Wikipedia / Supreme deity
Wikipedia / Supreme deity
A supreme deity, supreme god or supreme being is the conception of the sole sovereign deity who is all powerful in a religion. It is common in monotheistic, polytheistic and henotheistic religions. A supreme deity is often also a creator deity and other deities are often aspects or manifestations of the supreme deity.
African
Mwari, in Shona religion
Nyambe, in Bantu religions
Nzambi, in Kongo religion
Ruhanga, in Rutara religion
Asian
Wusheng Laomu/Wusheng Shengmu/Wujimu/Wuji Shengmu, in many Chinese salvationist religions such as Yiguandao.
Yaochih Jinmu, in Cihui Tang.
European
Supreme Being, in a deistic religion established by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution
Jupiter, in the Cult of Jupiter Summus Exsuperantissimus
Rod, in some religions of syncretic Slavic neopaganism
Ukko, in Ukonusko, a syncretic Finnish neopagan religion
Zeus, in Middle Platonism
Indian
Para Brahman, in Hinduism
Vishnu, in Vaishnavism
Adibuddha and Dharmakaya, in Mahayana Buddhism
Waheguru, in Sikhism
Middle Eastern
The Trinity in most Christian traditions
Jesus in some Christian traditions
Allah in Muslim belief: see God in Islam
Bahá in Bahá'í belief: see God in the Baháʼí Faith
In Freemasonry
The fraternity of Freemasonry generally requires that all initiates believe in some kind of supreme being or God, that is neutrally referred to as the Great Architect of the Universe.
Carl H. Claudy wrote in his 1931 work Introduction to Freemasonry:He must declare his faith in a Supreme Being before he may be initiated. But note that he is not required to say, then or ever, what God. He may name Him as he will, think of Him as he pleases; make Him impersonal law or personal and anthropomorphic; Freemasonry cares not. [...] God, Great Architect of the Universe, Grand Artificer, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Above, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, or Great Geometer... Henry Wilson Coil in his 1961 Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry outlined:Men have to decide whether they want a God like the ancient Hebrew Yahweh, a partisan tribal god, with whom they can talk and argue and from whom they can hide if necessary, or a boundless, eternal, universal, undenominational, and international Divine Spirit so vastly removed from the speck called man, that he cannot be known, named or approached. [...] The Masonic test is a Supreme Being, and any qualification added is an innovation and distortion. [...] Monotheism violates Masonic principles, for it requires belief in a specific kind of Supreme Deity.