Editing Panentheism

{{Short description|Belief that the divine pervades all of space and time and extends beyond it}}
{{Distinguish|Pandeism|Pantheism}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{God|isms}}
'''Panentheism''' ({{IPAc-en|p|æ|ˈ|n|ɛ|n|θ|i|ɪ|z|əm}};<ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|panentheism|access-date=2024-04-14}}</ref> "all in God", from the [[Greek language|Greek]] {{langx|grc|πᾶν|pân|all|label=none}}, {{langx|grc|ἐν|en|in|label=none}} and {{langx|grc|Θεός|Theós|God|label=none}})<ref name="Stanford"/> is the [[belief]] that the [[Divinity|divine]] intersects every part of [[Universe|the universe]] and also extends beyond [[Outer space|space]] and [[time]]. The term was coined by the German philosopher [[Karl Krause]] in 1828 (after reviewing [[Hindu scripture]]) 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]].<ref name="Stanford">John Culp (2013): [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/panentheism "Panentheism"], in the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''. Retrieved 18 March 2014.</ref> Unlike pantheism, which holds that the divine and the universe are [[Identity (philosophy)|identical]],<ref name="Fahlbusch, Bromiley, Barrett 1999">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sCY4sAjTGIYC&pg=PA21 |title=The Encyclopedia of Christianity |publisher=William B. Eerdmans |author1=Erwin Fahlbusch |author2=Geoffrey William Bromiley |author3=David B. Barrett| volume=4 |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8028-2416-5 |page=21}}</ref> panentheism maintains an [[Ontology|ontological]] distinction between the divine and the [[secular|non-divine]] and the significance of both.

In panentheism, the universal [[Omnipresence|spirit]] is present everywhere, which at the same time "[[Transcendence (religion)|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,<ref name="Fahlbusch, Bromiley, Barrett 1999"/> like in the [[Kabbalistic]] concept of ''[[tzimtzum]]''. Much of [[Hindu thought]] is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/441533/pantheism/38168/Pantheism-and-panentheism-in-non-Western-cultures "Pantheism and Panentheism in non-Western cultures"], in: ''Britannica''.</ref><ref>Whiting, Robert. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_UfRgCZThWYC&q=panentheism&pg=PR8 ''Religions for Today'']. Stanley Thomes, London 1991, p.&nbsp;viii. {{ISBN|0-7487-0586-4}}.</ref>

== In philosophy ==
=== Ancient Greek philosophy ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}

The religious beliefs of [[Neoplatonism]] can be regarded as panentheistic. [[Plotinus]] taught that there was an ineffable transcendent God ("[[Henology|the One]]", ''to En'', τὸ Ἕν) of which subsequent realities were emanations. From "the One" emanates the Divine Mind (''[[Nous]]'', Νοῦς) and the Cosmic Soul (''[[Psyche (psychology)|Psyche]]'', Ψυχή). In Neoplatonism the world itself is God (according to [[Plato]]'s [[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]] 37). This concept of divinity is associated with that of the ''[[Logos]]'' (Λόγος), which had originated centuries earlier with [[Heraclitus]] (c. 535–475 BC). The ''Logos'' pervades the [[cosmos]], whereby all thoughts and all things originate, or as Heraclitus said: "He who hears not me but the Logos will say: All is one." Neoplatonists such as [[Iamblichus]] attempted to reconcile this perspective by adding another [[hypostasis (philosophy and religion)|hypostasis]] above the original monad of force or ''[[Dunamis|Dynamis]]'' (Δύναμις). This new all-pervasive monad encompassed all creation and its original uncreated emanations.

=== Modern philosophy ===
[[Baruch Spinoza]] later claimed that "Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived."<ref>''Ethics'', part I, prop. 15.</ref> "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."<ref>''Ethics'', part I, prop. 25S.</ref> Though Spinoza has been called the "prophet"<ref>Picton, J. Allanson, "Pantheism: Its Story and Significance", 1905.</ref> and "prince"<ref>Fraser, Alexander Campbell, "Philosophy of Theism", William Blackwood and Sons, 1895, p. 163.</ref> 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".<ref>''Correspondence of Benedict de Spinoza'', Wilder Publications, 2009, {{ISBN|978-1-60459-156-9}}, letter 73.</ref> For Spinoza, our universe (cosmos) is a mode under two attributes of [[Thought]] and [[Extension (metaphysics)|Extension]]. God has infinitely many other [[God#Specific characteristics|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 his infinitely many attributes, and that two attributes known by humans, namely Thought and Extension, signified God's [[immanence]].<ref>Karl Jaspers, ''Spinoza ''(''Great Philosophers''), Harvest Books, 1974, {{ISBN|978-0-15-684730-8}}, pp. 14 and 95.</ref> 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.<ref>Charles Hartshorne and William Reese, ''Philosophers Speak of God,'' Humanity Books, 1953, ch. 4.</ref>
 
