Theomatic glossary

Some Mind-Boggling Terminology

Many "History behind the Science Fiction" sections outline some of the more obscure and fascinating information available on the life of Pythagoras to facilitate your reading, I define a list of theological terms used in these chapters and throughout the book. These terms are also frequently found in serious theomatic literature discussing the end of the universe, and I find the words interesting in their own right. I hope you find this list both amusing and enlightening.

1. Aniconic — referring to simple material symbols of a god, for example a pillar or block, not shaped into an actual image of human form.

2. Anamnesis — a remembrance, sometimes used in reference to past lives in rein­carnation theologies. Pythagoras and Plato believed the soul pre-existed in past lives where it gained ideas useful in the present life.

3. Antichthon — A hypothetical second Earth on the opposite side of the Sun. Pythagoras and his followers asserted the existence of the Antichthon. See counter-earth.

4. Apocrypha — Writing of dubious authorship. A term specifically applied to those books in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of the Old Testament which were not originally written in Hebrew and not counted genuine by the Jews. The Apocrypha were excluded from Sacred Canon by the Protestants because they have no well-grounded claim to inspired authorship.

5. Aretalogy — a story of miracles performed by a divine hero or god. Aretalogy often concerns the acts of a thaumaturge.                                            

6. Apocalypse — the revelation of the future granted to St. John. Also the book of the New Testament in which St. John recorded this information. Apocalypse generally means "revelation", and it is sometimes applied to various Old Testament prophetic writing (particularly Ezekiel and Daniel), some pseudepigraphic writing (such as the books of Enoch), and some of the Apocrypha (such as four Esdras). Its subject is often eschatologtcal.

7. Armageddon - the place of the last decisive battle at the Day ofJudgment. (No relation to Armagnac, a superior brandy made in the district of France formerly called Armagnac.)

8. Chthonic — dwelling beneath the Earth.

9. Catachthonian — subterranean.

10. Cenotaph — monument erected in honor of a deceased person whose body is elsewhere.

11. Choical — a Gnostic term for earthy.

12. Counter-earth — an opposite or secondary Earth in which Pythagoreans believed. See antichthon.

13. Didache — the name of a Christian treatise of the beginning of the 2nd century. Also the instructional element in early Christian theology, as distinct from kerygma or preaching.

14. Doomsday — the judgment day or end of the world.

15. Dweomercraeft — jugglery and magic art. Sorcery. Also see necromancy.

16. Eisegesis — the interpretation of Scripture by reading into it one's own ideas.

17. Enatiodromia — the process by which a belief becomes its opposite, and the sub­sequent interaction of the initial belief and its opposite. A good example of ena­tiodromia is seen in the psychology of Saul of Tarsus and his conversion to Christianity. Heraclitus believed that all beliefs eventually meet their opposites. In 1943, E. L. Mascall noted that one of the main tenets of Islam is submission, and by that enatiodromia, because Islam became "the most militant religion in history, for once the believer has made his submission, he sees himself as an instrument of the divine ruthlessness." An example of an enatiodromiacal reac­tion is the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The repres­sive Middle Ages, with its increasing dogmatism and formalism, produced an enatiodromical reaction of the Renaissance.

18. Epiclesis — a part of the prayer of consecration where the Holy Spirit is invoked to bless the eucharist and/or communicants.

19. Eschatologist — one who studies eschatology.

20. Eschatology — Geological science concerned with the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. The study of the end of history. Some Christians see the life of the individual Christian and the Church as a series of decisions with an eschatological nature.

21. Eschaton — the divinely ordained climax of history. In many of the apocalyptic cults, eschaton is always close at hand.

22. Exegesis — practical explanation or critical interpretation of Scripture.

23. Feng-shui — in Chinese mythology, a system of spirtual influences which inhabit the natural features of landscapes. Feng-shui is a kind of geomancy for selecting appropriate sites for houses and graves.

