Religious and philosophical approaches to defining God differ significantly, yet both converge in understanding God as the source of a higher reality to which humans aspire through personal experience and intellectual reflection.

From Transcendence to Immanence: Diverse Interpretations of God

Religious and philosophical approaches to defining God differ significantly, yet both converge in understanding God as the source of a higher reality to which humans aspire through personal experience and intellectual reflection.

From a religious perspective, God is defined through the experience of a connection with this supreme source. As noted in one source, "religion is the recognition of God and the experience of a connection with God. If this religious formula were translated into philosophical language, it would be expressed as follows: religion is the experience of the transcendental becoming immanent, while still retaining its transcendence" (source: link txt). Here, the focus is on an experience that transcends ordinary intellect and touches the deepest inner part of human existence, demonstrating that God is not so much an object of proof as a reality with which one establishes an intimate connection.

The philosophical approach offers a somewhat different perspective. Modern thinkers, drawing on ideas from Christianity, conceive of God in the form of a human figure endowed with infinite intellect and boundless will. As stated, "The perspective of the new philosophers, cleansed by Christianity, presents God in the form of a human being with limitless intellect and unlimited will—that is, they take from human experience and do not go beyond it. Fichte, wishing to cleanse religion of anthropomorphism, deprived God of personhood; for not finding a single name that did not have any empirical basis, he called God moral order" (source: link txt). This viewpoint emphasizes that the concept of God can include not only personal qualities but also abstract categories reflecting the highest morality and rationality.

Thus, the definition of God, taking various viewpoints into account, can be formulated as follows: God is a transcendental principle that, by becoming part of the human experience, takes on an immanent manifestation through personal encounter, and is also understood intellectually as the highest moral and normative principle. This approach unites the immediate feeling of the presence of a higher reality with the philosophical aspiration to comprehend it through reason and moral categories.

Supporting citation(s):
"In religion, a person feels that they are seen and known even before they know themselves, and yet they are also aware of being distant, alienated from that benevolent source of life with which they strive to restore the connection, to establish religion. ... religion is the recognition of God and the experience of a connection with God. ... the experience of the transcendental–immanent." (source: link txt)

"The perspective of the new philosophers, cleansed by Christianity, presents God in the form of a human being with limitless intellect and unlimited will, ... Fichte, wishing to cleanse religion of anthropomorphism, deprived God of personhood; for not finding a single name that did not have any empirical basis, he called God moral order." (source: link txt)