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 Movement|New Thought]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Smith|first1=David L.|title=Theologies of the 21st Century: Trends in Contemporary Theology|date=2014|publisher=Wipf and Stock|location=Eugene OR|isbn=978-1625648648|page=228|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zFYNBQAAQBAJ&q=new%20thought%20panentheism&pg=PA228|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Southgate|first1=Christopher|title=God, Humanity and the Cosmos: A Companion to the Science-Religion Debate|date=2005|publisher=T&T Clark|location=London|isbn=978-0567030160|pages=246–47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmGvAwAAQBAJ&q=panentheism+hinduism&pg=PA246|access-date=29 September 2015}}</ref>

Philosophers who embraced panentheism have included [[Thomas Hill Green]] (1839–1882), [[James Ward (psychologist)|James Ward]] (1843–1925), [[Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison]] (1856–1931) and [[Samuel Alexander]] (1859–1938).<ref>John W. Cooper ''Panentheism, the other God of the philosophers: from Plato to the present'' Baker Academic, 2006, {{ISBN|0-8010-2724-1}}.</ref> 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": He has absolute perfection in categories for which absolute perfection is possible, and relative perfection (i.&nbsp;e., is superior to all others) in categories for which perfection cannot be precisely determined.<ref>Charles Hartshorne, ''Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism'' (1964) {{ISBN|0-208-00498-X}} p. 348; cf. [[Michel Weber]], ''[https://www.academia.edu/279953/Whiteheads_Pancreativism._The_Basics Whitehead’s Pancreativism. The Basics]''. Foreword by [[Nicholas Rescher]], Ontos Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and Paris, 2006.</ref>

== In religion ==
=== Buddhism ===
{{See also|Nondualism in Buddhism}}

====Zen Buddhism====
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2024}}
The Reverend [[Zen]] Master [[Soyen Shaku]] was the first Zen Buddhist Abbot to tour the United States in 1905–6. He wrote a series of essays collected in the book ''Zen For Americans''. In the essay titled "The God Conception of Buddhism," he attempts to explain how a Buddhist looks at the Ultimate without an anthropomorphic God figure while still being able to relate to the term God in a Buddhist sense:

<blockquote>At the outset, let me state that Buddhism is not [[Atheism|atheistic]] as the term is ordinarily understood. It has certainly a God, the [[Ultimate reality|highest reality]] and [[truth]], through which and in which this universe exists. However, the followers of Buddhism usually avoid the term God, for it savors so much of Christianity, whose spirit is not always exactly in accord with the Buddhist interpretation of religious experience. Again, Buddhism is not [[Pantheism|pantheistic]] in the sense that it identifies the universe with God. On the other hand, the Buddhist God is absolute and transcendent; this world, being merely its manifestation, is necessarily fragmental and imperfect. To define more exactly the Buddhist notion of the highest being, it may be convenient to borrow the term very happily coined by a modern German scholar, "panentheism," according to which God is πᾶν καὶ ἕν (all and one) and more than the totality of existence.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Zen for Americans |url=//archive.org/details/ZenForAmericans/page/n38/mode/1up |publication-date=1987}}</ref><ref>''Zen For Americans'' by [[Soyen Shaku]], translated by [[Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki]], 1906, pages 25–26. {{Cite web|title=Zen for Americans: The God-Conception of Buddhism|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zfa/zfa04.htm|access-date=2020-11-08|website=www.sacred-texts.com}}</ref></blockquote>

The essay then goes on to explain first utilizing the term "God" for the American audience to get an initial understanding of what he means by "panentheism," and then discusses the terms that Buddhism uses in place of "God" such as [[Dharmakaya]], [[Buddha]] or [[Adi-Buddha]], and [[Tathagata]].{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

====Pure Land Buddhism====
{{Main|Pure Land Buddhism}}

=== Christianity ===
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2021}}

Panentheism is also a feature of some [[Christianity|Christian]] [[philosophical theology|philosophical theologies]] and resonates strongly within the [[Eastern Orthodox Christian theology|theological tradition]] of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].<ref name="Nesteruk">{{cite book|last1=Nesteruk|first1=Alexei V.|title="The Universe as Hypostaic Inherence in the logos of God: Panentheism in the Eastern Orthodox Perspective", in In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being: Panentheistic Reflections on God's Presence in a Scientific World, edited by Philip Clayton and Arthur Robert Peacocke|date=2004|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0802809780|pages=169–83|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N123ZrSR2b0C&q=Orthodox+christianity+panentheism&pg=PA169|access-date=23 March 2018}}</ref> It also appears in [[process theology]]. Process theological thinkers are generally regarded as unorthodox in the [[Western Christianity|Christian West]]. Furthermore, [[process philosophy]] is widely believed{{by whom|date=April 2025}} to have paved the way for [[open theism]], a movement that tends to associate itself primarily with the [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] branch of [[Protestantism]] but is also generally considered unorthodox by most evangelicals.

