Panentheism (; "all in God", from the Greek , and ) is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. The term was coined by the German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 to distinguish the ideas of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854) about the relation of God and the universe from the supposed pantheism of Baruch Spinoza.John Culp (2013): "Panentheism", in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 18 March 2014. Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are identical, panentheism maintains an ontological distinction between the divine and the non-divine and the significance of both.
In panentheism, the universal spirit is present everywhere, which at the same time "transcends" all things created. Whilst pantheism asserts that "all is God", panentheism claims that God is greater than the universe. Some versions of panentheism suggest that the universe is nothing more than the manifestation of God. In addition, some forms indicate that the universe is contained within God, like in the Kabbalistic concept of Tzimtzum, or with the Sufi concept of Wahdat al-wujud. Much of Hindu thought is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism."Pantheism and Panentheism in non-Western cultures", in: Britannica.Whiting, Robert. Religions for Today. Stanley Thomes, London 1991, p. viii. .
In philosophy Baruch Spinoza later claimed that "Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived."Ethics, part I, prop. 15. "Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner."Ethics, part I, prop. 25S. Though Spinoza has been called the "prophet"Picton, J. Allanson, "Pantheism: Its Story and Significance", 1905. and "prince"Fraser, Alexander Campbell, "Philosophy of Theism", William Blackwood and Sons, 1895, p. 163. of pantheism, in a letter to Henry Oldenburg Spinoza states that: "as to the view of certain people that I identify God with nature (taken as a kind of mass or corporeal matter), they are quite mistaken".Correspondence of Benedict de Spinoza, Wilder Publications, 2009, , letter 73. For Spinoza, our universe (cosmos) is a mode under two attributes of Thought and Extension. God has infinitely many other attributes which are not present in our world.
According to German philosopher Karl Jaspers, when Spinoza wrote "Deus sive Natura" (God or Nature) Spinoza did not mean to say that God and Nature are interchangeable terms, but rather that God's transcendence was attested by God's infinitely many attributes, and that two attributes known by humans, namely Thought and Extension, signified God's immanence.Karl Jaspers, Spinoza (Great Philosophers), Harvest Books, 1974, , pp. 14 and 95. Furthermore, Martial Guéroult suggested the term panentheism, rather than pantheism to describe Spinoza's view of the relation between God and the world. The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, "in" God. Yet, American philosopher and self-described panentheist Charles Hartshorne referred to Spinoza's philosophy as "classical pantheism" and distinguished Spinoza's philosophy from panentheism.Charles Hartshorne and William Reese, Philosophers Speak of God, Humanity Books, 1953, ch. 4.
In 1828, the German philosopher Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832) seeking to reconcile monotheism and pantheism, coined the term panentheism (from the Ancient Greek expression πᾶν ἐν θεῷ, pān en theṓ, literally "all in god"). 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 closely identified with the New Thought. The formalization of this term in the West in the 19th century was not new; philosophical treatises had been written on it in the context of Hinduism for millennia.
Philosophers who embraced panentheism have included Thomas Hill Green (1839–1882), James Ward (1843–1925), Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison (1856–1931) and Samuel Alexander (1859–1938).John W. Cooper Panentheism, the other God of the philosophers: from Plato to the present Baker Academic, 2006, . Beginning in the 1940s, Hartshorne examined numerous conceptions of God. He reviewed and discarded pantheism, deism, and pandeism in favor of panentheism, finding that such a "doctrine contains all of deism and pandeism except their arbitrary negations". Hartshorne formulated God as a being who could become "more perfect": God has absolute perfection in categories for which absolute perfection is possible, and relative perfection (i. e., is superior to all others) in categories for which perfection cannot be precisely determined.Charles Hartshorne, Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism (1964) p. 348; cf. Michel Weber, Whitehead’s Pancreativism. The Basics. Foreword by Nicholas Rescher, Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Paris, 2006.
In religion Christianity
Panentheism is also a feature of some Christian philosophical theologies and resonates strongly within the theological tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It also appears in process theology. Process theological thinkers are generally regarded as unorthodox in the Christian West. Furthermore, process philosophy is widely believed to have paved the way for open theism, a movement that tends to associate itself primarily with the Evangelical branch of Protestantism but is also generally considered unorthodox by most evangelicals.
