Judaism Jewish theologians, especially since the
Middle Ages, have described the transcendence of God in terms of
divine simplicity, explaining the traditional characteristics of God as
omniscient and
omnipotent. Interventions of divine transcendence occur in the form of events outside the realm of natural occurrence such as
miracles and the
revelation of the
Ten Commandments to
Moses at
Mount Sinai. In Jewish
Kabbalistic cosmology, God is described as the "
Ein Sof" (literally, without end) as reference to God's divine simplicity and essential unknowability. The emanation of creation from the Ein Sof is explained through a process of filtering. In the Kabbalistic
creation myth referred to as the "breaking of the vessels," filtering was necessary because otherwise this intense, simple essence would have overwhelmed and made impossible the emergence of any distinct creations. Each filter, described as a vessel, captured the emanation of this creative force until it was overwhelmed and broken by the intensity of God's simple essence. Once broken, the vessel's shards, full of absorbed "divine sparks," fell into a vessel below. This process ultimately continued until the "light" of Godliness was sufficiently reduced to allow the world we inhabit to be sustained without breaking. The creation of this world, however, comes with the consequence that Godly transcendence is hidden, or "exiled" (from the immanent world). Only through the revelation of sparks hidden within the shards embedded in our material world can this transcendence be recognized again. In
Hasidic thought, divine sparks are revealed through the performance of commandments or "
mitzvot," (literally, the obligations and prohibitions described in the
Torah). A Kabbalistic explanation for the existence of malevolence in the world is that such terrible things are possible with the divine sparks being hidden. Thus there is some urgency to performing mitzvot in order to liberate the hidden sparks and perform a "
tikkun olam" (literally, healing of the world). Until then, the world is presided over by the immanent aspect of God, often referred to as the
Shekhinah or divine spirit, and in feminine terms.
Christianity The
Catholic Church, as do other
Christian denominations, holds that God transcends all creation. According to
Aquinas, "concerning God, we cannot grasp what he is, but only what he is not, and how other beings stand in relation to him." Anthropomorphic depictions of God are largely metaphorical and reflect the challenge of "human modes of expression" in attempting to describe the infinite.
St. Augustine observed "...[I]t is only by the use of such human expressions that
Scripture can make its many kinds of readers whom it wants to help to feel, as it were, at home." The "sense of transcendence" and therefore, an awareness of the "sacred", is an important component of the liturgy. Thus, God is recognized as both transcendent and
immanent. Trascendence of God is implicitly affirmed by the
First Vatican Council's apostolic constitution
Dei Filius: God's transcendence deals with His
impassibility,
ineffability, as well as with His
immutability and infinity (all what is in the space-time is mutable and finite).
Islam Tawhid is the act of believing and affirming that
God (Arabic:
Allah) is one and unique (
wāḥid). The Qur'an asserts the existence of a single and absolute truth that transcends the world; a unique and indivisible being who is independent of the entire creation. According to the Qur'an, as mentioned in
Surat al-Ikhlas: In order to explain the complexity of unity of God and of the divine nature, the Qur'an uses 99 terms referred to as "Most Beautiful Names of Allah" (Sura 7:180)[12]. Aside from the supreme name "Allah" and the neologism al-Rahman (referring to the divine beneficence that constantly (re)creates, maintains and destroys the universe), other names may be shared by both God and human beings. According to the Islamic teachings, the latter is meant to serve as a reminder of God's
immanence rather than being a sign of one's divinity or alternatively imposing a limitation on God's transcendent nature. Tawhid or Oneness of God constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession. To attribute divinity to a created entity is the only unpardonable sin mentioned in the Qur'an. Muslims believe that the entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid.
Baháʼí Faith The
Baháʼí Faith believes in a
single, imperishable
god, the creator of all things, including all the creatures and forces in the universe. In the Baháʼí tradition, god is described as "a personal god, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and almighty." Though inaccessible directly, God is nevertheless seen as conscious of his creation, with a mind, will, and purpose. Baháʼís believe that God expresses this will at all times and in many ways, including through a series of divine messengers referred to as
Manifestations of God or sometimes
divine educators. In expressing God's intent, these manifestations are seen to establish religion in the world.
Baháʼí teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully comprehend, nor to create a complete and accurate image. ==In Eastern religions==