====Catholic panentheism====
A number of ordained [[Christian mysticism|Catholic mystics]] (including [[Richard Rohr]], [[David Steindl-Rast]], and [[Thomas Keating]]) have suggested that panentheism is the original view of Christianity.<ref name="Rohr19">{{Cite book |last=Rohr |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSNPDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22whereas+I+am+really+a+panentheist%22+Rohr&pg=PT48 |title=The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe |date=2019-03-05 |publisher=Crown Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-5247-6210-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Shared Spirituality |url=https://gratefulness.org/resource/shared-spirituality/ |access-date=2022-09-19 |website=Gratefulness.org}}</ref><ref name="Keating93">{{Cite book |last=Keating |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHI4F-uiqJAC&dq=%22Clarifications+regarding+Centering+Prayer%22&pg=PT44 |title=The Thomas Keating Reader: Selected Writings from the Contemplative Outreach Newsletter |date=2012 |publisher=Lantern Books |isbn=978-1-59056-352-6 |language=en}}</ref> They hold that such a view is directly supported by [[Mysticism|mystical experience]] and the teachings of [[Jesus]] and [[Paul the Apostle]]. Richard Rohr surmises this in his 2019 book ''The Universal Christ'':

{{blockquote|text=But Paul merely took incarnationalism to its universal and logical conclusions. We see that in his bold exclamation “There is only Christ. He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11). If I were to write that today, people would call me a pantheist (the universe is God), whereas I am really a panentheist (God lies within all things, but also transcends them), exactly like both Jesus and Paul.<ref name="Rohr19" />}}

Similarly, David Steindl-Rast posits that Christianity's original panentheism is being revealed through contemporary mystical insight:

{{blockquote|text=What characterizes our moment in history is the collapse of Christian theism. Gratefulness mysticism makes us realize that Christianity never was theistic, but panentheistic. Faith in God as triune implied this from the very beginning; now we are becoming aware of it. It becomes obvious, at the same time, that we share this Trinitarian experience of divine life with all human beings as a spiritual undercurrent in all religions, an undercurrent older and more powerful than the various doctrines. At the core of interreligious dialogue flows this shared spirituality of gratefulness, a spirituality strong enough to restore to our broken world unity.<ref name=":0" />}} This sentiment is mirrored in Thomas Keating's 1993 article, ''Clarifications Regarding Centering Prayer'':

{{blockquote|text=Pantheism is usually defined as the identification of God with creation in such a way that the two are indistinguishable. Panentheism means that God is present in all creation by virtue of his omnipresence and omnipotence, sustaining every creature in being without being identified with any creature. The latter understanding is what Jesus seems to have been describing when he prays "that all might be one, Father, as we are one" and "that they may also be in us" (John 17:22). Again and again, in the Last Supper discourse, he speaks of this oneness and his intentions to send his Spirit to dwell within us. If we understand the writings of the great mystics rightly, they experience God living within them all the time. Thus the affirmation of God's transcendence must always be balanced by the affirmation of his imminence both on the natural plane and on the plane of grace.<ref name="Keating93" />|source=}}

==== 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 [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]]. In later years, he joined the [[Austin, Texas]], [[Unitarian Universalism|Unitarian Universalist]] congregation and was an active participant in that church.<ref>[http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/charleshartshorne.html About Charles Hartshorne] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114200326/http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/charleshartshorne.html |date=2007-11-14 }}.</ref> 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:

<blockquote>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.<ref>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/.</ref></blockquote>

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]]''). [[Church of the Nazarene|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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Vaughn W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b2lNAwAAQBAJ |title=Evangelism and the Openness of God: The Implications of Relational Theism |date=2013 |publisher=Wipf and Stock |isbn=9781620320471 |location=Eugene OR |pages=242–243 |access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>

The [[Latter Day Saint movement]] teaches that the [[Light of Christ (Latter Day Saints)|Light of Christ]] "proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things".<ref name = churchofjesuschrist.org>[https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/light-of-christ "Light of Christ"], churchofjesuschrist.org.</ref>

=== Gnosticism ===
{{main|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.<ref>"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).</ref> 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.<ref>"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. ([http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn.html]).</ref>

