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useful term, and while it may, as Joshi argues, perfectly describe what Buddhism has become, the classification does not work as well in Jainism. The term semi-theism implies some sort of partial or incomplete theism. This stems from Joshi's definition of theism: "Theism stands for the doctrine of a personal God (iśvara), who is the ultimate principle of the universe, the primordial guardian of moral values, and lastly, the highest object of our religious worship."32 Joshi uses semi-theism for a religion that has some but not all of the listed aspects. Joshi is implying that there are some essential attributes necessary for a religion to be considered theistic. I had argued earlier that this is not the case. But within the generally accepted definition of theism and of God, Jainism does fit well within the realm of Joshi's semi-theism.
32 Joshi, "A New Interpretation of Indian Atheism." p. 190
33 Dr. Kusum Jain, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Conversation on July 4th, 2007.
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Another possible classification is as uttaravāda.33 In Hinduism, avatāras are God or gods that descend to the level of human. This is known as avataravāda. In Jainism, the humans rise to the level of God, and can be known as uttaravāda. Here Uttara means "ascend."
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Deism is the belief that God exists but does not intervene in the world beyond what is necessary to create it. The obvious issue here is that the God of Jainism is not a creator God. But both deism and Jain theism believe in a non-interventionist God.
Non-theists do not affirm or negate the existence of God. They are likely to understand God as a symbol of human values and aspirations. Similarly, the Jain God is a symbol of human values and aspirations, but the important difference is that in Jainism God actually exists in the Siddha-Loka.
Conclusion
All of these different classifications of religions bring something to the table of Jain theism, but it is gunānutheism, the worship of divine attributes to foster them in the self, that most accurately describes Jainism.
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