Product Code Database
Example Keywords: silk -underclothes $44
barcode-scavenger
   » » Wiki: Pantheism
Tag Wiki 'Pantheism'.
Tag

Pantheism can refer to a number of and beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is , or , the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arises,Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54. as opposed to the corporeal gods of religions, such as . The former idea came from Christian theologians who, in attacking the latter form of pantheism, described pantheism as the belief that God is the material universe itself.Worman, J. H., "Pantheism", in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1, John McClintock, James Strong (Eds), Harper & Brothers, 1896, pp. 616–624.Worman cites Wegscheider, Institutiones theologicae dogmaticae, p. 250. In some conceptions of pantheism, the universe is thought to be an , still expanding and creating, which has existed since the beginning of time.

(1998). 9780198612636, Clarendon Press.
Pantheism can include the belief that everything constitutes a unity and that this unity is divine, consisting of an all-encompassing, manifested god or .
(2025). 9781317126348, Taylor & Francis.
All objects are thence viewed as parts of a sole deity. Due to the new definition of pantheism used by anti-pantheists, the term panentheism began to refer to pantheism as originally conceived.

Another definition of pantheism is the worship of all gods of every religion, but this is more precisely termed . Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct , or otherwise, but instead characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships between reality and divinity. Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years, and pantheistic elements have been identified in diverse religious traditions. The term pantheism was coined by mathematician in 1697, and has since been used to describe the beliefs of a variety of people and organizations.

Pantheism was popularized in as a and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher —in particular, his book Ethics.

(1996). 9780415107822, .
A pantheistic stance was also taken in the 16th century by philosopher and cosmologist .

In the East, , a school of is thought to be similar to pantheism in Western philosophy. The early of and is also sometimes considered pantheistic, although it could be more similar to . , which arose in the of Korea, and are also considered pantheistic.


Etymology
Pantheism derives from the word πᾶν pan (meaning "all, of everything") and θεός theos (meaning "god,"). The first known combination of these roots appears in , in 's 1697 book De Spatio Reali seu Ente Infinito, where he refers to "pantheismus".
(2025). 9781441122780, A&C Black. .
It was subsequently translated into English as "pantheism" in 1702.


Definitions
There are numerous definitions of pantheism, including:
  • a theological and philosophical position which identifies God with the universe, or regards the universe as a manifestation of God;
    (2025). 9781419140082, Archibald Constable & Co. LTD.. .
  • the belief that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God and that all forms of reality may then be considered either mode of that Being, or identical with it;Owen, H. P. Concepts of Deity. London: Macmillan, 1971, p. 65. and
  • a non-religious philosophical position maintaining that the Universe (in the sense of the totality of all existence) and God are identical.
    (1998). 9780198612636, Clarendon Press.


History

Pre-modern times
Early traces of pantheist thought can be found within animistic beliefs and tribal religions throughout the world as an expression of unity with the divine, specifically in beliefs that have no central or personas. theology makes early recorded reference to pantheism within the ancient Greek religion of Orphism, where pan (the all) is made cognate with the creator God (symbolizing the universe),Damascius, referring to the theology delivered by Hieronymus and Hellanicus in :"... the theology now under discussion celebrates as Protogonus (First-born) Phanes, and calls him Dis, as the disposer of all things, and the whole world: upon that account he is also denominated Pan." and with , after the swallowing of Phanes.Betegh, Gábor, The Derveni Papyrus, Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 176–178

Pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the . These included the beliefs of mystics such as Ortlieb of Strasbourg, David of Dinant, Amalric of Bena, and .

The has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy.Collinge, William, Historical Dictionary of Catholicism, Scarecrow Press, 2012, p 188, . was considered an early Pantheist.

(2009). 9781587318757, St. Augustine's Press. .
, an Italian friar who evangelized about a transcendent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the Roman Inquisition. He has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science.McIntyre, James Lewis, Giordano Bruno, Macmillan, 1903, p 316.

The Hindu philosophy of is thought to be similar to pantheism. The term Advaita (literally "non-secondness", but usually rendered as "nondualism", and often equated with ) refers to the idea that alone is ultimately , while the transient phenomenal world is an illusory appearance ( maya) of Brahman. In this view, , the experiencing self, is ultimately non-different ("na aparah") from Ātman-, the highest Self or . The jivatman or individual self is a mere reflection or limitation of singular Ātman in a multitude of apparent individual bodies.


Baruch Spinoza
In the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese descent raised in the community in . He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine, and was effectively excluded from Jewish society at age 23, when the local synagogue issued a herem against him. A number of his books were published posthumously, and shortly thereafter included in the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books.