Catholic panentheism A number of ordained Catholic writers (including Richard Rohr, David Steindl-Rast, and Thomas Keating) have suggested that panentheism is the original view of Christianity. They hold that such a view is directly supported by mystical experience and the teachings of Jesus and Paul the Apostle. Richard Rohr surmises this in his 2019 book The Universal Christ:
Similarly, David Steindl-Rast posits that Christianity's original panentheism is being revealed through contemporary mystical insight:
This sentiment is mirrored in Thomas Keating's 1993 article, Clarifications Regarding Centering Prayer:
Panentheism in other Christian confessions Panentheistic conceptions of God occur amongst some modern theologians. Process theology and Creation Spirituality, two recent developments in Christian theology, contain panentheistic ideas. Charles Hartshorne (1897–2000), 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, Texas, Unitarian Universalist congregation and was an active participant in that church.About Charles Hartshorne . Referring to ideas such as Thomas Oord's theocosmocentrism (2010), the soft panentheism of open theism, Keith Ward's comparative theology and John Polkinghorne's critical realism (2009), Raymond Potgieter observes distinctions such as dipolar and bipolar:
The former suggests two poles separated such as God influencing creation and it in turn its creator (Bangert 2006:168), whereas bipolarity completes God’s being implying interdependence between temporal and eternal poles. (Marbaniang 2011:133), in dealing with Whitehead’s approach, does not make this distinction. I use the term bipolar as a generic term to include suggestions of the structural definition of God’s transcendence and immanence; to for instance accommodate a present and future reality into which deity must reasonably fit and function, and yet maintain separation from this world and evil whilst remaining within it.Potgieter, R., 2013, 'Keith Ward's Soft Panentheism', In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 47(1), Art. #581, 9 pages. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/.
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). Nazarene Methodist theologian Thomas Jay Oord (born 1965) 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 overcome the problem of evil and proposes that God's love for the world is essential to who God is.
The Latter Day Saint movement teaches that the Light of Christ "proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things"."Light of Christ", churchofjesuschrist.org.
Gnosticism
Manichaeists, being of another gnostic sect, preached a very different doctrine in positioning the true Manichaean God against matter as well as other deities, that it described as enmeshed with the world, namely the gods of Jews, Christians, and pagans."Now, he who spoke with Moses, the Jews, and the priests he says is the archont of Darkness, and the Christians, Jews, and pagans (ethnic) are one and the same, as they revere the same god. For in his aspirations he seduces them, as he is not the god of truth. And so therefore all those who put their hope in the god who spoke with Moses and the prophets have (this in store for themselves, namely) to be bound with him, because they did not put their hope in the god of truth. For that one spoke with them (only) according to their own aspirations." And elsewhere: "Now God has no part in this cosmos nor does he rejoice over it." Classical Texts: Acta Archelai, p. 76. (www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/Manicheism/Manicheism_II_Texts.pdf). Nevertheless, this dualistic teaching included an elaborate cosmological myth that narrates the defeat of primal man by the powers of darkness that devoured and imprisoned the particles of light."But the blessed One ... sent, through his beneficent Spirit and his great mercy, a helper to Adam, luminous Epinoia which comes out of him, who is called Life. ... And the luminous Epinoia was hidden in Adam, in order that the archons might not know her, but that the Epinoia might be a correction of the deficiency of the mother. And the man came forth because of the shadow of the light which is in him. ... And they took counsel with the whole array of archons and angels. ... And they brought him (Adam) into the shadow of death, in order that they might form (him) again from earth ... This is the tomb of the newly-formed body with which the robbers had clothed the man, the bond of forgetfulness; and he became a mortal man. ... But the Epinoia of the light which was in him, she is the one who was to awaken his thinking. ().
Valentinianism taught that matter came about through emanations of the supreme being, even if, to some, this event is held to be more accidental than intentional. To other gnostics, these emanations were akin to the Sephirot of the Kabbalists and deliberate manifestations of a transcendent God through a complex system of intermediaries.
Hinduism
The earliest reference to panentheistic thought in Hindu philosophy is in a creationism contained in the later section of Rig Veda called the Purusha Sukta, which was compiled before 1100 BCE.Oberlies (1998:155) gives an estimate of 1100 BC for the youngest hymns in book 10. Estimates for a terminus post quem of the earliest hymns are more uncertain. Oberlies (p. 158) based on 'cumulative evidence' sets wide range of 1700–1100 BC. The Purusha Sukta gives a description of the spiritual unity of the cosmos. It presents the nature of Purusha, or the cosmic being, as both immanent in the manifested world and yet transcendent.The Purusha Sukta in Daily Invocations by Swami Krishnananda. From this being the sukta holds, the original creative will proceeds, by which this vast universe is projected in space and time.Swami Krishnananda. A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India. Divine Life Society. p. 19.