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Anational god ortribal god is aguardian deity whose special concern is supposed to be the safety and well-being of an 'ethnic group' (nation). This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-being of individual clans or professions, or personal gods who are responsible for the well-being of individuals.
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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
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 oftentutelary deities of their respectivecity-states. Many of the individual ethnic groups also considered itself the progeny of its national gods. For example, in the region that is now Yemen, theSabaeans, theMinaeans and theHimyar each perceived themselves to be the children of respectivelyAlmaqah,Wadd andShamash.[15] Similarly, inCanaan,Milcom held that role for theAmmonites, whileChemosh did so for theMoab.
Yahweh's role as god of theKingdom of Judah and theKingdom of Israel is a key reason for that figure's adoption as themonist figure by theYahweh-only movement of the 7th-century BC.[citation needed] Yahweh's subsequent exaltation as a supreme figure occurred not because national gods were necessarily heads of their pantheons (this was certainly not the case for the national gods of the peoples surrounding Israel),[16] but as a reaction to the changing political landscape, in which other national gods had previously become exalted in that fashion.[17] Because peoples were perceived to effectively worship the same gods, merely by different names (Smith (2008)[17] terms this "translatability"), Yahweh's function as a national god had previously automatically equated him with other national gods. Thus, with the rise of the multi-culturalAssyrian Empire in the 10th century BC, the concomitant rise of the Assyrian's nation god Assur to inter-cultural prominence influenced how national gods were generally perceived. Moreover, the political unification of the fractured nation-states under a single supreme head of state encouraged the idea of a multi-national "one-god" worldview as well.[17] By the 7th-century BC however, Assyria was in decline and the smaller nation-states began to reassert their independence. In this context, the development of a "one-god" worldview in 7th century BCKingdom of Judah can be perceived as a response to the diminishing claims to cultural hegemony of the Assyrian "one-god" ideology of the time.[17] The process is evident in some parts of theTorah which predate the 6th century BC and thus preserve vestiges of the theology centered on a national god during the 10th-century BCmonarchic period.[18] "The OT [=Old Testament] is still conscious of the fact that Yhwh, the national god of Israel, originally was one of the gods in the council of El." (Deut 32:8-9*)[16]
In search of a national culture and identity away from the Catholic religion imposed by Spain during its colonisation of thePhilippines, those who instigated thePhilippine Revolution proposed to reviveindigenous Philippine folk religions and make them thenational religion of the entire country. TheKatipunan opposed the religious teachings of the Spanish friars, saying that they "obscured rather than explained religious truths." After the revival of the Katipunan during theSpanish–American War, an idealized form of the folk religions was proposed by some, with the worship of God under the ancient nameBathala, 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]
Christian missionaries have repeatedly re-interpreted national gods in terms of the Christian God. This fact is reflected in thenames of God in various languages of Christianized peoples, such asShangdi orShen among Chinese Christians,Ngai among a number of tribes ofKenya, etc.
In a modern context, the term of a "national god" addresses the emergence ofnational 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 duringWorld War I, was denounced as heretical byKarl Barth.[20]
Carl Jung in his essayWotan (1936) identifies the Germanic god of the storm (leader of theWild Hunt),Wotan, as the national god of theGerman people, and warns of the rise ofGerman nationalism and ultimately the then-impending catastrophe ofNazism andWorld War II in terms of the re-awakening of this god:
Indra is one of the primary ancientVedic deities inHinduism. He is the king ofSvarga (Heaven) and theDevas (gods). He is associated with lightning, thunder, storms, rains, river flows and war. Indra is the most frequently mentioned deity in theRigveda.[22][23][24][25] Indra's mythology and powers are similar to other Indo-European deities such as Jupiter, Perun, Perkūnas, Zalmoxis, Taranis, Zeus, and Thor, suggesting a common origin inProto-Indo-European mythology.[26][27][24]
Bharat Mata, starting in the late 19th century a divine personification ofIndia (Bharat), came into existence after theIndian Rebellion of 1857 against the British and is seen as the goddess of India and theIndian people byHindus,Jains, and someBuddhists.[28][29]