In the posthumously published Ethics, he opposed René Descartes' famous mind–body dualism, the theory that the body and spirit are separate. Spinoza held the view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man" and used the word "God" to describe the unity of all substances.

(1879). 9780766155022, Samuel Deacon and Co.
This view influenced philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who said, "You are either a or not a philosopher at all."
(2025). 9780791455432, SUNY Press. .
Spinoza earned praise as one of the great of 17th-century philosophyScruton 1986 (2002 ed.), ch. 2, p.26 and one of Western philosophy's most important thinkers. Referred to as "the prince" of the philosophers. Although the term "pantheism" was not coined until after his death, he is regarded as the most celebrated advocate of the concept.
(2025). 9781443820684, Cambridge Scholars.
His book, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread.


18th century
The first known use of the term "pantheism" was in Latin ("pantheismus") by the English mathematician Joseph Raphson in his work De Spatio Reali seu Ente Infinito, published in 1697.Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54. Raphson begins with a distinction between atheistic "panhylists" (from the Greek roots , "all", and , "matter"), who believe everything is matter, and Spinozan "pantheists" who believe in "a certain universal substance, material as well as intelligence, that fashions all things that exist out of its own essence." Raphson thought that the universe was immeasurable in respect to a human's capacity of understanding, and believed that humans would never be able to comprehend it.
(2025). 9780801803475, Johns Hopkins Press. .
He referred to the pantheism of the , Persians, , , , Indians, and Jewish , specifically referring to Spinoza.

The term was first used in English in a translation of Raphson's work in 1702. It was later used and popularized by writer in his work of 1705 Truly Stated, by a Pantheist.

(2025). 9781135232351, Routledge. .
Toland was influenced by both Spinoza and Bruno and had read Joseph Raphson's De Spatio Reali, referring to it as "the ingenious Mr. Ralphson's (sic) Book of Real Space".Daniel, Stephen H. "Toland's Semantic Pantheism," in John Toland's Christianity not Mysterious, Text, Associated Works and Critical Essays. Edited by Philip McGuinness, Alan Harrison, and Richard Kearney. Dublin, Ireland: The Lilliput Press, 1997. Like Raphson, he used the terms "pantheist" and "Spinozist" interchangeably.R.E. Sullivan, "John Toland and the Deist controversy: A Study in Adaptations", Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 193. In 1720 he wrote the Pantheisticon: or The Form of Celebrating the Socratic-Society in Latin, envisioning a pantheist society that believed, "All things in the world are one, and one is all in all things ... what is all in all things is God, eternal and immense, neither born nor ever to perish."Toland, John, Pantheisticon, 1720; reprint of the 1751 edition, New York and London: Garland, 1976, p. 54. He clarified his idea of pantheism in a letter to Gottfried Leibniz in 1710 when he referred to "the pantheistic opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe".Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, 1999.Honderich, Ted, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 641: "First used by John Toland in 1705, the term 'pantheist' designates one who holds both that everything there is constitutes a unity and that this unity is divine."Thompson, Ann, Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 133, .

In the mid-eighteenth century, the English theologian defined pantheism this way: "It supposes God and nature, or God and the whole universe, to be one and the same substance—one universal being; insomuch that men's are only modifications of the divine substance."Worman, J. H., "Pantheism", in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1, John McClintock, James Strong (Eds), Harper & Brothers, 1896, pp. 616–624.Worman cites Waterland, Works, viii, p. 81. In the early nineteenth century, the German theologian Julius Wegscheider defined pantheism as the belief that God and the world established by God are one and the same.Worman cites Wegscheider, Institutiones theologicae dogmaticae, p. 250.

Between 1785–89, a controversy about Spinoza's philosophy arose between the German philosophers Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (a critic) and Moses Mendelssohn (a defender). Known in German as the Pantheismusstreit (pantheism controversy), it helped spread pantheism to many German thinkers.


19th century

Growing influence
During the beginning of the 19th century, pantheism was the viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as William Wordsworth and in Britain; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Schelling and Hegel in Germany; in Norway; and , Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the United States. Seen as a growing threat by the Vatican, in 1864, it was formally condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors.

A letter written in 1886 by William Herndon, 's law partner, was sold at auction for US$30,000 in 2011. In it, Herndon writes of the U.S. President's evolving religious views, which included pantheism.

The subject is understandably controversial, but the letter's content is consistent with Lincoln's fairly lukewarm approach to organized religion.