24. Geomancy — divination using signs derived from the earth. For example, the pattern produced by a pile of sand may be used to predict the future. Geomancy is also divination by means of lines or figures formed by jotting down on a paper a number of dots at random.

25. Gigantology — treatises about giants.

26. Goety — witchcraft or magic performed by the invocation and employment of evil spirits.

27. Hermeneutic — concerning interpretation, especially distinguished from exegesis. The study of the methodological principles of interpretation of the Bible.

28. Hermetica — works of revelation dealing with occult, theological, and philosophical subjects attributed to the Egyptial god Thoth (Greek Hermes Trismegistos, i.e., “Hermes the Thrice-Greatest”), who was said to be the inventor of writing and all the arts that depend on writing. During Hellenistic times, there was an increasing distrust of traditional Greek rationalism and the destruction of the line between science and religion. Hermes-Thoth was one of several gods to whom humans turned to for wisdom.

29. Interimsethik — the moral principles given by Jesus interpreted as a guide to humans expecting the imminent end of the world.

30. Lullian — belonging to the mystical philosophy of Raymon Lull (1234-1315). (See Chapter 9 for more on Lullists.)

31. Kerygma — preaching (see Didache) or proclamation of religious truth.

32. Lungis — apocryphal name of the Roman officer who pierced Jesus with a spear.

33. Metempsychosis — transmigration of human or animals souls into a new body (whether of the same or different species). A tenet of Pythagoreans and Bud­dhists.

34. Meturgeman — an interpreter of religious law. See also Targum.

35. Monad — the number one, historically used with reference to Pythagoras who regarded numbers as real entities and as primordial principles of existence. The term was adopted by Leibniz from Giordano Bruno (Chapter 13), with whom "monad" referred to material atoms and ultimate elements of psychical exis­tence.

36. Necromancy — the art of communicating with the dead.

37. Nobodaddy — a disrespectful name for God, used by William Blake and others. For example, Joyce in Ulysses says, "Whether these be sins or virtues, old Nobodaddy will tell us at doomsday."

38. Palingensia — Pythagorean belief in rebirth after death, cyclical regeneration.

39. Pareschatology — theorits about human life and physical death before the final resolution. In contrast, eschatology is the doctrine of the eschata or last things. In other words, pareschatology is the study of paraeschatata or next-to-last things, and therefore the human future between the current life and humans and their ultimate state. In a 1977 issue of Theology Today (XXXIV.182), there is a discussion of pareschatology as a doctrine of resurrection expanded to include “vertical” as opposed to “horizontal” reincarnation. In the 1977 Times Literary Supplement (April 1, 390/4), there is an examination of Western and Eastern pareschatologies, and images of what happens between death and an ultimate state.

40. Phyletism — in the Orthodox Church, an excessive emphasis on the principle of nationalism in the organization of church affairs. Phyletism attaches greater importance to ethnic identity than to faith and worship.

41. Preterist — one who holds that the prophesies of the Apocalypse have already been fulfilled.

42. Protology — the study of origins. Some religions may place more stress on protology than eschatology.

43. Pseudepigrapha — books bearing a false title or ascribed to the incorrect author. The term is specifically applied to certain Jewish writings dating to the beginning of the Christian era but ascribed to various patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament.

44. Scatophagy — religious practice of eating excrement.

45. Sciomancy — divination by communicating with the shades of the dead.

46. Targum — Aramaic translations of parts of the Old Testament, made after the Babylonian captivity, at first preserved by word-of-mouth, and committed to writing starting in A.D. 100.

47. Thaumaturge — worker of miracles and wondrous things. Some historians describe Pythagoras as a thaumaturge.

48. Theomatic — a melding of theology and mathematics. Similarly, the word theomata is defined as works arising from this melding of theology and math.

49. Theurgy — a system of magic to facilitate communication with beneficent spirits and produce miraculous effects. The art or science of compelling or persuading God to do something. Theurgy is sometimes known as "white magic", while goety is "black magic". Theurgy is also defined as the operation of a divine or supernatural agency in human affairs.