas of life.
Monotheistic faiths. Judaism, Islam and Christianity each proclaim that there is only one God. This is not to say they are all the same thing, as we shall see, but on this point they agree.
Other. Technically Buddhism is an atheistic faith for ultimately it speaks of merging not with God but with nothingness.

Even the very brief sketch I have given shows that these faiths understand the Divine very differently – even the fact that I have to use the word ‘the divine’ because otherwise I need to say ‘God’, ‘gods’, or ‘no god’! We will look at difference shortly but for the moment I simply want to point out that most human beings seek the Divine.

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Six Big Questions Rev John Hibberd sixbigquestions@throughfaithmissions.org