Comparison with non-Christian religions
Some 19th-century theologians thought that various pre-Christian religions and philosophies were pantheistic. They thought Pantheism was similar to the ancient Hinduism philosophy of (non-dualism).Literary Remains of the Late Professor Theodore Goldstucker, W. H. Allen, 1879. p. 32.

19th-century European theologians also considered Ancient Egyptian religion to contain pantheistic elements and pointed to Egyptian philosophy as a source of Greek Pantheism. The latter included some of the , such as and . The were pantheists, beginning with Zeno of Citium and culminating in the emperor-philosopher . During the pre-Christian Roman Empire, was one of the three dominant schools of philosophy, along with and .

(1967). 9780521040549, Cambridge University Press.
(2025). 9780306819162, Da Capo Press.
The early of and is also sometimes considered pantheistic, although it could be more similar to .

, which arose in the Dynasty of Korea, and are also considered pantheistic. The Realist Society of Canada believes that the of the self-aware universe is reality, which is an alternative view of Pantheism.


20th century
In the late 20th century, some declared that pantheism was an underlying theology of , and pantheists began forming organizations devoted specifically to pantheism and treating it as a separate religion.


21st century
, son of scientist and science communicator , published the 2007 book Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature, co-written with his mother . In the chapter "Truth of My Father", Sagan writes that his "father believed in the God of Spinoza and Einstein, God not behind nature, but as nature, equivalent to it."Sagan, Dorion, "Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature" 2007, p. 14.

In 2009, pantheism was mentioned in a Caritas In Veritate, 7 July 2009. and in a statement on New Year's Day, 2010, criticizing pantheism for denying the superiority of humans over nature and seeing the source of man salvation in nature.

In 2015, The Paradise Project, an organization "dedicated to celebrating and spreading awareness about pantheism," commissioned Los Angeles muralist to paint the 75-foot mural in Venice, California, near the organization's offices. The mural depicts , , , , , , , , Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, , , and .


Categorizations
There are multiple varieties of pantheism and various systems of classifying them relying upon one or more spectra or in discrete categories.


Degree of determinism
The philosopher Charles Hartshorne used the term Classical Pantheism to describe the philosophies of Baruch Spinoza, the Stoics, and other like-minded figures. Pantheism (All-is-God) is often associated with (All-is-One) and some have suggested that it logically implies determinism (All-is-Now).
(2025). 9781402763199, Stirling Publishing. .
F.C. Copleston, "Pantheism in Spinoza and the German Idealists," Philosophy 21, 1946, p. 48.Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, "Proceedings of the Liverpool Literary & Philosophical Society, Volumes 43–44", 1889, p. 285.John Ferguson, "The Religions of the Roman Empire", Cornell University Press, 1970, p. 193. Albert Einstein explained theological determinism by stating,
(2025). 9781416539322, Simon and Schuster. .
"the past, present, and future are an 'illusion. This form of pantheism has been referred to as "extreme monism", in which in the words of one commentator "God decides or determines everything, including our supposed decisions."
(2025). 9780028657332, MacMillan. .
Other examples of determinism-inclined pantheisms include those of Ralph Waldo Emerson,Dependence and Freedom: The Moral Thought of Horace Bushnell by David Wayne Haddorff [1] Emerson's belief was "monistic determinism".

  • Creatures of Prometheus: Gender and the Politics of Technology by Timothy Vance Kaufman-Osborn, Prometheus ((Writer)) [2] "Things are in a saddle, and ride mankind."
  • Emerson's position is "soft determinism" (a variant of determinism) [3].
  • "The 'fate' Emerson identifies is an underlying determinism." (Fate is one of Emerson's essays) [4]. and Hegel.Hegel was a determinist" (also called a combatibilist a.k.a. soft determinist). [5]

"Hegel and Marx are usually cited as the greatest proponents of historical determinism." [6]

However, some have argued against treating every meaning of "unity" as an aspect of pantheism, and there exist versions of pantheism that regard determinism as an inaccurate or incomplete view of nature. Examples include the beliefs of John Scotus Eriugena, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and .* Theories of the will in the history of philosophy by Archibald Alexander p. 307 Schelling holds "...that the will is not determined but self-determined." [7]

  • The Dynamic Individualism of William James by James O. Pawelski p. 17 "His fight against determinism" "My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will." [8]


Degree of belief
It may also be possible to distinguish two types of pantheism, one being more religious and the other being more philosophical. The Columbia Encyclopedia writes of the distinction:
"If the pantheist starts with the belief that the one great reality, eternal and infinite, is God, he sees everything finite and temporal as but some part of God. There is nothing separate or distinct from God, for God is the universe. If, on the other hand, the conception taken as the foundation of the system is that the great inclusive unity is the world itself, or the universe, God is swallowed up in that unity, which may be designated nature."


