“Communotheism is a divine communalism. “Divine communalism is the position that the Divine is a community of gods who are fundamentally related to one another and ontologically equal while at the same time distinct from one another by their personhood and functions”. In communotheism, there is immanence in that there is radical relationality among the members of the divine community and between the divine community and the world, and there is transcendence because geographic distance and “physiological decarnation” (death) cannot destroy the radical relationality. While there is distinction (eroding any real classification of pantheism), there is no idea of a separation between the human and the divine.”

The above passage comes form an essay by process-womanist theologian, Monica Coleman. The essay is titled From Models of God to a Model of Gods: How Whiteheadian Metaphysics Facilitates Western Language Discussion of Divine Multiplicity. Coleman is citing A. Okechukwu Ogbonnaya’s concept of “communotheism” and I quite like the idea.

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Painting above: Prince Twins Seven-Seven, Yoruba, Nigeria, West Africa, 1944–2011

Tags:communotheismMonica Colemanpolytheismprocess theologywhiteheadYoruba