Gods

Sorry to harp on about theology but it makes a change from politics and all of these issues come out of Poul Anderson's texts. I have found four uses for the word, "god." 

(i) Ordinary gods who may be many in number and limited in scope. Odin and others are characters in fantasy novels by Anderson.

(ii) The highest and most powerful god, in transition to being regarded as the only god.

(iii) Ultimate reality personified as "God."

(iv)  Ultimate reality intuited mystically, no longer personified but sometimes still called "God."

The Mosaic and Muslim divine name progressed through stages (i), (ii) and (iii) and can be used in sense (iv) by heretical mystics.

Clearly, (i) and (iv) are completely different in meaning but are at opposite ends of a spectrum. I buy into the meaning of (iv) but do not insist that the word, "God," continue to be used. Indeed, it simply causes endless disagreements and misunderstandings.

The Gwydiona in Anderson's The Night Face apply the word, "God," not to intuited reality but to periodic insanity. Maybe this is sense (v).