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Pantheism is the view that the Universe (Nature) and God are identical, or that the Universe (including Nature on Earth) is the only thing deserving the deepest kind of reverence. The word derives from the Template:Lang-grc (pan) meaning "All" and θεός (theos) meaning "God" - literally "All is God." As such Pantheism promotes the idea that God is better understood as a way of relating to nature and the Universe as a whole - all that was, is and shall be - rather than as a transcendent, mental, personal or creator entity. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. Although there are divergences within Pantheism, the central ideas found in almost all versions are the Cosmos as an all-encompassing unity and the "sacredness" of Nature.

History of Pantheism

The term "pantheist"—from which the word "Pantheism" is derived—was purportedly first used in English by Irish writer John Toland in his 1705 work, Socinianism Truly Stated, by a pantheist. He clarified the idea in a 1710 letter to Leibniz when he referred to "the pantheistic opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe."

Thus no-one used the term Pantheism or Pantheist before the early 18th century, because these words did not exist. However, many earlier writers, schools of philosophy, and religious movements expressed essentially pantheistic ideas.

They include some of the Presocratics such as Heraclitus and Anaximander. The Stoics were Pantheists, beginning with Zeno of Citium and culminating in the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius. During the pre-Christian Roman Empire, Stoicism was one of the three dominant schools of philosophy, along with Epicureanism and Neoplatonism. The early Taoism of Laozi and Zhuangzi is also pantheistic.

In the West Pantheism went into retreat during the Christian years between the 4th and 15th centuries, when it was regarded as heresy. The first open revival was by Giordano Bruno (burned at the stake in 1600). Spinoza's Ethics, finished in 1675, was the major source from which Pantheism spread (though Spinoza himself did not use the word.) John Toland was influenced by both Spinoza and Bruno. In 1720 he wrote the Pantheisticon: or The Form of Celebrating the Socratic-Society in Latin.

In 1785 a major controversy known in German as the Pantheismus-Streit between critic Friedrich Jacobi and defender Moses Mendelssohn helped to spread awareness of Pantheism to many German thinkers in the late 18th and in the 19th century.

For a time during the 19th century it seemed like Pantheism was the religion of the future, attracting figures such as Wordsworth and Coleridge in Britain; Fichte, Schelling and Hegel in Germany; Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau in the USA. Seen as a threat by the Vatican, it came under attack in the notorious Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX.

However, in the 20th century Pantheism was sidelined by political ideologies such as Communism and Fascism, by the traumatic upheavals of two world wars, and later by relativistic philosophies such as Existentialism and Post-Modernism. It persisted in eminent pantheists such as the novelist D.H. Lawrence, poet Robinson Jeffers, scientist Albert Einstein, architect Frank Lloyd Wright and historian Arnold Toynbee.

Recent developments

In the late 20th century, as Communism fell and traumatic memories of global wars receded, Pantheism began to see a resurgence. Pantheism seemed to chime with the growing ecological crisis. It was often declared to be the underlying "theology" of Paganism. 1975 saw the foundation of the Universal Pantheist Society, however it remained extremely small. The creation of the naturalistic World Pantheist Movement in 1999, with its multiple mailing lists and social networks, led to much wider visibility.

As the growing global ecological crisis increased the level of concern for Nature, the popularity and prominence of Pantheism grew further in the early 21st century. Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion gave Naturalistic Pantheism increased credibility among atheists - Dawkins described it as "sexed-up atheism." The Vatican gave Pantheism further prominence in a Papal encyclical of 2009 and a New Year's Day statement on January 1, 2010, which criticized Pantheism for denying the superiority of humans over nature and "seeing the source of man's salvation in nature." The all-time hit movie Avatar (2009 film) was widely reviewed as presenting a Pantheistic reverence and concern for Nature. Ross Douthat of The New York Times described the film as "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism...Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now".

Varieties of pantheism

All varieties of Pantheism involve reverence for the Universe or Totality rather than for any creator being or personal God. All imply some level of unity in reality. All except the idealist variety have a strong emphasis on Nature as a focus of spirituality and of ethics. There are three major categories of Pantheism, which differ as to whether they regard reality as made up of only one type of substance, or two, and what that type of substance is.

• Monist physicalist or Naturalistic Pantheism holds that there is only one type of substance, and that substance is physical, i.e. energy and matter. Historically this version was held by Stoics such as Zeno of Citium or Marcus Aurelius, and in modern times by John Toland, Ernst Haeckel, D.H. Lawrence and Paul Harrison. This version is represented today by the World Pantheist Movement. In this version, the term god - if used at all - is basically a synonym for Nature or Universe, seen from the point of view of reverence.

• Monist idealist Pantheism holds that there is only one type of substance, and that substance is mental or spiritual. Ultimate reality consists of a single consciousness. This version is uncommon in modern times but is represented in the Eleatic school of Xenophanes and Parmenides and by Consciousness-Only schools of Buddhism.

• Dualist Pantheism holds that there are two major types of substance, physical and mental/spiritual. Dualistic pantheism is very diverse, and may include beliefs in reincarnation, cosmic consciousness, and paranormal connections across Nature. It is represented most widely today in literal versions of Paganism.

Issues within Pantheism

Use of Religious Vocabulary

A significant debate within the pantheistic community is about the use of the word "God." Pantheists do not believe in a God in the common and traditional sense of a personal creator being. Some modern Pantheists avoid using God-words altogether, since they regard them as misleading. However, others consider that Pantheism can not be Pantheism without using the word God.

Some critics have argued that pantheism is little more than a redefinition of the word "God" to mean "existence", "life" or "reality". Many pantheists would say that 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.

