Monotheism—the belief that there is only one deity—is a foundational tenet of theAbrahamic religions, which alikeconceive God as the all-powerful and all-knowing deity^[1] from whomAbraham received a divine revelation, according to their respective narratives.^[2] The most prominent Abrahamic religions areJudaism,Christianity, andIslam.^[3] They—alongsideSamaritanism,^[4] theDruze Faith,^[5] theBaháʼí Faith,^[3] and theRastafari movement^[3]—all share a common belief in the Abrahamic God. Likewise, the Abrahamic religions share similar features distinguishing them fromother categories of religions:^[6]

• all of their theological traditions are, to some extent, influenced by the depiction of theGod of Israel in theHebrew Bible,^[8] who is explicitly namedYahweh inHebrew andAllah inArabic;^[12]
• all of them trace their roots to Abraham as a commongenealogical and spiritualpatriarch.^[13]

In the Abrahamic tradition, God isone,eternal,omnipotent,omniscient, and thecreator of the universe.^[1] God is typically referred to with masculine grammatical articles and pronouns only,^[1][14] and is further held to have the properties ofholiness,justice,omnibenevolence, andomnipresence. Adherents of the Abrahamic religions believe God is alsotranscendent, meaning he is outside of both space and time and thereforenot subject to anything within his creation, but at the same time apersonal God: intimately involved, listening to individual prayer, and reacting to the actions of his creatures.

Judaism, the oldest Abrahamic religion, is based on a strict,exclusive monotheism,^[17] finding its origins in thesole veneration ofYahweh,^[21] the predecessor to the Abrahamic conception of God.^{[Note 1]} Thenames of God used most often in theHebrew Bible are theTetragrammaton (Hebrew:יהוה,romanized: YHWH) andElohim.^[9][10] Jews traditionally do not pronounce it, and instead refer to God asHaShem, literally "the Name". In prayer, the Tetragrammaton is substituted with the pronunciationAdonai, meaning "My Lord".^[28] This is referred to primarily in the Torah: "Hear O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is One" (Deuteronomy 6:4).^[28]

God is conceived as unique and perfect, free from all faults, deficiencies, and defects, and further held to beomnipotent,omnipresent,omniscient, and completelyinfinite in all of his attributes, who has no partner or equal, being the sole creator of everything in existence.^[31] In Judaism,God is never portrayed in any image.^[32] The idea of God as aduality ortrinity is heretical in Judaism: it is considered akin topolytheism.^[34] The Torah specifically forbade ascribing partners to share his singular sovereignty,^[35] as he is considered to be theabsolute one without a second, indivisible, and incomparable being, who is similar to nothing and nothing is comparable to him.^[36] Thus, God is unlike anything in or of the world as to be beyond all forms of human thought and expression.^[37]

God in Judaism is conceived asanthropomorphic,^[38] unique, benevolent, eternal, the creator of the universe, and theultimate source of morality.^[40] Thus, the termGod corresponds to an actual ontological reality, and is not merely a projection of the human psyche.^[41] Traditional interpretations of Judaism generally emphasize that God ispersonal yet alsotranscendent and able to intervene in the world,^[10] while some modern interpretations of Judaism emphasize that God is animpersonal force or ideal rather than a supernatural being concerned with the universe.^[42]

Christianity originated in1st-centuryJudea from a sect ofapocalypticJewish Christians within the realm ofSecond Temple Judaism,^[48] and thus shares most of its beliefs about God, including hisomnipotence,omniscience, his role as creator of all things, his personality,immanence,transcendence and ultimate unity, with the innovation thatJesus of Nazareth is considered to be, in one way or another, the fulfillment of the ancientbiblical prophecies about theJewish Messiah, thecompletion of the Law of the prophets of Israel, theSon of God, and/or theincarnation of God himself as a human being.^[50]

MostChristian denominations believe Jesus to be the incarnated Son of God, which is the main theological divergence with respect to theexclusive monotheism of the other Abrahamic religions:Judaism,Samaritanism, theBaháʼí Faith, andIslam.^[52] Although personalsalvation is implicitly stated in Judaism, personal salvation by grace and a recurring emphasis inorthodox theological beliefs is particularly emphasized in Christianity,^[51] often contrasting this with a perceivedover-emphasis in law observance as stated inJewish law, where it is contended that a belief in an intermediary between man and God or in the multiplicity of persons in the Godhead is against theNoahide laws, and thusnot monotheistic.^{[53][better source needed]}

