H
Figure of Rastafari
Haile Selassie I.
The Ethiopian emperor read through scripture as the returned king: divine to many Rastafari, God's anointed to others — the reading is the movement's live wire.
Names & titlesHaile Selassie I — Ras Tafari, King of Kings, Lion of Judah
DomainDivinity crowned — or Jah's chosen king, by reading
Depicted asThe coronation portrait, the Lion of Judah standard
StandingCentral and contested: divine to many, revered by all
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Selassie ruled Ethiopia for forty-four years, was deposed by a Marxist coup in 1974, and died in custody in 1975. His record is genuinely mixed — he abolished slavery, wrote a constitution, and made a famous appeal to the League of Nations against Mussolini's invasion, while also presiding over famine and repression. Rastafari holds him variously as God incarnate, as the returned Christ in kingly character, or as God's anointed. Both his standing and the readings of it are internal to the movement.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
When dharma decays, the divine descends.
Hinduism · core tenet
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In Jesus, God became human.
Christianity · core tenet
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K
Krishna and Rama — the descents.
Vaishnavism
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God became human so that humans might become god-like.
Eastern Orthodoxy · core tenet
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The Word has one incarnate nature.
Oriental Orthodoxy · core tenet
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Christ's two natures remain distinct.
The Church of the East · core tenet
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