Physitheism

Physitheism is the attribution of a physical form and attributes to deities, a practice commonly associated with polytheism. This is the opposite of deities who are purely in a spiritual form, i.e without a body.

Polytheism

Many polytheist religions incorporate a physical form onto the deities. For modern day pagans, this means within the spiritual realm, as opposed to an earthly physical body.

Monotheism

A transcendent spirit is a more common form found within the various modern Abrahamic traditions.

However, a vestige of physitheism is apparent in certain passages of the Hebrew Bible such as Exodus 33:23 where God tells Moses, "And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen."

God is also described in a manner similar to a physical person in Genesis 3:8, "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." Such apparently Physitheistic verses are a matter of controversy; the early followers of Gnosticism considered them evidence that the Judeo-Christian god was in fact an imperfect demiurge, wholly separate from the higher, transcendental God.