Inmainstream Christianity, theology and beliefs about God are enshrined in the doctrine ofmonotheisticTrinitarianism, which holds that the three persons of the trinity are distinct but all of the same indivisible essence, meaning that the Father is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Son is God, yet there is one God as there is one indivisible essence.^[56] These mainstream Christian doctrines were largely formulated at theCouncil of Nicaea and are enshrined in theNicene Creed.^[57] The Trinitarian view emphasizes thatGod has a will, and thatGod the Son has two natures, divine and human, though these are never in conflict but joined in thehypostatic union.^[58]

With regard to Christianity,religion scholars have differed on whetherMormonism belongs with mainstream Christian tradition as a whole (i.e.,Nicene Christianity), with some asserting that it amounts to a distinct Abrahamic religion in itself due tonoteworthy theological differences.^[59][60]Rastafarianism, the heterogenous movement that originated inJamaica in the 1930s, is variously classified by religion scholars as either an international socio-religious movement, a distinct Abrahamic religion, or anew religious movement.^[61]

Gnosticism originated in the late 1st century CE in non-rabbinicalJewish andearly Christian sects.^[62] In theformation of Christianity, varioussectarian groups, labeled "gnostics" by their opponents, emphasised spiritual knowledge (gnosis) of the divine spark within, overfaith (pistis) in the teachings and traditions of the various communities of Christians.^[67] Gnosticism presents a distinction between thehighest, unknowable God, and theDemiurge, "creator" of the material universe.^[69] The Gnostics considered the mostessential part of the process ofsalvation to be this personal knowledge, in contrast to faith as an outlook in theirworldview along with faith in theecclesiastical authority.^[70]

In Gnosticism, thebiblical serpent in theGarden of Eden was praised and thanked for bringing knowledge (gnosis) to Adam and Eve and thereby freeing them from themalevolentDemiurge's control.^[68] Gnostic Christian doctrines rely on adualistic cosmology that implies the eternal conflict between good and evil, and a conception of the serpent as theliberating savior and bestower of knowledge to humankind opposed to the Demiurge orcreator god, identified with theHebrew God of theOld Testament.^[71]

Gnostic Christians considered the Hebrew God of the Old Testament as the evil, false god and creator of the material universe, and theUnknown God of theGospel, the father ofJesus Christ and creator of the spiritual world, as the true, good God.^[73] In theArchontic,Sethian, andOphite systems,Yaldabaoth (Yahweh) is regarded as the malevolent Demiurge and false god of the Old Testament who sinned by claiming divinity for himself and generated the material universe and keeps the souls trapped in physical bodies, imprisoned in the world full of pain and suffering that hecreated.^[77]

However, not all Gnostic movements regarded the creator of the material universe as inherently evil or malevolent.^[79] For instance,Valentinians believed that the Demiurge is merely an ignorant and incompetent creator, trying to fashion the world as good as he can, but lacking the proper power to maintain its goodness.^[80] All Gnostics were regarded asheretics by theproto-orthodoxEarly Church Fathers.^[82]

In the belief system held by the Christian churches that adhere to theLatter Day Saint movement and mostMormon denominations, includingthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the termGod refers toElohim (God the Father),^[85] whereasGodhead means a council of three distinct gods: Elohim (the Eternal Father),Jehovah (God the Son, Jesus Christ), and theHoly Ghost, in aNon-trinitarian conception of the Godhead.^[86] The Father and Son have perfected, material bodies, while the Holy Ghost is a spirit and does not have a body.^[87] This differs significantly from mainstream Christian Trinitarianism; in Mormonism, the three persons are considered to be physically separate beings, or personages, but united in will and purpose.^[89] As such, the termGodhead differs from how it is used in mainstream Christianity.^[90] This description of God represents theorthodoxy of the LDS Church, established early in the 19th century.^[84]

A small minority of Christians, largely coming under the headings ofUnitarianism andUnitarian Universalism, holdNon-trinitarian conceptions of God.^[91] Unitarian Christians affirm theunitarynature of God as the singular and uniquecreator of the universe,^[91] believe thatJesus Christ wasinspired by God in his moral teachings and that he is thesavior of mankind,^[91] but he is not equal to God himself. The churchmanship of Unitarianism generally reject the doctrine oforiginal sin, and may includeliberaldenominations or Unitarian Christian denominations that are moreconservative, with the latter being known asbiblical Unitarians.^[92][93]

The birth of the Unitarian faith is proximate to theRadical Reformation, beginning almost simultaneously among the Protestant^[94]Polish Brethren in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and in thePrincipality of Transylvania in the mid-16th century;^[95][96] the first Unitarian Christian denomination known to have emerged during that time was theUnitarian Church of Transylvania, founded by the Unitarian preacher and theologianFerenc Dávid (c. 1520 – 1579).[95]^[96] As is typical ofdissenters andnonconformists, Unitarianism does not constitute one singleChristian denomination; rather, it refers to a collection of both existing and extinct Christian groups (whether historically related to each other or not) that share a common theological concept of the unitary nature of God.^[91][92]

