The word "theophany" comes from the Greek word "theophania," meaning "appearance of god." I like the Britannica definition: "manifestation of deity in sensible form."
Theophany is also one of the feasts celebrated by the Orthodox church. It occurs on January 6 and celebrates the baptism of Jesus and appearance of the Trinity. According to orthodoxwiki (yeah, that really exists! Crazy, huh?), it's sometimes also referred to as "Epiphany," although apparently that applies more to the feast celebrating the Magi coming to give gifts to baby Jesus. (Does anyone else ever feel like traditional Catholics just really, really liked feasting?)
<-- the theophany of Christ
There are tons of great Biblical examples of theophany--think Moses and the burning bush, the pillars of dust or smoke that led the Israelites across the desert, basically everything in the story of Moses. A few other stories also show that theophany can be so overwhelming that God occasionally uses it as punishment. The shock and awe of it are too much for people to handle, and they almost always die of fear.
The internet yielded no results for any other religion, but I think Zeus appearing to his lady "friends" as various things is a pretty good example.
Nice picture and great subject :) And yes, I'm pretty sure most religions put great weight on eating - whether it's constant feasts or not eating at all...
ReplyDeleteI wish we could feast in our class - seems appropriate, don't you think? I love the parts in the Biblical narrative that describe reactions to angel/God visitations... "and he fell down as though dead." It's a pretty handy description for a variety of life events.
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