Pantheism
Pantheism (
Greek:
πάν (
'pan' ) = all and
Theos = God) literally means "
God is
All" and "All is God". It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing
immanent God; or that the
universe, or
nature, and God are equivalent. More detailed definitions tend to emphasize the idea that
natural law,
existence, and the
universe (the
sum total of all that is, was, and shall be) is represented or personified in the
theological principle of 'God'.
The term "pantheist" — of which the word "pantheism" is a variation — was purportedly first used by
Irish writer John Toland in his
1705 work,
Socinianism Truly Stated, by a pantheist. However, the concept has been discussed as far back as the time of the philosophers of
Ancient Greece, first and foremost by
Parmenides.
In
1785 a major controversy began between
Friedrich Jacobi and
Moses Mendelssohn, which eventually involved many important people of the time. Jacobi claimed that
Lessing's pantheism was materialistic in that it thought of all
Nature and
God as one extended
substance. For Jacobi, this was the result of the
Enlightenment's devotion to
reason and it would lead to
atheism. Mendelssohn disagreed by asserting that pantheism was the same as theism.
Reception
This article distinguishes between two divergent groups of pantheists:
*
Classical pantheism, which is expressed in the
immanent God of
Kabalistic Judaism,
Advaita Vedanta Sanatana Dharma, and
Monism, generally viewing God in a personal manner.
*
Naturalistic pantheism, based on the relatively recent views of
Baruch Spinoza and
John Toland (who coined the term "pantheism"), as well as contemporary influences.
The vast majority of persons who can be identified as "pantheistic" are of the classical variety (such as
Hindus), while most persons who self-identify as "pantheist" alone (rather than as members of another religion) are of the naturalistic variety. The division between the two "flavours" of pantheism is not entirely clear in all situations, and remains a source of some controversy in pantheist circles. Classical pantheists generally accept the religious doctrine that there is a spiritual basis to all reality, while naturalistic pantheists generally do not and thus see the world in somewhat atheistic terms.
An oft-cited feature of pantheism is that each individual human, being part of the universe or nature, is part of God. One issue discussed by pantheists is how, if this is so, humans can have free will. In answer, the following analogy is sometimes given (particularly by classical pantheists): "you are to God as an
individual blood cell in your
vein is to you." The analogy further maintains that while a cell may be aware of its own environs, and even has some choices (
free will) between right and wrong (killing a
bacterium, becoming
malignant, or perhaps just doing nothing, among countless others), it likely has little conception of the greater being of which it is a part. Another way to understand this relationship is the
Hindu concept of
Jiva, wherein the human
soul is an aspect of God not yet having reached enlightenment (
moksha), after which it becomes
Atman.
However, it should be noted that not all pantheists accept the idea of free will, with
determinism being particularly widespread among naturalistic pantheists. Although individual interpretations of pantheism may suggest certain implications for the nature and existence of free will and/or determinism, pantheism itself does not include any requirement of belief either way. However, the issue is widely discussed, as it is in many other religions and philosophies.
Some critics argue that pantheism is little more than a redefinition of the word "God" to mean "
existence", "
life" or "
reality". Many pantheists reply that even if this is so, such a shift in the way we think about these ideas can serve to create both a new and a potentially far more insightful conception of both existence and God.
Perhaps the most significant debate within the pantheistic community is about the nature of God.
Classical pantheism believes in a personal,
conscious, and
omniscient God, and sees this God as uniting all true religions.
Naturalistic pantheism believes in an unconscious, non-sentient universe, which, while being holy and beautiful, is seen as being a God in a non-traditional and impersonal sense.
Cosmotheism, a small but controversial
racialist group which considers itself a form of pantheism, has an evolutionary interpretation of God, seeing God to be impersonal, but not taking a clear stance as to its
sentience. "Cosmotheism", like the terms "pantheism", "monotheism", and "polytheism", was not used in antiquity. The term seems to have been coined by
Lamoignon de Malesherbes in
1782 with regard to
Pliny the Elder; various scholars have used it since then, but to refer to different sorts of religious belief.
