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Supreme Being
About: Supreme Being is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 192 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1615 citations.
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TL;DR: In this article, Amadou Hampate Bâ, an initiated scholar from his experience with Fulani and Bamana religions, examines the meaning of the world as a manifestation of spirit through Bâ's mystical concept of the living tradition.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the concept of the world as interpreted by Amadou Hampate Bâ, an initiated scholar, from his experience with Fulani and Bamana religions. It examines the meaning of the world as a manifestation of spirit through Bâ’s mystical concept of the ‘living tradition’. Bâ looks at the complex interaction of the material and spiritual dimensions of the universe as it manifests itself in the physical world through symbols, and as it is informed through invisible forces communicated by the Supreme Being. Based on his understanding of Fulani and Bamana traditions, Bâ uses notions of history and art to better highlight the specific relationship between the spiritual and material realms that illustrate this sacred connection. I argue that Bâ’s mystical approach to understanding this metaphysics offers another method of thinking about some of the diverse African indigenous religions through their underlying esoteric connections.
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that morality is contingent upon religion, and they argue that Africans logically derive their innate religious inclinations from God, and that what is morally good is that which brings human well-being.
Abstract: Wiredu and Gyekye both stress that the function of ethics in the Akan society is to bring harmony, stability, prosperity, welfare, unity and solidarity. For the Akan, therefore, what is morally good is that which brings human well-being. They demystified morality by dissociating it from any supernaturalistic sources and gave it a humanistic character. But I argue that insofar as it is unanimously believed by Africans that the Supreme Being is the creator of human beings and the universe, and also that He is believed to be morally impeccable, then Africans logically derive their innate religious inclinations from God. Admittedly, society plays a role in the origination of morality. I argue, therefore, that morality is contingent upon religion.
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: The relationship between faith and poetry is explored in this article, where the authors consider four states of the relationship between Christian belief and poetry: the first state is represented by poems of Yeats and Kipling, neither of whom have claimed to be Christian believers in any orthodox sense.
Abstract: At breakfast on Friday, 11 June 1784, Dr Johnson informed Boswell that he did ‘not approve of figurative expressions in addressing the Supreme Being’.1 Beginning with Johnson’s complaint in the Life of Waller, that religious poetry is actually an impertinence, this chapter will consider four states of the relationship between Christian belief and poetry. The second state will be represented by poems of Yeats and Kipling, neither of whom have claimed to be Christian believers in any orthodox sense. Each, however, drew deeply upon Christian association, and found in the traditions of Christianity a tremendous resource for their poetry. The third state concerns three ostensibly Christian writers, the poets George Herbert, W. H. Auden and Edwin Muir, whose poetry reflects their sense of religious commitment and whose vision of religious truth inspires their poetry. Finally, I shall consider that often under-estimated form of poetry which John Wesley described as ‘the handmaid of Piety’, the congregational hymn.
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: The authors discusses the difference between the two greatest poets of the Christian world, Milton and Dante, in their portrayals of the Supreme Being, and concludes that while the latter is more interesting, more intriguing, and more "story-worthy" as a character, the former is closer to the true image of theChristian Supreme Being.
Abstract: Arguably the two greatest poets of the Christian world, Milton and Dante have both written about God, respectively in Paradise Lost and in The Divine Comedy. Though equally influenced by the Bible and Christian thought and sharing many affinities, the two poets adopted different approaches in portraying the Supreme Being, a task that taxes the imaginative powers of the greatest of poets. While Milton’s portraiture of God is highly anthropomorphic, reminding one very much of the epics of pre-Christian times, Dante’s parts company with that of the classical epics in a direction of its own, and is indebted for its success not to anthropomorphism, but, rather, to the avoidance of anthropomorphism. In the end, while Milton’s God is more interesting, more intriguing, and more “story-worthy” as a character, Dante’s comes closer to the true image of the Christian Supreme Being. This paper discusses the
Journal Article•
TL;DR: This paper argued that the contribution of Christianity far outweighs that of the pre- modern Igbo since the former has the epistemological advantage of the Supernatural revelation and in possession of literacy before the latter.
Abstract: The question on whether or not the Supreme Being is a stranger in Igbo traditional philosophy is a question on being and its being there. This paper adopts an analytico- deductive method to examine some clues on this existence -question of God among the pre- modern Igbo; and the implication is that due to hasty generalizations and false certainty some scholars even of
philosophy still maintain that the Supreme Being is of Western importation. Both Christianity and Igbo traditional philosophy, the paper also argues, have something to contribute to the debate but the contribution of Christianity far outweighs that of the pre- modern Igbo since the former has the epistemological advantage of the Supernatural revelation and in possession of literacy before the latter. Nevertheless, prior to Christianity the raw materials for the philosophy of God were encapsulated in the Igbo man’s oral tradition only to be highlighted by a culture that is highly literate and philosophical.