Neha Patil (Editor)

Physitheism

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Physitheism is the worship of nature and the assignment of gods to natural phenomena, or the attribution of physical form to gods and religious beings.

Monotheism

A vestige of physitheism is apparent in certain passages of the Hebrew Bible such as Exodus 33:23 where God tells Moses, "And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen."

God is also described in a manner similar to a physical person in Genesis 3:8, "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden."

Such apparently physitheistic verses are a matter of controversy; the early followers of Gnosticism considered them evidence that the Judeo-Christian god was in fact an imperfect demiurge, wholly separate from the higher, transcendental God.

References

Physitheism Wikipedia