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A personal god, or personal goddess, is a deity who can be related to as a person (anthropomorphic),[1] instead of as an impersonal force, such as the Absolute. In the context of Christianity and other Abrahamic religions, the term "personal god" also refers to the incarnation of God as a person. In the context of Hinduism, "personal god/goddess" also refers to Ishtadevata, a worshipper's personal favorite deity.
In the scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, God is described as being a personal creator, speaking in the first person and showing emotion such as anger and pride, and sometimes appearing in anthropomorphic shape.[2] In the Pentateuch, for example, God talks with and instructs his prophets and is conceived as possessing volition, emotions (such as anger, grief and happiness), intention, and other attributes characteristic of a human person. Personal relationships with God may be described in the same ways as human relationships, such as a Father, as in Christianity, or a Friend as in Sufism.[3]
A 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center reported that, of U.S. adults, 60% view that "God is a person with whom people can have a relationship", while 25% believe that "God is an impersonal force".[4] A 2019 survey by the National Opinion Research Center reported that 77.5% of U.S. adults believe in a personal god.[5] The 2014 Religious Landscape survey conducted by Pew reported that 57% of U.S. adults believe in a personal god.[6]
- ^ "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's concepts of God". Plato.stanford.edu. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
- ^ Williams, W. Wesley, "A study of anthropomorphic theophany and Visio Dei in the Hebrew Bible, the Quran and early Sunni Islam", University of Michigan, March 2009
- ^ "The man who realizes God as a friend is never lonely in the world, neither in this world nor in the hereafter. There is always a friend, a friend in the crowd, a friend in the solitude; or while he is asleep, unconscious of this outer world, and when he is awake and conscious of it. In both cases the friend is there in his thought, in his imagination, in his heart, in his soul." Inayat Khan, quoted from The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
- ^ "Chapter 1: Religious Beliefs and Practices". U.S. Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 1 June 2008. II. Religious Beliefs: God.
- ^ Smith, Tom W. (18 April 2012). "Beliefs about God across Time and Countries" (PDF). NORC at the University of Chicago. Table 3: Believing in a Personal God (2019).
- ^ "Most Christians Believe in a Personal God, Others Tend to See God as Impersonal Force". U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious. Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 29 October 2015.