In the broadest sense, theism means a belief in God. The general implication, however, is that the belief is held in a conscious and rational manner; hence theism is usually applied only to a system of beliefs that has some claim to be regarded as a philosophy. Wiccans are considered polytheists, believing in more than one god. They might also be regarded as pantheists, believing that the divine is in all of Nature.
Theism is the direct antithesis of atheism, which is a denial of the existence of a god. Theism is also distinguished from deism, a belief held by a group of eighteenth-century writers on natural religion who thought of god and the world as being quite separate and distinct.
a religious world view proceeding from an understanding of absolute being as an infinite divine person who is transcendent to the world and who created the world in a free act of will and continues to control it. (In orthodox Christianity, god is understood as a “trinity” of three such persons.)
Acceptance of the transcendancy of god distinguishes theism from pantheism. In theism, god is conceived as the source of the being of all things yet is separate from all things. (Catholic theology, however, postulates an “analogy of being” between the being of god and the being of things.) Theism differs in this both from monistic mysticism, with its concept of the identity between god and the world, and the pantheistic concept of emanation, by which the world is described as naturally and necessarily emanating from the fullness of divine being. The acceptance of the continuing, conscious, active role of god in the world distinguishes theism from deism and accounts for the concepts of divine providence and the miracles that are characteristic of theism.
Theism developed in its purest form within the framework of three genetically linked religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The term “theism” was first used by the English philosopher R. Cudworth.
Marxism-Leninism’s critique of theism as a type of religious world view is based on the general principles of the critique of any form of religious consciousness. (SeeRELIGION.)