The viewpoints encompassed within the pantheistic community are necessarily diverse, but the central idea of the universe being an all-encompassing unity and the sanctity of both nature and its natural laws are found throughout. Some pantheists also posit a common purpose for nature and man, while others reject the idea of purpose and view existence as existing "for its own sake."
Panentheism
Pantheism has features in common with
panentheism, such as the idea that the universe is part of God. Technically, the two are separate, inasmuch as pantheism finds God synonymous with nature, and panentheism finds God to be greater than nature alone. Some find this distinction unhelpful, while others see it as a significant point of division. Many of the major faiths described as pantheistic could also be described as panentheistic, whereas naturalistic pantheism cannot (not seeing God as more than nature alone). For example, elements of both panentheism and pantheism are found in Hinduism. Certain interpretations of the
Bhagavad Gita and
Shri Rudram support this view.
Cosmotheism
While the term is rarely used, and is most often simply a synonym for Pantheism, this unusual philosophy has been used rather differently, but in all cases, the feeling was that God was something created by man, perhaps even an end state of
human evolution, through social planning, eugenics and other forms of genetic engineering.
H. G. Wells subscribed to a form of Cosmotheism, which he called the "
world brain" (from a book of essays by the same name he printed in
1937, one of which details the creation of a
Library-
encyclopedia hybrid), and detailed even more in his book
God the Invisible King (in which he proscribes mankind to set up a
socialist system, structuring itself on social and genetic statistics, education, and eugenics, ideally someday equating itself and possibly even merging with and conquering the Pantheist god itself. See:
Omega Point) and there were also some sections of his great work
Outline of History, which reflected this belief and his finding it in the teachings of
Jesus Christ and
Siddhartha. His book
Shape of Things to Come (and the
1936 film
Things to Come) also reflects this, in which mankind, surviving a Nuclear war and an extended
Feudal period, unites to form a collectivist
Utopia.
In modern
Israel, Cosmotheism was described by
Mordekhay Nesiyahu, one of the foremost ideologists of the
Israeli Labor Movement and a lecturer in its college
Beit Berl. He felt that God was something which did not exist before man, and was a secular entity which the rebuilding
Jewish Temple in Jerusalem has an instrumental role in "invent[ing]" God.
In the
20th century United States,
William Luther Pierce, a
white nationalist associated with the
American Nazi Party and founder of the
National Alliance also utilised the term "Cosmotheism". In his eyes (similar to
H. G. Wells'), God would be the end result of
eugenics and
racial hygiene (See:
Nazism,
Francis Galton and
Theosophy).
Vladimir Vernadsky's and
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's "
Noosphere" could be referenced as a description of the Cosmotheist deity, as does
Emile Durkheim's
Collective consciousness and
Carl Jung's
collective unconscious.
Arthur C. Clark makes a possible reference to the Cosmotheist
Noosphere in his
1953 book
Childhood's End, referring to it as the "Overmind".
Pandeism
Pandeism, too, is a kind of Pantheism, holding that the universe is identical to God, but also that God was previously a conscious and sentient force or entity that designed and created the universe. God only became an unconscious and nonsentient God by becoming the universe. Other than this distinction (and the possibility that the Universe will one day return to the state of being God), Pandeistic beliefs are identical to Pantheism.
Hinduism
In Hindu
theology,
Moksha and achieving godness is
the ultimate - both
transcendent and
immanent -, the
absolute infinite existence, and the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be. As the sun has rays of light which emanate from the same source, the same holds true for the multifaceted aspects of God emanating from Brahman, like many colors of the same prism. This concept of God is of one unity, with the individual personal Gods being aspects of the One; thus, different deities are seen by different adherents as particularly well suited to their worship. Pantheism and panentheism are key components of
Advaita theology.
In
Smartist tradition, which follows
Advaita philosophy, Brahman is seen as the one God, with aspects of God emanating therefrom. With all Hindus, there is a strong belief in all paths, or true religions, leading to One God.
