ABSTRACT
for our present purpose the term ‘theism’ will be used as a convenient designation for a philosophical conception of Deity as the single, personal, ultimate Ground of the universe and Source of all existence, distinct from polytheism, pantheism and dualism, and also from the more specifically prophetic interpretations of monotheism. Thus understood, theism is opposed to a plurality of independent gods, or rival divine principles, to a metaphysical Absolute, to a limited, finite, emerging Deity, and to a deistic First Cause existing outside and alongside the world and its processes and affairs. Standing between the two extremes of a wholly transcendent, extramundane, unconditioned Being, and an equally completely intramundane, immanental principle, essence or substance in which God and the world are emerged in a pantheistic unity, theism represents the Creator as the sovereign Ruler of all things, and yet at work in the universe He has called into being, ordering the course of events in accordance with His will and purpose. As the most real Being, the ground and unity of all that is other than Himself, He is distinct from the phenomenal order. As the intelligent self-conscious Will and the highest good, He is the living unity of existence and value, in vital relationship with His creation.
