Pantheism
Pantheism is the philosophical and religious belief that reality, the universe, and nature are identical to divinity or a supreme entity.
[5] Pantheist belief does not recognize a distinct personal god,[6] anthropomorphic or otherwise, but instead characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships between reality and divinity.
The term pantheism was coined by mathematician Joseph Raphson in 1697[8][9] and since then, it has been used to describe the beliefs of a variety of people and organizations.
Pantheism was popularized in Western culture as a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, in particular, his book Ethics.
The first known combination of these roots appears in Latin, in Joseph Raphson's 1697 book De Spatio Reali seu Ente Infinito,[9] where he refers to "pantheismus".
Antiquity Medieval Early modern Modern Iran India East-Asia There are numerous definitions of pantheism, including: 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 polytheist or monotheist personas.
[19] These included the beliefs of mystics such as Ortlieb of Strasbourg, David of Dinant, Amalric of Bena, and Eckhart.[19]: pp.
[22] Giordano Bruno, an Italian friar who evangelized about a transcendent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the Roman Inquisition.
[30] In the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.
[32] 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.
[34] In the posthumous Ethics, he opposed René Descartes' famous mind–body dualism, the theory that the body and spirit are separate.
[10] The first known use of the term "pantheism" was in Latin ("pantheismus"[8]) by the English mathematician Joseph Raphson in his work De Spatio Reali seu Ente Infinito, published in 1697.
617–618 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".
"[47][48] 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".
[19][53] Between 1785–89, a controversy about Spinoza's philosophy arose between the German philosophers Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (a critic) and Moses Mendelssohn (a defender).
[54] During the beginning of the 19th century, pantheism was the viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge in Britain; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Schelling and Hegel in Germany; Knut Hamsun in Norway; and Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the United States.
"Mr. Lincoln's religion is too well known to me to allow of even a shadow of a doubt; he is or was a Theist and a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary – supernatural inspiration or revelation.
"[56][57]The subject is understandably controversial, but the content of the letter is consistent with Lincoln's fairly lukewarm approach to organized religion.
The Realist Society of Canada believes that the consciousness of the self-aware universe is reality, which is an alternative view of Pantheism.
Du Bois, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rumi, Adi Shankara, and Laozi.
The philosopher Charles Hartshorne used the term Classical Pantheism to describe the deterministic philosophies of Baruch Spinoza, the Stoics, and other like-minded figures.
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.
Examples include the beliefs of John Scotus Eriugena,[81] Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and William James.
[106] Nontheism 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.
[7] Panentheism (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 omnipresent in the physical universe but also exists "apart from" or "beyond" it as its Creator and Sustainer.
[116][117][118] Ideas resembling pantheism existed in Eastern religions before the 18th century (notably Hinduism, Confucianism, and Taoism).
