Glory (religion)

Glory (from the Latin gloria, "fame, renown") is used to describe the manifestation of God's presence as perceived by humans according to the Abrahamic religions.

Divine glory is an important motif throughout Christian theology, where God is regarded as the most glorious being in existence, and it is considered that human beings are created in the Image of God and can share or participate, imperfectly, in divine glory as image-bearers.

Thus Christians are instructed to "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven".

Later, these original Hebrew Bible concepts for glory were translated in the Christian Testament as the Greek word doxa (δόξα).

St. Augustine later rendered it as clara notitia cum laude, "brilliant celebrity with praise".

[2] In Exodus 33:18–20, Moses is told that no human being can see the glory (Hebrew: כָּבוֹד kavod) of Yahweh and survive:

For example, at the nativity of Christ: In the countryside close by there were shepherds out in the fields keeping guard over their sheep during the watches of the night.

[6] In the gospel of John, Jesus says that His destiny begins to be fulfilled when Judas Iscariot sets out to betray Him: Jesus subsequently addresses a long prayer to His Father in which he says: Catholic doctrine asserts that the world was created as an act of God's free will for his own glory.

And then, when I had thought it over, I saw that this view was scriptural; nothing can eliminate from the parable the divine accolade, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant.'"

The Orthodox Christian term theosis is roughly equivalent to the Protestant concept of glorification.

Glorification is the Protestant alternative to the Catholic purgatory, as it is "the means by which the elect receive perfection before entering into the kingdom of Heaven."

Purgatory deals with the means by which the elect become perfect (by suffering physically and emotionally, people are believed to earn their way into heaven) and takes place after physical death; glorification deals with the elect becoming perfect and is a supernatural, ongoing process which takes place during life through the work of the Holy Spirit after people trust in Jesus for their eternal life.

In Baháʼí belief the Greatest Name is Baháʼ (بهاء), translated as "glory" or "splendour.

[13]" The Quran says "wealth and children are the gloss of the worldly life, while the eternal good deeds are better" [18:46].

Yet all these meanings generally imply viewing God as impeccable and the feeling of wonderment for being in such glorious existence.

Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, cautions that an inordinate desire of glory, or praise, from man is a sin.

Other common symbols of glory include white robes, crowns, jewels, gold, and stars.

There are a number of specialised senses of "glory" in art, which all derive from French usages of "gloire".

"Glory" was the medieval English word for a halo or aureole, and continues to be used sometimes in this sense, mostly for the full-body version.