Some of the Hindu aspects of God include
Ganesa,
Devi,
Vishnu, and
Siva.
Hindus who follow the
Smarta tradition believe that these different aspects of God can bring worshippers closer to
Moksha, end of the
cycle of rebirth.
Other subdivisions of Vedanta do not strictly hold this tenet. For example,
Dvaita school of
Madhva holds Brahman to be only
Vishnu. In contrast,
Arya Samaj believes in worshipping Brahman directly, without conceptualizing God through form such as
Ishta-deva or using an
icon, the Hindu
murti to focus. Arya Samaj only takes into consideration the formless Brahman while Advaita states that the formless Brahman (
Nirguna Brahman) and the formful God
Saguna Brahman are the same and hence worship of either is valid and equivalent.However, Advaita agrees with Arya Samaj that the Ultimate Reality is attributeless, in contrast to the theistic schools of
Ramanuja, who also stressed panentheism, and
Madhva, an advocate of
duality.
Vedanta, specifically,
Advaita, is a branch of
Hindu philosophy which gives this matter a greater focus. Most Vedantic adherents are
monists or "non-
dualists" (i.e.
Advaita Vedanta), seeing multiple manifestations of the one God or source of being, a view which is often confused by non-Hindus as being
polytheistic.
Judaism
The radically
immanent sense of the divine in Jewish mystical
Kabbalah is said to have inspired
Spinoza's formulation of pantheism. However Spinoza's views have not been accepted in Judaism. On the other hand,
Schopenhauer asserted that Spinoza's pantheism was a result of his reading of
Malebranche:
Additionally, the
Baal Shem Tov, the founder of
Hasidism, had a mystical sense of the divine that could be described as
panentheism.
Christianity
From the tiny groups such as
Process theology and
Creation Spirituality, up to the
Liberal Catholic Church, and as far back into history as the
Brethren of the Free Spirit and many
gnostics, the idea has had currency within some segments of
Christianity for some time.
Islam
Islamic
Sufism is regarded by some as being influenced by eastern philosophies (Indian and Persian) and has Pantheistic doctrines (Wahadat-al-Wajood) وحدت الوجود within its many varieties.
Other religions
There are many elements of pantheism in
Philosophical Taoism, some forms of
Buddhism, and
Theosophy along with many varying denominations and individuals within and without denominations.
Many
Unitarian Universalists consider themselves pantheists.
Paul Carus called himself "an atheist who loves God", and advocated "
henism", which is often seen as
monist or
pantheist in nature.
According to
Schopenhauer, pantheism has no ethics.
However, some pantheists hold that the pantheist viewpoint is the most ethical viewpoint, pointing out that any harm done to another is doing harm to oneself because what harms one harms all. What is good and evil isn't the mandate of something outside of us, but as a result of the way we are all interconnected. Instead of good choices being based on fear of divine punishment, it comes from a mutual respect from all things.
While Sagan never described himself as a pantheist, many maintain that pantheism fit his views better than any other term. This claim, while widely accepted among pantheists of all varieties, remains somewhat controversial outside the pantheist community. A similar debate surrounds the attribution of pantheism to other notable figures, including Albert Einstein.Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) established the formal philosophy of Pantheism over 300 years ago. In his "Ethics" he wrote:
Albert Einstein appeared to agree with Spinoza when he said:
*
Acosmism*
Collective unconscious*
Cosmology*
Cosmotheism*
Deism*
Emergence*
Hinduism*
Holism*
Kabbalah*
Infinitism*
List of Pantheists*
Mordekhay Nesiyahu*
Naturalistic spirituality*
Oneness*
Pandeism*
Panentheism*
Ranters*
Spinoza*
Sufism*
Tao*
Theism*
Theopanism*
Unitarian Universalism*
Universal Pantheist Society*
World Pantheist Movement*
Universal Pantheist Society Home Page*
Scientific Pantheism site*
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry*
Pantheist Awareness Network*
The Holographic Paradigm*
World Pantheist Movement