Form of monism
Philosophers and theologians have often suggested that pantheism implies .

For the was the metaphysical omnipresence creating the cosmos and all its contents from within itself as well as out of itself. This is conceptualized in a kind of monistic pantheism as manifest in the supreme god Ometeotl, as well as a large pantheon of lesser gods and idealizations of natural phenomena.

(2025). 9781607322221, University Press of Colorado. .


Other
In 1896, J. H. Worman, a theologian, identified seven categories of pantheism: Mechanical or materialistic (God the mechanical unity of existence); Ontological (fundamental unity, Spinoza); Dynamic; Psychical (God is the soul of the world); Ethical (God is the universal moral order, Fichte); Logical (Hegel); and Pure (absorption of God into nature, which Worman equates with atheism).

In 1984, Paul D. Feinberg, professor of biblical and systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, also identified seven: Hylozoistic; Immanentistic; Absolutistic monistic; Relativistic monistic; Acosmic; Identity of opposites; and Neoplatonic or emanationistic. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter A. Elwell, p. 887.


Demographics

Prevalence
According to censuses of 2011, the UK was the country with the most Pantheists. As of 2011, about 1,000 Canadians identified their religion as "Pantheist", representing 0.003% of the population. By 2021, the number of Canadian pantheists had risen to 1,855 (0.005%). In Ireland, Pantheism rose from 202 in 1991, to 1106 in 2002, to 1,691 in 2006, 1,940 in 2011. In New Zealand, there was exactly one pantheist man in 1901. By 1906, the number of pantheists in New Zealand had septupled to 7 (6 male, 1 female). This number had further risen to 366 by 2006.2006 New Zealand census.
+ !Country !Subdivision(s) !Number !Year !Ref
1,394 (0.006%)20112011 Australia Census
1,855 (0.005%)2021
75 (0.001%)2011
295 (0.002%)2011
30 (0.003%)2011
45 (0.006%)2011
40 (0.003%)2011
395 (0.008%)2011
0 (0%)2011
25 (0.002%)2011
125 (0.004%)2011
0 (0%)2011
0 (0%)2011
0 (0%)2011
0 (0%)2011
1,940 (0.04%)2011
179 (0.04%)2006
5242006
Mid-East Region1772006
Midland Region1182006
South-East Region1732006
South-West Region2702006
West Region1812006
366 (0.009%)2006
60 (0.001%)20012001 Scotland Census
and2,216 (0.004%)2011
29 (0.002%)2011
790 (0.02%)20062006 Uruguay Census


Age, ethnicity, and gender
The 2021 Canadian census showed that pantheists were somewhat more likely to be in their 20s and 30s compared to the general population. People under 15 were about four times less likely to be pantheist than the general population.

The 2021 Canadian census also showed that pantheists were less likely to be part of a recognized minority group compared to the general population, with 90.3% of pantheists not being part of any minority group (compared to 73.5% of the general population). The census did not register any pantheists who were , Southeast Asian, West Asian, , or .

In Canada (2011), there was no gender difference in regards to pantheism. However, in Ireland (2011), pantheists were slightly more likely to be female (1074 pantheists, 0.046% of women) than male (866 pantheists, 0.038% of men). In contrast, Canada (2021) showed pantheists to be slightly more likely to be male, with men representing 51.5% of pantheists.


Related concepts
or nature mysticism is often conflated and confused with pantheism. It is pointed out by at least one expert, Harold Wood, founder of the Universal Pantheist Society, that in pantheist philosophy Spinoza's identification of God with nature is very different from a recent idea of a self identifying pantheist with environmental ethical concerns. His use of the word to describe his worldview may be vastly different from the "nature" of modern sciences. He and other nature mystics who also identify as pantheists use "nature" to refer to the limited natural environment (as opposed to man-made built environment). This use of "nature" is different from the broader use from Spinoza and other pantheists describing natural laws and the overall phenomena of the physical world. Nature mysticism may be compatible with pantheism but it may also be compatible with theism and other views.:

  • "The idea that Unity that is rooted in nature is what types of nature mysticism (e.g. Wordsworth, Robinson Jeffers, Gary Snyder) have in common with more philosophically robust versions of pantheism. It is why nature mysticism and philosophical pantheism are often conflated and confused for one another."
  • "Wood's pantheism is distant from Spinoza's identification of God with nature, and much closer to nature mysticism. In fact it is nature mysticism."
  • "Nature mysticism, however, is as compatible with theism as it is with pantheism." Pantheism has also been involved in especially in primal religions.
    (2025). 9781592578467, Penguin. .

is an umbrella term which has been used to refer to a variety of religions not fitting traditional theism, and under which pantheism has been included.

