DEITY. As a symbol, deity represents the human struggle at its highest; it represents humanity's effort to discover its identity in confrontation with the limits of its universe. Deity is the symbol of what transcends the human being and the symbol of what lies hidden most deeply within. While other creatures merely accept their environments as a given, human beings exist as such only when they realize both their solidarity with the universe and their distinction from it. In the journey toward self-identity humanity encounters deity. In a cross-cultural context, deity symbolizes the transcendence of all the limitations of human consciousness and the movement of the human spirit toward self-identity through its encounter with the ultimate. Deity symbolizes humanity's knowledge that it is not alone nor the ultimate master of its fate. And yet this knowledge, dim though it may be, associates humanity with this same deity. Deity...