[[Valentinianism]] taught that matter came about through [[Emanationism|emanations]] of the supreme being, even if, to some, this event is held to be more accidental than intentional.<ref>{{cite web |title=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/gnostic/ }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=James R. and Murphy Pizza |title=Handbook of contemporary Paganism |date=2008 |publisher=Brill |location=Boston |isbn=978-90-04-16373-7 |pages=15–16 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rwzttsI9-NwC |access-date=10 July 2020}}</ref>

=== Hinduism ===
[[File:Vishnu Vishvarupa.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the Vishnu Vishvarupa (Purusha), within which all the ''devas'' and universe is contained]]
The earliest reference to panentheistic thought in [[Hindu philosophy]] is in a creation myth contained in the later section of [[Rig Veda]] called the [[Purusha Sukta]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nigal|first1=Sahebrao Genu|title=Vedic Philosophy of Values|date=2009|publisher=Northern Book Centre|location=New Delhi|isbn=978-8172112806|page=81|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DOIaShWLz3EC&q=purusha+sukta+panentheism&pg=PA81|access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> which was compiled before 1100 BCE.<ref>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.</ref> 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.<ref>The Purusha Sukta in [http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/invoc/in_pura.html Daily Invocations] by Swami Krishnananda.</ref> From this being the sukta holds, the original creative [[Will (philosophy)|will]] proceeds, by which this vast universe is projected in space and time.<ref>Swami Krishnananda. A Short History of Religious and Philosophic Thought in India. Divine Life Society. p. 19.</ref>

The most influential<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=7ykZjWOiBMoC&pg=PR7 Consciousness in Advaita Vedānta], William M. Indich, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1995, {{ISBN|81-208-1251-4}}.</ref> and dominant<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/GB.htm |title=Gandhi And Mahayana Buddhism |publisher=Class.uidaho.edu |access-date=2011-06-10}}</ref> school of [[Indian philosophy]], [[Advaita Vedanta]], rejects theism and dualism by insisting that "[[Brahman]] [ultimate reality] is without parts or attributes...one without a second."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Wainwright|first1=William|title=Concepts of God|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/concepts-god/|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> Since Brahman has no properties, contains no internal diversity and is identical with the whole reality it cannot be understood as an anthropomorphic personal God.<ref>Wainwright, William, [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/concepts-god/ "Concepts of God"], The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition).</ref> The relationship between Brahman and the creation is often thought to be panentheistic.<ref name="Southgate">Southgate, Christopher. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2euuM3YOh6YC&dq=panentheism+hinduism&pg=PA246 God, Humanity, and the Cosmos]. T&T Clark Int'l, New York. p. 246. {{ISBN|0567030164}}.</ref>

Panentheism is also expressed in the [[Bhagavad Gita]].<ref name="Southgate"/> In verse IX.4, [[Krishna]] states: {{Blockquote|By Me all this universe is pervaded through My unmanifested form.<br/> All beings abide in Me but I do not abide in them.}}

Many schools of Hindu thought espouse [[monistic theism]], which is believed to be similar to a panentheistic viewpoint. [[Nimbarka]]'s school of differential monism ([[Dvaitadvaita]]), [[Ramanuja]]'s school of qualified monism ([[Vishistadvaita]]), and [[Saiva Siddhanta]] and Kashmir Shaivism are all considered to be panentheistic.<ref>Sherma, Rita DasGupta; Sharma Arvind. Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horizons. Springer, 2008 edition (December 1, 2010). p. 192. {{ISBN|9048178002}}.</ref> [[Chaitanya Mahaprabhu]]'s [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism]], which elucidates the doctrine of [[Achintya Bheda Abheda]] (inconceivable oneness and difference), is also thought to be panentheistic.<ref>Chaitanya Charitamrita, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.</ref> In [[Kashmir Shaivism]], all things are believed to be a manifestation of Universal Consciousness (''Cit'' or Brahman).<ref>The Doctrine of Vibration: An Analysis of Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism, Mark S. G. Dyczkowski, p. 44.</ref> So from the point of view of this school, the phenomenal world (''Śakti'') is real, and it exists and has its being in Consciousness (Ć''it'').<ref>Ksemaraja, trans. by Jaidev Singh, Spanda Karikas: The Divine Creative Pulsation, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, p. 119.</ref> Thus, Kashmir Shaivism also propounds theistic monism or panentheism.<ref>The Trika Śaivism of Kashmir, Moti Lal Pandit.</ref>

