ungod meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

ungod

verb

UK /ʌnˈɡɒd/

Etymology From un- + god. Compare Dutch ontgoden, German entgöttern.

Of believers To divest of a god.

Near-synonyms: atheize, agnosticize, secularize
Thus men ungodded may to places rise, / And sects may be preferr'd without disguise: / No danger to the church or state from these; / The Papist only has his writ of ease.1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther:

Of a deity To divest of godly powers; to strip of divinity.

He that would have another god, would have the Lord to be ungodded, and to lose his sovereign power and goodness!1830, Richard Baxter, The Practical Works of Richard Baxter:
Perhaps Saladin's "ungodding" of his father is a necessary first step for the male child's emancipation...2008, Matt Kimmich, Offspring Fictions: Salman Rushdie's Family Novels:

noun

Etymology From un- + god. Compare Dutch ontgoden, German entgöttern.

A false god; an idol

They provoked Me with an ungod, they vexed Me with their empty things.2008, Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses:
[...] it isn't that Godhead “isn't God,” it's that Godhead is a non-God, an “Ungod” (in the same sense as we talk of the “undead” who are neither living or dead, but the living dead).2011, Slavoj Žižek, John Milbank, Creston Davis, The Monstrosity of Christ:

2 more examples

The god of cult is an ungod, because the god of cult represents a god molded in the image of the worshippers and created to satisfy their innate ambitions and it is likewise with the god of dogma, which is a reified form of idolatry.2015, M.P. Joseph, Theologies of the Non-Person:
He had not blinked, Curjai noted, not once in many minutes. Perhaps not since he had come to out there in the snow. 'When you – recovered, what did you think had happened to you?' 'I know what happened. One of your local gler ungods struck me, turned me to ice. Death. I didn't want to go. It was wrong.'2016, Tanith Lee, No Flame But Mine: