- Origin and types of pantheism
- Monistic pantheism
- Plural pantheism
- characteristics
- Nature and meaning
- Top thinkers
- Heraclitus
- Plotinus
- Giordano Bruno
- Baruch spinoza
- References
The Pantheism is the belief that God is everything and is identical to the universe, and that there is nothing in the world or the cosmos that is out of reach. The term pantheism is a compound word of Greek origin: bread meaning "everything"; and Theos, "God." That is, "everything is God."
Contrary to classical theism that proclaims that God transcends the world or is present in everything in it - as panentheism affirms - pantheism maintains that God is identical with the world or, from a negative point of view, rejects any consideration of God different from the universe.
It should not be understood as a single form of thought but rather as a group of different doctrines, whose theses converge in their way of seeing God. There are different ways of approaching pantheism in fields or disciplines as diverse as religion, literature, and philosophy.
Thinkers of various ideologies and of all times belong to this diverse current of thought. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Heraclitus, Adi Shankara, Beethoven, Goethe or Hegel, Ralph Emerson, Whitman, Nikola Tesla, Tolstoy, Jung, Einstein, Mahler and even the former Uruguayan president José Mujica are pantheists.
Origin and types of pantheism
The adjective "pantheistic" first appeared in the book Truly Declared Socinianism, published in 1705 by Irish philosopher Deist John Toland. Later it was used as a noun (pantheism) precisely by an opponent of Toland's ideas.
Pantheism can be classified into two broad types: monistic pantheism and pluralistic pantheism.
Monistic pantheism
Examples of this type are found in the classical Spinozist pantheism (Baruch Spinoza), whose philosophy is considered the most radical of this current.
This type is also reflected in the different forms of Hindu pantheism that reduce change and pluralism to the realm of the illusory and phenomenal.
Other types of monistic pantheism are romantic and idealistic, which had wide repercussions in England and America during the 19th century.
Plural pantheism
It is present in the theses of William James (1842–1910), exposed in the book A pluralistic universe in 1908. In this work he outlines a hypothesis that replaces the "fragmentary supernaturalism" described in The varieties of religious experience, another of his books published in 1902.
On the religious level, pluralistic pantheism holds that evil is genuine, while the divine is finite. The thesis of salvation, regardless of its meaning, remains an open question.
Other examples of this type of pantheism are present in various movements that emerged in the late 20th century. Included here is James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, according to which the Earth self-regulates and behaves as a single entity.
Also included are the deep ecology movement, the New Age movement, and the Feminist Spirituality Movement.
characteristics
- Pantheism conceives the universe as a whole: the universe is God. God does not exist as an abstraction but manifests in the universe through the forces, substance, and laws of nature and the cosmos combined.
- It differs from panentheism, another related doctrine that affirms that God is immanent and encompasses the entire universe but transcends it. Pantheism states that God and the universe are the same.
- Pantheism rejects traditional conceptions of God. One of these is its significance; In other words, God is an entity that transcends the universe and is above it. On the contrary, the pantheists affirm that "God is everything and that everything is God", thereby rejecting the idea that he transcends the world.
- Another important difference between western theistic religions and pantheism is the described concept of personality of God. For pantheists God does not have a will over the universe or the world, so he cannot act in it. The God of pantheism is not personal, he has no beliefs, preferences or desires; that's why it doesn't act.
- According to the thinkers of this theological current, God is the non-personal divinity that permeates all existence and understands the divine unity of the world.
- As a religious position, pantheism affirms that nature is imbued with value and is worthy of reverence, respect and wonder. In another sense, as a philosophical position, pantheism is the expression of the belief in an inclusive unity, which is formulated in various ways.
Nature and meaning
Pantheism, like panentheism, can be studied through a tripartite comparison with classical theism, in the light of eight different points of view: from transcendence or immanence, from monism, dualism or pluralism and from time or eternity.
It can also be explored from the sensible or insensitive world, through the world as real or fantasy, through God as absolute or relative, from freedom or determinism and from sacramentalism or secularism.
Pantheism is considered by some philosophers as a form of atheism, because it denies the existence of God as conceived by Western religions. That is, it denies the existence of a transcendent and personal God.
For traditional theists, it is also unclear what pantheists mean when they speak of God. Even representatives of pantheism have been branded heretics by conservative Catholics.
On atheism, Schopenhauer points out that the idea of God cannot be reduced to that held by traditional theists (a transcendent and personal God), since other religious traditions of a non-theistic nature have many other conceptions of divinity as an element capable of impregnating all existence.
Such is the case of the conception of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tse Tao or Sankara Brahman, also that of Plotinus in the One ("the first principle") and Hegel Geist.
Schopenhauer cautions that calling those who think this way "atheists" just because they reject the conception of the personal and transcendent God is simplistic. Furthermore, atheism is not a religion either.
Top thinkers
Among the main thinkers of pantheism are the following:
Heraclitus
For this Greek philosopher the divine is present in all things, and is similar to the world itself and to all its entities.
Plotinus
According to the Greek philosopher Plotinus, divinity combines or preserves its two most important values: immanence and transcendence. He maintains that the One, as "the beginning of the whole, is not the whole."
Giordano Bruno
This Italian philosopher and astronomer had a worldview that is often classified as a mixture of "atheistic pantheism" and a certain "pan-psyche".
Baruch spinoza
He is considered the most representative and radical modern thinker of pantheism, which served as a model for other later forms of this thought.
His conception of God can be summarized in the phrase: "All that is, is in God, and without God nothing can be or be conceived."
References
- Pantheism. Retrieved May 15, 2018 from plato.stanford.edu
- Pantheism. Consulted from britannica.com
- Pantheism. Consulted of encyclopedia.com
- Pantheism. Consulted of philosophytalk.org
- Pantheistic Beliefs Explained. Consulted of thoughtco.com
- Pantheism. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org