(from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") was formally coined in Germany in the 19th century in an attempt to offer a philosophical synthesis between traditional theism and pantheism, stating that God is substantially in the physical universe but also exists "apart from" or "beyond" it as its Creator and Sustainer. Thus panentheism separates itself from pantheism, positing the extra claim that God exists above and beyond the world as we know it. The line between pantheism and panentheism can be blurred depending on varying definitions of God, so there have been disagreements when assigning particular notable figures to pantheism or panentheism.

is another word derived from pantheism, and is characterized as a combination of reconcilable elements of pantheism and .

(2025). 9781851686810, Oneworld Publications. .
It assumes a Creator-deity that is at some point distinct from the universe and then transforms into it, resulting in a universe similar to the pantheistic one in present essence, but differing in origin.

is the philosophical view that consciousness, , or soul is a universal feature of all things. Some pantheists also subscribe to the distinct philosophical views (or panvitalism), the view that everything is alive, and its close neighbor , the view that everything has a soul or spirit.


Pantheism in religion

Traditional religions
Many traditional and folk religions, including African traditional religions and Native American religions, can be seen as pantheistic or a mixture of pantheism and other worldviews, such as and . According to pantheists, there are elements of pantheism in some forms of .

Ideas resembling pantheism existed in Eastern religions before the 18th century (notably , , and ). Although there is no evidence that these influenced Spinoza's work, there is evidence regarding other contemporary philosophers, such as Leibniz, and later Voltaire.Lan, Feng (2005). Ezra Pound and Confucianism: remaking humanism in the face of modernity. University of Toronto Press. p. 190. . In the case of Hinduism, pantheistic views exist alongside panentheistic, polytheistic, monotheistic, and atheistic ones.


Spirituality and new religious movements
Pantheism is popular in modern spirituality and new religious movements, such as and Theosophy.Carpenter, Dennis D. (1996). "Emergent Nature Spirituality: An Examination of the Major Spiritual Contours of the Contemporary Pagan Worldview". In Lewis, James R., Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft. Albany: State University of New York Press. . p. 50. Two organizations that specify the word pantheism in their title formed in the last quarter of the 20th century. The Universal Pantheist Society, open to all varieties of pantheists and supportive of environmental causes, was founded in 1975. The World Pantheist Movement is headed by Paul Harrison, an environmentalist, writer and a former vice president of the Universal Pantheist Society, from which he resigned in 1996. The World Pantheist Movement was incorporated in 1999 to focus exclusively on promoting naturalistic pantheism – a strict metaphysical naturalistic version of pantheism, considered by some a form of religious naturalism.
(2025). 9780791475379, State University of New York Press. .
It has been described as an example of "dark green religion" with a focus on environmental ethics.Bron Raymond Taylor, "", University of California Press, 2010, pp. 159–160.


See also


Notes

Sources

Further reading
  • Sjöstedt-Hughes, Peter, Pantheism: One and All, 2025.
  • Amryc, C. Pantheism: The Light and Hope of Modern Reason, 1898.
  • Harrison, Paul, Elements of Pantheism, Element Press, 1999. preview
  • Hunt, John, Pantheism and Christianity, William Isbister Limited, 1884. online
  • Levine, Michael, Pantheism: A Non-Theistic Concept of Deity, Psychology Press, 1994,
  • Picton, James Allanson, Pantheism: Its story and significance, Archibald Constable & Co., 1905. online.
  • Plumptre, Constance E., General Sketch of the History of Pantheism, Cambridge University Press, 2011 (reprint, originally published 1879), online
  • Russell, Sharman Apt, Standing in the Light: My Life as a Pantheist, Basic Books, 2008,
  • Urquhart, W. S. Pantheism and the Value of Life, 1919. online


External links

Page 1 of 1
1
Post Comment
Font Size...
Font Family...
Font Format...

Page 1 of 1
1

Account

Social:
Pages:  ..   .. 
Items:  .. 

Navigation

General: Atom Feed Atom Feed  .. 
Help:  ..   .. 
Category:  ..   .. 
Media:  ..   .. 
Posts:  ..   ..   .. 

Statistics

Page:  .. 
Summary:  .. 
1 Tags
10/10 Page Rank
5 Page Refs
2s Time