With a lot of Republican theocrats running for public office at the national, state, and local levels, I thought we should look at the origins and meanings of some of the theo words, such as theism, theocracy, theocrat, atheism, and others.
Theo
Theo- is a word-forming element which has an underlying meaning of “god, gods, God” which comes most recently from the Greek theos meaning “god.” Going back further in time, theo- comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *dhes- which is a root for words applied to many religious concepts.
Theism
Theism comes from the word-forming element theo- plus the word-forming element -ism which is attached to nouns to imply a practice, system, or doctrine. Theism is first recorded in English in the 1670s with a meaning of “belief in a deity or deities.” By 1711, the word was generally used to mean a belief in one god and was seen as the opposite of polytheism. By 1714, it was used to mean the belief in God (the upper case G here implies a proper name for a specific god) who was the creator and ruler of the universe. At this time, theism was seen as being opposed to deism.
In today’s academic world, theism is generally viewed as the belief in the existence of one or more deities or divinities. Richard Dawkins, in his book The God Delusion, writes:
“A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who, in addition to his main work of creating the universe in the first place, is still around to oversee and influence the subsequent fate of his initial creation.”
Philosopher Ernest Nagel, in his essay reprinted in Critiques of God: Making the Case Against Belief in God, writes:
“As long as theism is defended simply as a dogma, asserted as a matter of direct revelation or as the deliverance of authority, belief in the dogma is impregnable to rational argument. In fact, however, reasons are frequently advanced in support of the theistic creed, and these reasons have been the subject of acute philosophical critiques.”
Theocracy
Theocracy comes from the word-forming element theo- plus the word-forming element kratos meaning “a rule, regime, strength.” It is first recorded in English in 1737 with the meaning of “a form of government in which God is recognized as the supreme ruler and His laws form the statute book.” Theocracy was originally to describe the sacerdotal government of Israel before the rise of kings.
Theocrat
The word theocrat is first recorded in English in 1827 with the meaning of “a ruler in the name of God.” By 1843, it had come to mean “one who favors a system of theocracy.” In general, a theocrat emphasizes divine authority over reason and individual freedom. A theocrat explains social order as a kind of revelation from God (meaning the deity to which the theocrat prays).
Theology
Theology came into English in the mid-fourteenth-century with the meaning of “the science of religion, the study of God and His relationship to humanity.” Theology was borrowed from the Old French theologie which meant “the philosophical study of Christian doctrine and scripture.” Theology is made from the word-forming element theo- plus the word-forming element -ology meaning “study of; branch of knowledge.”
Monotheism
Mono- is a word-forming element which basically means “one, alone” and which originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *men- meaning “small, isolated.” In today’s world monotheism refers to the belief that a single deity exists which rules the universe as a separate and individual entity. Judaism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism are all considered examples of monotheism. Anthropologist Paul Radin, in his classic work Primitive Religion, notes:
“…wherever a Supreme Deity or a High God, as he is frequently called, exists it is the belief either of a few individuals or of a special group.”
Radin also writes:
“Monotheism, strictly speaking, is, in other words, extremely rare.”
Archaeologists Mark Sutton and Robert Yohe, in their textbook Archaeology: The Science of the Human Past, report:
“Religion based on a single deity (monotheism) is a recent development in human history.”
The intolerance of monotheism, particularly the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions, had often been noticed. In The Evolution of God, Robert Wright writes:
“This is of course a common complaint about the monotheism that emerged in the Middle East—that its theology bred belligerent intolerance. Some even see this as an intrinsic property of monotheism; whereas polytheism leaves room for the validity of other peoples’ gods, ardent monotheists, according to this indictment, were allergic to peaceful coexistence.”
Polytheism
Poly- is a word-forming element which means “many, much, multi-” and whose origins appear to steam from the Proto-Indo-European root pele- meaning “to spread.” Today, polytheism is generally used to describe the belief that multiple deities exist which rule the universe as separate and individual entities. The classical religions of Greece and Rome are often used as examples of polytheism. With regard to the Greeks, Karen Armstrong, in her book The Great Transformation: The Beginnings of Our Religious Traditions, writes:
“No god prohibited the worship of any other, and it was forbidden to pick and choose your favorites and neglect the cult of any single member of the pantheon. Gods might fight and quarrel, but each represented an authentic aspect of reality, without which the cosmos would be permanently disfigured.”