[[Shaktism]], or [[Tantra]], is regarded as an [[India]]n prototype of panentheism.<ref>Vitsaxis, Vassilis. [https://books.google.com/books?id=52b-A2l7QbwC&dq=shakti+panentheism&pg=PA167 Thought and Faith: The concept of divinity. Somerset Hall Press]. p. 167. {{ISBN|978-1-935244-03-5}}.</ref> [[Shakti]] is considered to be the cosmos itself – she is the embodiment of energy and dynamism and the motivating force behind all action and existence in the material universe. Shiva is her transcendent masculine aspect, providing the divine ground of all being. "There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva. The two ... in themselves are One."<ref>Subramanian, V. K., ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Sv3HkK2M15wC Saundaryalahari of Sankaracarya: Sanskrit Text in Devanagari with Roman Transliteration, English Translation, Explanatory Notes, Yantric Diagrams and Index]''. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd. (Delhi, 1977; 6th ed. 1998). p. ix.</ref> Thus, it is she who becomes the time and space, the cosmos; it is she who becomes the [[Mahābhūta|five elements]], and thus all animate life and inanimate forms. She is the primordial energy that holds all creation and destruction, all cycles of birth and death, all laws of cause and effect within herself, and yet is greater than the sum total of all these. She is transcendent but becomes immanent as the cosmos (''Mula Prakriti''). She, the primordial energy, directly becomes matter.

=== Judaism ===
While mainstream [[Rabbinic Judaism]] is classically monotheistic and follows in the footsteps of [[Maimonides]] (c. 1135–1204), the panentheistic conception of God can be found among certain mystical Jewish traditions. A leading scholar of [[Kabbalah]], [[Moshe Idel]],<ref>''Hasidism: Between Ecstacy and Magic'', SUNY, 1995, p. 17 f.</ref> ascribes this doctrine to the kabbalistic system of [[Moses ben Jacob Cordovero]] (1522–1570), and in the eighteenth century, to the [[Baal Shem Tov]] (c. 1700–1760), founder of the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic movement]], as well as his contemporaries, Rabbi [[Dov Ber of Mezeritch]] (died 1772) and Menahem Mendel, the Maggid of Bar. There is some debate as to whether [[Isaac Luria]] (1534–1572) and [[Lurianic Kabbalah]], with its doctrine of ''[[tzimtzum]]'', can be regarded as panentheistic.

According to [[Hasidism]], the infinite [[Ein Sof]] is incorporeal and exists in a state that is both [[Transcendence (religion)|transcendent]] and [[immanent]]. This also appears to be the view of non-Hasidic Rabbi [[Chaim of Volozhin]]. [[Hasidic Judaism]] merges the ideal of [[kenosis|nullification]] with a transcendent God via the intellectual articulation of inner dimensions through Kabbalah and with emphasis on the panentheistic [[divine immanence]] in everything.<ref name=ariel>{{cite book|last1=Ariel|first1=David S.|title=Kabbalah: The Mystic Quest in Judaism|date=2006|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0742545649|pages=184–85|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SEDMBtWDSNIC|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref>

Many scholars would argue that "panentheism" is the best single-word description of the philosophical theology of [[Baruch Spinoza]], a Jew.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Diller |first1=Jeanine and Asa Kasher |title=Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities |date=2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |location=Dordrecht |isbn=978-94-007-5218-4 |pages=425–26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZhEAAAAQBAJ |access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> It is therefore no surprise that aspects of panentheism are also evident in the theology of [[Reconstructionist Judaism]] as presented in the writings of [[Mordecai Kaplan]] (1881–1983), who Spinoza strongly influenced.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scult |first1=Mel |title=The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan |date=2013 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-01075-9 |pages=7–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YRJpAQAAQBAJ |access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref>

