God, history of concept of 301Middle Ages in various movements deemed heretical by
the church, such as MANICHAEISM and among the
CATHARS, including their dualism, the goodness of mate-
rial things, ideas about creation, spiritual election, the
need for redemption, the necessity of a clergy, and the
divinity and humanity of Christ. At least their orthodox
contemporaries attributed these ideas to heretics.
See alsoALBIGENSIANS ANDALBIGENSIANMOVEMENT;
BOGOMILS;CATHARS;DUALISM;HERESY AND HERETICS.
Further reading: James M. Robinson, The Coptic
Gnostic Library: A Complete Edition of the Nag Hammadi
Codices, 5 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 2000); George Burke,
Gnostic Christianity: An Introduction(Geneva, Nebr.: Saint
George Press, 1994); Giovanni Filoramo, A History of
Gnosticism,trans. Anthony Alcock (Oxford: Blackwell,
1990); Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (New York:
Random House, 1979); David M. Scholer, ed., Gnosticism
in the Early Church(New York: Garland, 1993); Riemer
Roukema, Gnosis and Faith in Early Christianity: An Intro-
duction to Gnosticism(London: SCM, 1999).
God, history of concept of In the religious and cul-
tural monotheistic context of medieval Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim civilizations, “God” or the Arabic word
Allahor the Hebrew word for God, YHWH,only written
and never pronounced, designated the Supreme Being,
the creator of the universe who governed the world and
cared for the destiny of each human being. This God was
essentially a mystery, the one, unique, eternal, having no
equal, completely transcendent, the creator of the uni-
verse, outside human experience, compassionate, per-
fectly just and merciful, all-knowing, all-seeing, and
rewarding of good and punishing of evil among humans
with free wills. God was the God of Abraham and had
only one existence for these religions. For the Jews God
was a national God. In all of these belief systems, one
had to conduct one’s life in a good way in order to be
allowed into heaven. There were always questions in all
these religions whether God would grant universal salva-
tion to all of humanity if those outside one’s religion did
not practice the same and particular form of worship and
belief. None of these religions was very tolerant of dis-
sent or of other belief systems.
THE CHRISTIAN TRINITYFor medieval Christianity God was a Trinity in a unity.
God consisted of three persons in one substance. Judaism
and Islam have no such concept. From this followed the
idea of the Incarnation of God as Jesus Christ, who
became human in order to save humanity.
ATTAINING AN UNDERSTANDING OF GODThere was some question about whether human intellect
was capable of knowing let alone understanding God.
There was also considerable debate at times in all these
belief systems about whether one could investigate and
understand the qualities of God by using reason or
whether faith alone, a gift from God, was all that was nec-
essary to understand God and the human situation in
relation to the divinity. Perhaps God was too transcen-
dent to be understood by reason, even reason strength-
ened by classical learning and speculation.ISLAM AND ALLAH
Allahis the Arabic word for God, used not only in the
QURANand in Islamic literature, but also by Christian
Arabs. The term is sometimes considered to be con-
tracted from al-ilah or “the deity,” which has cognates in
other Semitic languages, but the ultimate derivation
remains obscure. In intention Muslims refer to the same
Supreme Being as Jews and Christians. Islamic theolo-
gians selected seven qualities of God, omnipotence,
omniscience, will, speech, hearing, seeing, and life, but
emphasized God’s transcendence and absolute difference
from created things. Various natural phenomena were
more explicitly mentioned as “signs” of God’s creative
power, which he exercised to promote the welfare of
humankind, including light, useful animals, rain, and
crops. Humanity was to acknowledge this fact by wor-
shiping and showing gratitude to God.
Allah was described in the QURAN as giving
humankind revelations through prophets or “messen-
gers” in which he communicated something of the divine
nature and commands. Muhammad was regarded as fol-
lowing a long series of prophets, who included Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus, all of whom gave revelations. Muham-
mad was called “the seal of the prophets.” Originally this
probably meant that the Quran confirmed previous reve-
lations, but now it has been taken to mean that there will
be no other prophet after Muhammad.ARTISTIC DEPICTIONS
In Islam and Judaism, the image of God was not allowed
to be presented in art. In Christianity, God the Father and
God the Son or Christ were frequently portrayed in
anthropomorphic fashion or in human form except dur-
ing moments of iconoclasm. These images could be con-
solatory or threatening. The concept of the Trinity and
the third person of that Trinity, the Holy Spirit, were left
more abstract.
See alsoANSELM OFCANTERBURY;CHRISTOLOGY AND
CHRISTOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY; HOLYSPIRIT;ISLAM;JEWS
AND JUDAISM;LAST JUDGMENT; MYSTICISM, CHRISTIAN;
PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY.
Further reading: Binyamin Abrahamov, Anthropo-
morphism and Interpretation of the Quran in the Theology of
al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim: Kitab al-Mustarshid(New York: E. J.
Brill, 1996); Karen Armstrong, A History of God: From
Abraham to the Present, the 4000-Year Quest for God(Lon-
don: Heinemann, 1993); Karen Armstrong, The Battle for
God(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000); David B. Burrell,