In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, gods were associated with—that is, thought to live in—specific places. In Mesopotamia, for example, each city-state would typically have a temple for its dominant god (such as Enlil in Nippur, and Enki in Eridu). As societies became more complex with specialized trades, the pantheon was expanded to include gods related to these trades. With regard to polytheism, Robert Wright, in his book The Evolution of God, notes:
“For a polytheist there is no limit on the number of possible gods and thus no natural compulsion, upon encountering another people, to contest the existence of their gods.”
There are a number of scholars, particularly those focusing on how people actually practice religion, point out that Christianity can be considered polytheistic. Richard Dawkins writes:
“But it is especially the Roman Catholic branch of Christianity that pushes its recurrent flirtation with polytheism towards runaway inflation.”
Mary, the “Queen of Heaven,” seems to assume the role of a goddess in the Christian (particularly Roman Catholic) pantheon and is often the target of prayers. In the Catholic pantheon there are more than 5,000 saints who often have special areas of expertise, including abdominal pains, abuse victims, anorexia, arms dealers, blacksmiths, broken bones, and so on.
Deism
Deism is first recorded in English in the 1680s and seems to come from the French déisme which, in turn, comes from Latin deus meaning “god.” Initially, it was used as the opposite of atheism and in the 1700s was used as the opposite of theism.
Today, deism refers to the belief that god does exist but does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe. God is transcendent. Many deists feel that religious beliefs must be based on features observed in the natural world and they tend to dismiss revealed religion as fiction. They feel that the knowledge needed for happiness is universal and does not depend on revelation. William Wainwright, in his entry on deism in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, writes:
“True religion is an expression of a universal human nature whose essence is reason and is the same in all times and places.”
Steven Doloff, in an article in Free Inquiry, writes:
“Deism prioritized an exclusive reliance upon reason to know God and his universe of natural (scientific) law.”
In comparing theism and deism, Richard Dawkins writes:
“A deist, too, believes in a supernatural intelligence, but one whose activities were confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place.”
Deism was primarily a phenomenon of the 17th and 18th centuries and was strongest in England. In the Americas, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine were prominent deists.
Atheism
Atheism came into English in the 1580s from the French athéisme whose origins can be traced to the Greek atheos meaning “without god.” In the 1530s, atheonism was used for this concept. Atheonism seems to come from the ancient Greek atheotes which means “ungodliness.”
Today, atheism is often used to describe the rejection of belief in the existence of deities; that is, atheism is a rejection of theism. Philosopher Ernest Nagel, in his essay “Philosophical Concepts of Atheism in Critiques of God: Making the Case Against Belief in God, writes:
“I shall understand by ‘atheism’ a critique and a denial of the major claims of all varieties of theism.”
In his entry on atheism in The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Louis Pojman distinguishes between theoretical atheism and practical atheism:
“A theoretical atheist is one who self-consciously denies the existence of a supreme being, while a practical atheist may believe that a supreme being exists but lives as though there were no god.”
In a similar vein, the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker (1554-1600), in his book Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, expressed the idea of two kinds of atheists:
“First, there was a very small group of people who did not believe in God (that is, the Christian God). And then, there was a much larger group who lived as though God did not exist.”
A number of atheists say that they do not “reject” a belief in deities, but rather they simply find no reasons to believe in them. They point out that “rejecting belief” presupposes the belief in the first place. They also point out that an atheist can hold all kinds of supernatural and irrational beliefs, but the key issue is that these do not include the existence of a god or gods.
While there are many people who view atheism as incompatible with religion, and even opposed to religion, Philosopher Ernest Nagel writes:
“…atheism is not necessarily an irreligious concept, for theism is just one among many views concerning the nature and origin of the world. The denial of theism is logically compatible with the great historical religions.”
Nagel, as well as many others, points out that there are religions, such as early Buddhism, which do not have a concept of god and are considered atheistic.
Among Christians, the term “atheist” was, and often still is, used as an insult. Karen Armstrong, in her book A History of God: The 4,000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, writes:
“After the Reformation, people had become anxious about Christianity in a new way. Like ‘the witch’ (or, indeed ‘the anarchist’ or ‘the communist’) ‘the atheist’ was the projection of buried anxiety.”