InIslam, God (Allah) (Arabic:ٱلل‍َّٰه,romanized: Allāh,IPA:[ɑɫˈɫɑː(h)]^ⓘ, lit. "the God")^[11] is the supreme being, all-powerful and all-knowing creator, sustainer, ordainer, and judge of the universe.^[99] Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular (tawhid).^[101] He is considered to be unique (wahid) and inherently one of them (ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent.^[103] According to theQuran, there are99 Names of God (al-asma al-husna, lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct characteristic of God.^[102] All these names refer to Allah, considered to be the supreme and all-comprehensive divine Arabic name.^[102] Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Entirely Merciful" (al-Rahman) and "the Especially Merciful" (al-Rahim).^[102]

Islam rejects the doctrine of theIncarnation and the notion of apersonal God asanthropomorphic, because it is seen as demeaning to thetranscendence of God.^[102] The Quran prescribes the fundamental transcendental criterion in the following verses: "The Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, so serve Him and be patient in His service. Do you know any one equal to Him?" (19:65); "(He is) the Creator of the heavens and the earth: there is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees (all things)" (42:11); "And there is none comparable unto Him" (112:4).^[102] Therefore, Islam strictly rejects all forms of anthropomorphism andanthropopathism of theconcept of God, and thus categorically rejects the Christian concept of theTrinity or division of persons in theGodhead.^[106]

Muslims believe that Allah is the same God worshipped by the members of theAbrahamic religions that preceded Islam, i.e.Judaism andChristianity (29:46).^[107] Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of prime mercy for which all creatures sing his glories and bear witness to his unity and lordship. According to the Quran: "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things" (6:103).^[98] Similarly to Jews, Muslimsexplicitly reject the divinity of Jesus and don't believe in him as the incarnated God or Son of God, but instead consider him ahuman prophet and thepromised Messiah sent by God, although the Islamic tradition itself is not unanimous on thequestion of Jesus' death and afterlife.^[111]

Thewritings of theBaháʼí Faith describe amonotheistic, personal, inaccessible, omniscient, omnipresent, imperishable, and almighty God who is the creator of all things in the universe.^{[112][113]: 106} Theexistence of God and theuniverse is thought to be eternal, without a beginning or end.^[114]

Though transcendent and inaccessible directly,^{[115]: 438–446} God is nevertheless seen as conscious of the creation,^{[115]: 438–446} with a will and purpose that is expressed through messengers recognized in the Baháʼí Faith as theManifestations of God^[113]: 106 (all theJewish prophets,Zoroaster,Krishna,the Buddha,Jesus,Muhammad, theBáb, and ultimatelyBaháʼu'lláh).^{[115]: 438–446} The purpose of the creation is for the created to have the capacity to know and love its creator,^[113]: 111 through such methods asprayer,reflection, and being ofservice to humankind.^[116] God communicates his will and purpose to humanity through his intermediaries, the prophets and messengers who have founded variousworld religions from thebeginning of humankind up to the present day,^{[113]: 107–108 [115]: 438–446} and will continue to do so in the future.^{[115]: 438–446}

The Manifestations of God reflect divine attributes, which are creations of God made for the purpose of spiritual enlightenment, onto the physical plane of existence.^[117] In the Baháʼí view, all physical beings reflect at least one of these attributes, and the humansoul can potentially reflect all of them.^[118] The Baháʼí conception of God rejects allpantheistic,anthropomorphic, and incarnationist beliefs about God.^[113]: 106

Rastafaris refer to God asJah,^{[119][120][121]} a shortened version ofJehovah in theAuthorized King James Version.^[122] Jah is said to beimmanent,^[123] but is alsoincarnate in each individual.^[124] This belief is reflected in the Rastafarian aphorism that "God is man and man is God".^[125] Rastafaris describe "knowing" Jah, rather than simply "believing" in him.^[126] In seeking to narrow the distance between humanity and divinity, Rastafaris embracesmysticism.^[127] Closeness to Jah may be accomplished throughLivity, a form of theNaziritevow derived from theOld Testament.^{[128][129][130]} The Rastafarian conception of God has similarities with theHindu conception of soul (ātman).^{[131][132][133]}Jesus is an important figure in Rastafari,^[134] but practitioners reject the traditional Christian view of Jesus, and particularly thedepiction of him as a White European.^[135] Instead, many Rastafaris considerHaile Selassie I as the fulfillment ofPsalm68:31, and therefore theMessiah orJah incarnate.^[120]

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