=== Sikhism ===
[[File:Prayerbook1828.jpg|thumb|[[Guru Nanak]] talking to Hindu [[sadhu]]s (holy men)]]
Many newer, contemporary [[Sikhism|Sikhs]] have suggested that human souls and the [[Monotheism|monotheistic]] [[Waheguru|God]] are two different realities ([[Dualism (Indian philosophy)|dualism]]),<ref>{{cite book |author=Nirmal Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xh69K5Ilm3EC |title=Sikh Philosophy and Religion: 11th Guru Nanak Memorial Lectures |publisher=Sterling Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-932705-68-3 |pages=89–92}}</ref> distinguishing it from the [[Monism|monistic]] and various shades of nondualistic philosophies of other Indian religions.<ref>{{cite book |author=Arvind-pal Singh Mandair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzeCy_zL0Q8C |title=Religion and the Specter of the West: Sikhism, India, Postcoloniality, and the Politics of Translation |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-231-51980-9 |pages=76, 430–432}}</ref> However, Sikh scholars have explored [[Nonduality (spirituality)|nondualist]] exegesis of Sikh scriptures, such as [[Vir Singh (writer)|Bhai Vir Singh]]. According to Mandair, Vir Singh interprets the Sikh scriptures as teaching nonduality.<ref name="The Politics of Nonduality: Reasses">{{cite journal |last1=Mandair |first1=Arvind |year=2005 |title=The Politics of Nonduality: Reassessing the Work of Transcendence in Modern Sikh Theology |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=646–673 |doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfj002 |s2cid=154558545}}</ref> The renowned Sikh Scholar, [[Bhai Mani Singh]], is quoted to saying that Sikhism has all the essence of [[Vedanta]] Philosophy.<ref name="Singh, Nirbhai 1990">Singh, Nirbhai. ''Philosophy of Sikhism: Reality and its manifestations''. Atlantic Publishers & Distri, 1990.</ref> Historically, the Sikh symbol of [[Ik Onkar|Ik Oankaar]] has had a monist meaning and has been reduced to simply meaning, "There is but One God", which is incorrect.<ref name=":1">Chahal, Devinder Singh. "UNDERSTANDING OF THE FIRST STANZA OF OANKAR (ਓਅੰਕਾਰੁ) BANI."</ref> Older exegesis of Sikh scripture, such as the Faridkot Teeka and Garab Ganjani Teeka, has always described Sikh Metaphysics as a non-dual, panentheistic universe.<ref name=":1" /> For this reason, Sikh Metaphysics has often been compared to the Non-Dual Vedanta metaphysics.<ref name="Singh, Nirbhai 1990"/> The Sikh Poet, [[Bhai Nand Lal]], often used Sufi terms to describe Sikh philosophy, talking about [[Sufi metaphysics|wahdat ul-wujud]] in his Persian poetry.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Nanda Lāla |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/190842786 |title=Kalaam-e-Goya |date=2003 |publisher=Institute of Sikh Studies |oclc=190842786}}</ref>

=== Islam ===
{{Further|Tawheed}}
[[File:Ibn Arabi with students.jpg|thumb|A late 16th century Persian miniature, Safavid period, representing Ibn 'Arabi on horseback with two students.]]
[[Wahdat ul-wujud]] (the Unity of All Things) is a concept sometimes described as pantheism or panentheism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Minai|first1=Asghar Talaye|title=Mysticism, aesthetics, and cosmic consciousness: a post-modern worldview of unity of being|date=2003|publisher=Global Academic Pub.|location=N.Y.|isbn=978-1586842499|page=250}}</ref> It is primarily associated with the [[Ashari]]te [[Sufi]] scholar [[Ibn Arabi]]. Some Sufi Orders, notably the [[Bektashis]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Abiva|first1=Huseyin|title=Bektashi Thought & Practice|url=http://bektashiorder.com/thought-and-practice|website=Bektashi Order of Dervishes|access-date=1 October 2015}}</ref> and the [[Universal Sufism|Universal Sufi]] movement, adhere to similar panentheistic beliefs. The same is said about the [[Nizari]] [[Ismaili]] who follow [[Panentheism (Ismailism)|panentheism according to Ismaili doctrine]].

=== In Pre-Columbian America ===
The Mesoamerican empires of the [[Maya religion|Maya]]s, [[Aztec religion|Aztecs]] as well as the South American [[Religion in the Inca Empire|Incas]] ([[Tawantinsuyu]]) have typically been characterized as [[polytheism|polytheistic]], with strong male and female deities.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murphy|first1=John|title=Gods & Goddesses of the Inca, Maya, and Aztec Civilizations|date=2014|publisher=Rosen Education Service|location=New York|isbn=978-1622753963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYwgBAAAQBAJ|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref> According to [[Charles C. Mann]]'s history book ''[[1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus]]'', only the lower classes of Aztec society were polytheistic. Philosopher James Maffie has argued that Aztec metaphysics was panentheistic rather than pantheistic since [[Teotl]] was considered by Aztec philosophers to be the ultimate all-encompassing yet all-transcending force defined by its inherited duality.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Maffie|first1=James|title=Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World in Motion|date=2013|publisher=University Press of Colorado|location=Boulder|isbn=9781607322238|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2JK-AwAAQBAJ|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref>

