Panentheism
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Panentheism (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (Theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system which posits that God exists and interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well. Panentheism is distinguished from pantheism, which holds that God is synonymous with the material universe.[1]
In panentheism, God is viewed as creator and/or animating force behind the universe, and the source of universal truth. This concept of God is closely associated with the Logos as stated in the 5th century BC works of Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), in which the Logos pervades the cosmos and whereby all thoughts and things originate; e.g., "He who hears not me but the Logos will say: All is one." A similar thought espoused by Jesus and interpreted by the New Thought movement as being synonymous: "The Father and I are one." (John 10:30)
While pantheism asserts that God and the universe are coextensive, panentheism claims that God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God. Panentheism holds that God is the "supreme affect and effect" of the universe.
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[edit] Ancient panentheism
North American Indians were and still are largely panentheistic, conceiving of God as both immanent in Creation and transcendent from it. (Indian writers have also translated the word for God as the Great Mystery [2] or as the Sacred Other[3]) An exception is the Cherokee who were monotheistic. [4] Most South American peoples were largely panentheistic as well (as were ancient South East Asian and African cultures).[citation needed] The Central American empires of the Mayas, Aztecs as well as the South American Incans (Tahuatinsuyu) were actually polytheistic and had very strong male deities.
Neoplatonism and Hermeticism are polytheistic and panentheistic. Plotinus taught that there was an ineffable transcendent god (The One) of which subsequent realities were emanations. From the One emanates the Divine Mind (Nous) and the Cosmic Soul (Psyche). In Neoplatonism the world itself is a god.
[edit] Development of a formal philosophy
The German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832) seeking to reconcile monotheism and pantheism, coined the term panentheism ("all in God") in 1828. This conception of God influenced New England transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. The term was popularized by Charles Hartshorne in his development of process theology and has also been adopted by proponents of various New Thought beliefs. However despite formalization of this term in the west as late as the 18th century, the formal analysis of panentheism is not new; for example philosophical treatises have been written on it in the context of Hinduism for millennia.
Beginning in the 1940s, Hartshorne examined numerous conceptions of God. He reviewed and discarded pantheism, deism, and pandeism in favor of panentheism, finding that "panentheistic doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations". Hartshorne formulated God as necessarily being able to become 'more perfect', contending that God had absolute perfection in categories for which absolute perfection was possible, and relative perfection (i.e. was superior to all others) in categories for which perfection can not be precisely determined.[5]
[edit] New Thought Movement
Unity, Religious Science, and Divine Science are denominations that represent a panentheistic worldview within the New Thought belief system.
[edit] Panentheism and Religion
[edit] Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity
In Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity, creation is not "part of" God, and the Godhead is still distinct from creation; however, God is "within" all creation, thus the parsing of the word in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christianity is "pan-entheism" (God indwells in all things) and not "panen-theism" (All things are part of God but God is more than the sum of all things).
The Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches have a doctrine called panentheism to describe the relationship between the Uncreated (God, who is omnipotent, eternal, and constant) and His creation that bears surface similarities with the panentheism described above but maintains a critical distinction.
Most specifically, these Churches teach that God is not the "watchmaker God" of the Western European Enlightenment. Likewise, they teach that God is not the "stage magician God" who only shows up when performing miracles. Instead, the teaching of both these Churches is that God is not merely necessary to have created the universe, but that His active presence is necessary in some way for every bit of creation, from smallest to greatest, to continue to exist at all. That is, God's energies maintain all things and all beings, even if those beings have explicitly rejected Him. His love of creation is such that he will not withdraw His presence, which would be the ultimate form of slaughter, not merely imposing death but ending existence, altogether. By this token, the entirety of creation is sanctified, and thus no part of creation can be considered innately evil. This does not deny the existence of evil in a fallen universe, only that it is not an innate property of creation.
This Orthodox Christian panentheism is distinct from a fundamentalist panentheism in that it maintains an ontological gulf or distance between the created and the Uncreated.
[edit] Other Christian panentheists
Panentheistic God-models are exceptionally common amongst professional theologians (exegetes, Christian ethicists, and religious philosophers). Process theology, Creation Spirituality and Panentheist Circle, three Christian views, contain panentheistic worldviews. Their models of panentheism are distinct from that of the Orthodox Churches.
Some argue that panentheism should also include the notion that God has always been related to some world or another, which denies the idea of creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Thomas Jay Oord advocates panentheism, but he uses the word "theocosmocentrism" to highlight the notion that God and some world or another are the primary conceptual starting blocks for eminently fruitful theology. This form of panentheism helps in overcoming the problem of evil and in proposing that God's love for the world is essential to who God is.
Panentheism was a major force in the Unitarian church for a long time, based on Ralph Waldo Emerson's concept of the Oversoul. This survives today as the panentheistic religion, Oversoul. [1] Charles Hartshorne, who conjoined process theology with panentheism, maintained a lifelong membership in the Methodist church but was also a Unitarian. In later years he joined the Austin, TX Unitarian Universalist congregation and was an active participatent in that church. [2]
Gnosticism is Panentheistic, believing that the true God is separate from the physical universe however, there are aspects of the true God in the physical universe as well. Thus, "All-In-God" as stated in one of the Sayings of Gospel of Thomas: "Lift Up A Stone And You Will Find Me There..."
