National god
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A national god is a
Ancient gods
In antiquity (and to some extent continuing today), religion was a characteristic of regional culture, together with language, customs, traditions, etc. Many of these ethnic religions included national god(s) in their pantheons, such as
- Amaterasu of the Japanese;[1]
- Amun, Amun-Ra[2] and Horus for the Egyptians;
- Apollo for the people of Troy;
- Aramazd for Armenians
- eponymous Assur for the Assyrians;[3][4]
- Ashtoret for the Sidonians;
- the eponymous Athena-Mykene for the Athenians and Mycenaeans;
- Phoenicians;[5]
- Bathala of the Tagalogs;
- Chemosh for the Moabites;[5][6]
- Dagon for Philistia;[5]
- Gaut for the Geats;[7]
- Heracles for the Dorians;
- Huitzilopochtli of the Tenochtitlan Aztecs;[8]
- Indra for the Vedic Indians;[9]
- Inti for the Incas;[10]
- Itzamna for the Mayas;[4]
- Jade Emperor for the Chinese;
- Kataragama deviyo for Sri Lanka;[4]
- Ông Trời for the Vietnamese;
- Lugh (Gaulish Mercury, Lugus, Lleu) for the ancient Celts;
- Marduk for the Babylonians;[11]
- Mars and eponymous Romulus-Quirinus for the Romans;
- Milcom for the Ammonites;[5]
- Yoruba;
- Perun for the ancient Slavs;
- Seaxnēat for the Saxons;
- Rangi and Papa for the Māori people;
- Qos for the Edomites;[5]
- Siam Devadhiraj for the Thais;
- Tamils;
- the Sovereignty goddess and eponymous Ériu for Ireland;
- Tengri for the Turks and Mongols;
- Teshub for the Hittites;[12]
- Ukko for the Finns;[13]
- Wadd for the Kingdom of Awsan;[14]
- Yahweh for the Israelites;[5]
- Zalmoxis for the Dacians.
In antiquity
In antiquity, each ethnic group (nation) had its own pantheon, which may or may not have overlapped with that of neighbouring groups. Many of these religions had guardian figures, which then sometimes included national gods, who were considered responsible for the safety and well-being of the nation and of its people, with a special concern for the nation's ruler and guardian. These national gods stood alongside the personal gods (that is, the patron gods who took a special interest in an individual's personal well-being). Additionally, there were the family gods associated with the care of a clan or profession, as well as gods associated with specific situations or the protection thereof (fertility, health, war, contracts and so on).
This perception of divinity was common in the ancient world. Deities were often geographically localized by association to their main cult centers, and in the Ancient Near East were often
Modern period
Philippine
In search of a national culture and identity away from the Catholic religion imposed by Spain during its colonisation of the Philippines, those who instigated the Philippine Revolution proposed to revive indigenous Philippine folk religions and make them the national religion of the entire country. The Katipunan opposed the religious teachings of the Spanish friars, saying that they "obscured rather than explained religious truths." After the revival of the Katipunan during the Spanish–American War, an idealized form of the folk religions was proposed by some, with the worship of God under the ancient name Bathala, which applies to all supreme deities under the many ethnic pantheons across the country. However, the re-vitalization process of the indigenous faiths of the Philippines did not progress further as the Filipino forces were defeated by the Americans in 1902, which led to the second Christian colonization of the archipelago.[19]
Christianity
In a modern context, the term of a "national god" addresses the emergence of national churches within Christianity. [citation needed] This tendency of "nationalizing" the Christian God, especially in the context of national churches sanctioning warfare against other Christian nations during World War I, was denounced as heretical by Karl Barth.[20]
Germanic
- "But what is more than curious — indeed, piquant to a degree — is that an ancient god of storm and frenzy, the long quiescent Wotan, should awake, like an extinct volcano, to new activity, in a civilized country that had long been supposed to have outgrown the Middle Ages. [...] I venture the heretical suggestion that the unfathomable depths of Wotan's character explain more of National Socialism than all three reasonable factors [viz. economic, political, and psychological] put together. [...] This is a tragic experience and no disgrace. It has always been terrible to fall into the hands of a living god. exceedingly disagreeable. The Semitic experience of Allah was for a long time an extremely painful affair for the whole of Christendom. We who stand outside judge the Germans far too much, as if they were responsible agents, but perhaps it would be nearer the truth to regard them, also, as victims."[21]
Hindu
One of the primary ancient
See also
- Constitutional references to God
- Ethnic religion
- God and the State
- Imperial cult
- National personification
- Religious exclusivism
References
- ISSN 1556-9195.
- OCLC 54772442.
- ISBN 978-1-927091-16-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-10628-6.
- ^ ProQuest 214913086.
- ISBN 978-1-4443-3838-6, retrieved 2021-05-09
- JSTOR 41688672.
- ISBN 978-1-4205-0922-9.
- JSTOR 44028390.
- ISBN 978-1-57607-354-4.
- ISBN 978-90-04-43518-6.
- ISBN 978-1-134-64102-4.
- ^ Haavio, Martti (1967). Suomalainen mytologia (in Finnish). Porvoo Helsinki: WSOY.
- JSTOR 23670844.
- ISBN 978-0-87779-044-0.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-11119-6.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-16-149543-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-516768-9.
- Jstor.
- ^ Barth, Ethnics, ed. Braun, transl. Bromiley, New York, 1981, p. 305.
- ^ First published in Neue Schweizer Rundschau (Zurich) (March, 1936), 657-69. Republished in Aufsätze zur Zeitgeschichte (Zurich, 1946), 1-23. English translation by Barbara Hannah, Essays on Contemporary Events (London, 1947).