When pantheism is considered as an alternative to theism there is a denial of theistic claims. For example, theism is the belief in a "personal" God that transcends (is separate from) the world. Pantheists deny the existence of a personal God. They deny the existence of a "minded" Being that has intentional states and associated capacities like the ability to make decisions.

There are disagreements as to whether Pantheism is atheistic or not. Atheists argue the non-theistic god of pantheism is not a god (according to the traditional definition), while others suggest a deity is not necessarily transcendent.

Pantheistic concepts in other religious traditions

Taoism

Taoism is pantheistic at least in the writings of its leading thinkers Laozi and Zhuangzi, although it later developed into a folk religion with many deities.
The Tao te Ching by Laozi never speaks of a personal or creator God. Its central focus, the Tao or Way, is conceived of as a mysterious and numinous unity, infinite and eternal, underlying all things and sustaining them. The Tao is always spoken of with profound religious reverence and respect, similar to the way that Pantheism discusses the “divinity” of the Universe. The ideal of Taoism was to live in harmony with the Tao and to cultivate a simple and frugal life, avoiding unnecessary action: "Being one with nature, he is in accord with the Tao."
Zhuangzi emphasized the pantheistic content of Taoism even more clearly. "Heaven and I were created together, and all things and I are one." When Tung Kuo Tzu asked Zhuangzi where the Tao was, he replied that it was in the ant, the grass, the clay tile, even in excrement: "There is nowhere where it is not . . . There is not a single thing without Tao."

Hinduism

It is generally asserted that Hindu religious texts are the oldest known literature that contains Pantheistic ideas. In Hindu theology, Brahman is the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all things in this Universe, and is also the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be. "poornamadah poornamidam" which in Sanskrit means "That is whole, this is whole." This idea of pantheism is traceable from some of the more ancient Vedas and Upanishads to later Advaita philosophy. All Mahāvākyas (Great Sayings) of the Upanishads, in one way or another, seem to indicate the unity of the world with the Brahman. Chāndogya Upanishad says "All this Universe indeed is Brahman; from him does it proceed; into him it is dissolved; in him it breathes, so let every one adore him calmly". It further says "This whole universe is Brahman, from Brahman to a clod of earth. Brahman is both the efficient and the material cause of the world. He is the potter by whom the vase is formed; He is the clay from which it is fabricated. Everything proceeds from Him, without waste or diminution of the source, as light radiates from sun. Everything merges into Him again, as bubbles bursting mingle with air– as rivers fall into the ocean. Everything proceeds from and returns to Him, as the web of the spider is emitted from and retracted into itself." In the hymns of the Rig-veda, a pantheistic strain of thought may be discernible in the tenth book (10-121).

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. 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.Also Hindus worship Nature by offering prayers to sacred trees, groves and also to animals. It's believed widely among Hindus that God lives in all, a very pantheistic belief. 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 considered by non-Hindus as being polytheistic.

Pantheism is a key component of Advaita philosophy. Other subdivisions of Vedanta do not strictly hold this tenet. For example, the Dvaita school of Madhvacharya holds Brahman to be the external personal God Vishnu, whereas the theistic school of Ramanuja espouses Panentheism.

Other religions

There are many elements of pantheism in some forms of Buddhism, Neopaganism, and Theosophy along with many varying denominations and individuals within and without denominations. See also the Neopagan section of Gaia and the Church of All Worlds.

Many Unitarian Universalists consider themselves pantheists. Many traditional and folk religions including African traditional religions and Native American religions can be seen as pantheist, or a mixture of pantheism and other doctrines such as polytheism and animism.

Related concepts

Panentheism

The term "Panentheism" was formally coined in Germany in the 19th Century, as a means of reconciling Pantheism with outright theism. Whereas in Pantheism (All=God) God and the universe are synonymous, Panentheism (All IN God) holds that God is omnipresent in the Universe, but also extends beyond the Universe and created the Universe. Thus Panentheism is highly compatible with traditional theistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity or Islam, whereas Pantheism is not compatible with these.

See also

• Atheism
• Deism
• Nondualism
• List of Pantheists
• Monism
• Naturalistic pantheism
• Nature worship (disambiguation)
• Universal Pantheist Society
• World Pantheist Movement

References

1. Oxford English Dictionary
2. Owen, H. P. Concepts of Deity. London: Macmillan, 1971.
3. ^ Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, 1999
4. Toland: the father of modern pantheism, pantheism.net
5. Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, plato.stanford.edu.
6. Syllabus or Errors 1.1, papalencyclicals.net
7. Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon, Beacon Press, 1986
8. The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2006.
9. ^ Caritas In Veritate, July 7, 2009
10. Message Of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI For The Celebration Of The World Day Of Peace
11. Douthat, Ross (December 21, 2009). "Heaven and Nature". New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
12. Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, Element Books (1999)
13. Dawkins, R (2006), The God Delusion, Transworld, a Black Swan Book, ISBN 978-0-552-77331-7 "Pantheism is sexed-up atheism"
14. "With some exceptions, pantheism is non-theistic, but it is not atheistic." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Pantheism, plato.stanford.edu
15. Paul Harrison, Elements of Pantheism, Element Books, 1999
16. Tao te Ching, 16
17. Chuang Tzu - the butterfly philosopher, pantheism.net
18. General Sketch of the History of Pantheism p. 29
19. Chandogya Upanishad 3-14 Williams Translation
20. What is Panentheism?, atheism.about.com. About Agnosticism/Atheism. Retrieved 2 October 2009.
21. Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley, David B. Barrett (1999). The Encyclopedia of Christianity pg. 21. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0802824161.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

External links

• Beliefs, History and Practice of Pantheism, pantheism.net
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry, plato.stanford.edu
• Template:Dmoz
• The Pantheist Index, pantheist-index.net
• An Introduction to Pantheism, wku.edu
• Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pantheism" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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