[edit] Panentheism in Judaism
Panentheism is often viewed as component of Hasidic Judaism and Kabbalah.
[edit] Panentheism in Islam
Several Sufi saints and thinkers, primarily Ibn Arabi, held beliefs that were somewhat panentheistic. These notions later took shape in the theory of wahdat ul-wujud (the Unity of All Things). Some Sufi Orders, notably the Bektashis, continue to espouse panentheistic beliefs. Likewise, the Universal Sufi movement, which is inspired by Islam but is a form of Sufism separate from Islam. Most Ismailis are panentheistic.
[edit] Panentheism in the Bahá'í Faith
Some Bahá'ís are panentheistic. Human nature is understood as fundamentally spiritual, and the Spirit of God is that which human beings were created to know, and with which they reside after they die. Heaven in this understanding is an allegory for closeness to God. Some Bahá'ís liken this notion to panentheism.
[edit] Panentheism in Hinduism
Many interpretations of Hinduism can be seen as panentheistic and the first and most ancient ideas of panentheism originate in the Bhagavad Gita. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami said that "panentheism is the view that the universe is part of the being of God, as distinguished from pantheism ("all-is-God doctrine"), which identifies God with the total reality. In contrast, panentheism holds that God pervades the world, but is also beyond it. He is immanent and transcendent, relative and Absolute. This embracing of opposites http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/Button_hide_comment.png Insert hidden Commentis called dipolar. For the panentheist, God is in all, and all is in God."
Certain interpretations of the Gita and the Shri Rudram support this view. For example, Lord Krishna's saying to Arjuna: "I continually support the entire universe by a very small fraction of My divine power", has been interpreted to support panentheism. (Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 10, verse 42.) Panenthestic views are stated explicitly in several stotras. For example, the Vedasara Shivastotram says: "It is you from whom this universe of forms emerges, and it is you within whom it stays. It is you in whom it finally disappears."(11) [3]
The panentheistic view of Hinduism has been termed by some scholars as monistic theism. For example, in Vaishnavism, it is interesting to note that the schools were all panentheistic. Vallabhacharya's school of pure monism, Nimbarka's school of Dvaitaadvaita and Ramanuja's school of qualified monism are all panentheistic. Additionally, Chaitanya's school of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is also panentheistic, which was presented by Lord Caitanya as the doctrine of achintya beda-abeda tattva[6] (achintya=inconceivable beda=oneness abeda=difference tattva=truth). In Saivite theology, some schools of Saiva Siddhanta and Kashmir Shaivism are also panentheistic.
[edit] Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Kabbalism
Some branches of Gnosticism believe in a panenthiestic view and hold the belief that God exist only as sparks of light in the visible material world. We need to know the sparks within ourselves to get back to God who is in the Fullness or Pleroma. This rigid dualism is seen most clearly in the teachings of Manichaeism.
Valentinian Gnosticism claims that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, and to some this event is held to be more of an accident than of being on purpose. To other Gnostics, the emanations are akin to the Sephiroth of the Kabbalists - description of the manifestation of God through a complex system of reality.
[edit] New Age
Panentheism is an integral concept in many "New Age" philosophies; it is supported most specifically by the Seth readings given by the psychic Jane Roberts (1929-1984). Seth, the "entity" whom Roberts purportedly channeled, said that God is composed of mental energy, that God's mental energy is the formative substance of all beings and things, and that God's consciousness is carried on this energy, thus making God's consciousness omnipresent. Seth frequently referred to God as "All That Is" and said "All faces belong to God." Seth described God as a gestalt of all the individuals within it; he said that God knows itself as itself, yet also knows itself as each individual.
[edit] See also
- New Thought Movement
- Cosmotheism and William Luther Pierce
- Creation Spirituality
- Infinitism
- Interconnectedness
- Kabbalah
- Process Theology
- David Ray Griffin
- John B. Cobb
- Universal Sufism
- Thomas Jay Oord
- Oversoul
- Paramatman
- Platonic realism
[edit] References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2006) |
- ^ [http://www.geocities.com/worldview_3/panentheism.html The Worldview of Panentheism - R. Totten, M.Div - © 2000]. Web page. Retrieved on 2007-10-14.
- ^ Russell Means, Where White Men Fear To Tread (Macmillan, 1993), pp. 3-4, 15, 17.
- ^ George Tinker (Osage), Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation, p. 89. He defines the Sacred Other as "the Deep Mystery which creates and sustains all Creation".
- ^ Peoples of the World: The Cherokee, website found 2008-03-24.
- ^ Charles Hartshorne, Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism (1964) ISBN 0-208-00498-X p. 348
- ^ Caitanya Caritamrita, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
[edit] External links
- List of Panentheists
- Arthur Peacocke, winner of the 2001 Templeton Prize and theology faculty member at Oxford University
- Christian Cadre, Panentheism Anyone?
- Dr. Jay McDaniel on Panentheism
- Biblical Panentheism: God in All Things, by Jon Zuck
- Panentheist Circle
- Symbiotic Panentheism
- John Polkinghorne on Panentheism
- Panendeism.org
- [4]Spiritual Minded
- Panentheism Sources in Judaism compiled by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson
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