[[Native American religion|Native American beliefs]] in [[Native Americans in the United States|North America]] have been characterized as panentheistic in that there is an emphasis on a single, unified divine spirit that is manifest in each individual entity.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Solomon|first1=Robert C. and Kathleen M. Higgins|title=From Africa to Zen: An Invitation to World Philosophy|date=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|location=Lanham, MD|isbn=978-0742513495|pages=51–54|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gVgdAAAAQBAJ&q=native%20american%20panentheism&pg=PA53|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref> (North American Native writers have also translated the word for God as the Great Mystery<ref>[[Russell Means]], ''Where White Men Fear To Tread'' (Macmillan, 1993), pp. 3–4, 15, 17.</ref> or as the Sacred Other<ref>[[George Tinker]], ''Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation'', 2004, p. 89.  He defines the Sacred Other as "the Deep Mystery which creates and sustains all Creation".</ref>). This concept is referred to by many as the [[Great Spirit]]. Philosopher [[J. Baird Callicott]] has described Lakota theology as panentheistic, in that the divine both transcends and is immanent in everything.<ref>{{cite book|title=Earth's Insights: A Multicultural Survey of Ecological Ethics from the Mediterranean Basin to the Australian Outback|date=1994|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520085602|page=122|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SvG8Sqq1FbIC|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref>

One exception can be modern [[Cherokee]], who are predominantly [[monotheism|monotheistic]] but apparently not panentheistic.<ref>[http://www.peoplesoftheworld.org/text?people=Cherokee ''The Peoples of the World Foundation. Education for and about Indigenous Peoples: The Cherokee People'']. Retrieved 24 March 2008.</ref> Yet in older Cherokee traditions, many observe both pantheism and panentheism and are often not beholden to exclusivity, encompassing other spiritual traditions without contradiction, a common trait among some tribes in the Americas. In the stories of [[Keetoowah]] storytellers Sequoyah Guess and Dennis Sixkiller, God is known as ᎤᏁᎳᏅᎯ, commonly pronounced "unehlanv," and visited earth in prehistoric times, but then left earth and her people to rely on themselves. This shows a parallel to [[Vaishnava]] cosmology.

=== Konkōkyō ===
[[Konkokyo]] is a form of sectarian Japanese [[Shinto]] and a faith within the Shinbutsu-shūgō tradition. Traditional Shintoism holds that an impersonal spirit manifests/penetrates the material world, giving all objects consciousness and spontaneously creating a system of natural mechanisms, forces, and phenomena (Musubi). Konkokyo deviates from traditional Shintoism by holding that this spirit (Comparable to Brahman) has a personal identity and mind. This personal form is non-different from the energy itself, not residing in any particular cosmological location. In Konkokyo, this god is named "Tenchi Kane no Kami-Sama," which can be translated directly as "Spirit of the gilded/golden heavens and earth."

Though practitioners of Konkokyo are small in number (~300,000 globally), the sect has birthed or influenced a multiplicity of [[Japanese New Religions]], such as [[Oomoto]]. Many of these faiths carry on the Panentheistic views of Konkokyo {{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Achintya Bheda Abheda]], concept of qualified non-duality in [[Gaudiya Vaishnavism|Gaudiya Vaishnava]] [[Hinduism]]
*[[Brahman]]
*[[Christian Universalism]]
*[[Conceptions of God]]
*[[Creation Spirituality]]
*[[Divine simplicity]]
*[[Double-aspect theory]]
*[[Essence–energies distinction]]
*[[German idealism]]
*[[Henosis]]
*[[Kabbalah]]
*[[Neoplatonism]]
*[[Neutral monism]]
*[[Open theism]]
*''[[The Over-Soul]]'' (1841), essay by [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]
*[[Eastern Orthodox Christian theology|Orthodox Christian theology]]
*[[Pantheism]]
*[[Pandeism]]
*[[Parabrahman]]
*[[Paramatman]]
*[[Philosophy of space and time]]
*[[Process theology]]
*[[Subud]], spiritual movement founded by [[Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo]] (1901–1987)
*[[Tawhid]], concept of indivisible oneness in [[Islam]]
{{Div col end}}

