Core tenet of Haitian Vodou
Bondye is far; the lwa are near.
God made the world and does not micromanage it — the lwa handle the particulars, and it is with them one works.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Vodou is not polytheistic in the way outsiders assume: Bondye — from the French bon Dieu — is the one creator God, and is understood as too vast and too remote to be bothered with individual affairs. The lwa are the ones you actually deal with, in the way one deals with a functioning bureaucracy rather than an emperor. Practitioners who are also practicing Catholics see no contradiction, and the great majority of Haitian Vodouisants are baptized.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
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The family deity, and the goddess at the edge of the village.
Hinduism · figure
Meet them →
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The devas — gods, and beside the point.
Buddhism · figure
Meet them →
Life is everywhere, and it is graded.
Jainism
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The jinn.
Islam · figure
Meet them →
Everything is qi.
Taoism
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Kami inhabit all things.
Shinto
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