; People associated with panentheism

{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Gregory Palamas]] (1296–1359), Byzantine Orthodox theologian and hesychast
*[[Baruch Spinoza]] (1632–1677), Dutch philosopher of Sephardi-Portuguese origin
*[[Alfred North Whitehead]] (1861–1947), English mathematician, philosopher, and father of process philosophy
*[[Charles Hartshorne]] (1897–2000), American philosopher and father of process theology
*[[Arthur Peacocke]] (1924–2006), British Anglican theologian and biochemist
*[[John B. Cobb]] (b. 1925), American theologian and philosopher
*[[Mordechai Nessyahu]] (1929–1997), Jewish-Israeli political theorist and philosopher of [[Cosmotheism]]
*[[Sallie McFague]] (1933–2019), American feminist theologian, author of ''Models of God'' and ''The Body of God''
*[[William Luther Pierce]] (1933–2002), American political activist and self-proclaimed cosmotheist
*[[Rosemary Radford Ruether]] (b. 1936), American feminist theologian, author of ''Sexism and God-Talk'' and ''Gaia and God''
*[[Jan Assmann]] (b. 1938), German Egyptologist, theorist of Cosmotheism
*[[Leonardo Boff]] (b. 1938), Brazilian liberation theologian and philosopher, former Franciscan priest, author of ''Ecology and Liberation: A New Paradigm''
*[[Matthew Fox (priest)]] (b. 1940), American theologian, exponent of Creation Spirituality, expelled from the Dominican Order in 1993 and received into the Episcopal priesthood in 1994, author of ''Creation Spirituality'', ''The Coming of the Cosmic Christ'' and ''A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity''
*[[Marcus Borg]] (1942–2015), American New Testament scholar and theologian, prominent member of the [[Jesus Seminar]], author of ''The God We Never Knew''
*[[Richard Rohr]] (b. 1943), American Franciscan priest and spiritual writer, author of ''Everything Belongs'' and ''The Universal Christ''
*[[Carter Heyward]] (b. 1945), American feminist theologian and Episcopal priest, author of ''Touching our Strength'' and ''Saving Jesus from Those Who Are Right''
*[[Norman Lowell]] (b. 1946), Maltese writer and politician, self-proclaimed cosmotheist
*[[John Polkinghorne]] (1930–2021), English theoretical physicist and theologian
*[[Michel Weber]] (b. 1963), Belgian philosopher
*[[Thomas Jay Oord]] (b. 1965), American theologian and philosopher
{{Div col end}}

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* Ankur Barua, "God’s Body at Work: Rāmānuja and Panentheism," in: ''[[International Journal of Hindu Studies]]'', 14.1 (2010), pp.&nbsp;1–30.
* Philip Clayton and Arthur Peacock (eds.), ''In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being; Panentheistic Reflections on God's Presence in a Scientific World'', Eerdmans (2004)
* Bangert, B.C. (2006). ''Consenting to God and nature: Toward a theocentric, naturalistic, theological ethics,'' Princeton theological monograph ser. 55, Pickwick Publications, Eugene.
* Cooper, John W. (2006). ''Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers'', Baker Academic {{ISBN|9780801027246}}
* Davis, Andrew M. and Philip Clayton (eds.) (2018). ''How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere'', Monkfish Book Publishing {{ISBN|9781939681881}}
* Thomas Jay Oord (2010). ''The Nature of Love: A Theology'' {{ISBN|978-0-8272-0828-5}}.
* Joseph Bracken, "Panentheism in the context of the theology and science dialogue", in: ''Open Theology'', 1 (2014), 1–11 ([http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opth.2014.1.issue-1/opth-2014-0001/opth-2014-0001.xml?format=INT online]).
* {{cite book
|last            = Marbaniang
|first           = Domenic
|title           = Epistemics of Divine Reality
|year            = 2011
|publisher       = POD
|isbn            = 9781105160776
|ref             = Marbaniang2011
}}
* Hiršs, Andris (2024). Influence of personalism on Latvian theory up to the early twentieth century: substantiality and panentheism. ''Studies in East European Thought''. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-024-09678-7 Text:https://rdcu.be/dXVTG

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|panentheism}}
{{EB1911 poster|Panentheism}}
* {{cite SEP |url-id=panentheism |title=Panentheism |last=Culp |first=John}}<!-- content not found:* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-150936448344699981&q=quantum&time=1260000 Arthur Peacocke], winner of the 2001 [[Templeton Prize]] and theology faculty member at Oxford University -->
<!-- content not found: *[http://christiancadre.org/topics/panentheism.html Christian Cadre, Panentheism Anyone?] -->
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111016125921/http://wildfaith.homestead.com/mcdaniel.html Dr. Jay McDaniel on Panentheism] 
* [http://www.frimmin.com/faith/godinall.html ''Biblical Panentheism: The “Everywhere-ness” of God—God in all things'', by Jon Zuck] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219022706/http://www.frimmin.com/faith/godinall.html |date=2008-02-19 }}
<!-- content not found: *[http://www.panentheism.com Symbiotic Panentheism] -->
* [http://meaningoflife.tv/video.php?speaker=polkinghorne&topic=complete John Polkinghorne on Panentheism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510051426/http://origins.meaningoflife.tv/video.php?speaker=polkinghorne&topic=complete|date=May 10, 2021}}
* [http://spiritualminded.blogspot.com/ ''The Bible, Spiritual authority and Inspiration''&nbsp;– Lecture by Tom Wright] at ''Spiritual Minded''
<!-- content not found: *[http://www.uj.edu/Media/Images/SCM/ContentUnit/3078_9_6695.pdf ''Panentheism Sources in Judaism'' compiled by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson] -->

{{Theism}}
{{Belief systems}}
{{Theology}}
{{Paganism}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Panentheism| ]]
[[Category:Christian universalism]]
[[Category:Kabbalah]]