Pantheism and Panentheism

Pantheism and panentheism are recently defined terms to differentiate views of the relationship between god and the world that are different from theism.

These terms are inteded to reflect the all inclusiveness of god in contrast to the separateness emphasised in theisms. However, pantheism and panentheism are subsets of theism which recognises the presence of god. Pantheism differentiates the identity between god and the world; panentheism proposes the inclusiveness of the world in god while god is more than the world.

Pantheism and panentheism may be explored by contrast with the eight perspectives of traditional theism:

of immanence or transcendence (pantheisms having god closer to the world rather than remote from it, panentheism allowing for both states);
of monism, dualism, or pluralism (pantheism being typically monistic, panentheism allowing for all three);
of time or eternity (pantheism understanding god and the world to be a temporal in fact irrespective of the illusion of time, theism understanding the world to be temporal but god to be atemporal, panentheism allowing for both states together);
of the world as sentient or insentient (pantheism and panentheism tending away from materialism and towards panpsychism);
of God as absolute or relative (thesim understands god to be absolute but the world relative, pantheism understands the world to be relative and absolute, god to be absolute and panentheism understands god and the world to be relative and absolute);
of the world as real or illusory (generally the world is part of reality, but different forms of each doctrine the world has varying degrees of reality);
of freedom or determinism (pantheism and thesim generally understand the future to be determined, panentheism understands god and the world to be freely choosing the future together); and
of sacramentalism or secularism (secularism is more predominant in doctines understanmding separateness of god and the world; sacramentalism is understodd as far as the world is part of god, thesim is basically sacramental but keeps this quality in its own space (church).

Of the dominant religious doctrines today, many Hindu and Buddhist doctrines display degrees of pantheism or panentheism. The other three, Christianity, Islam and Judaism do not. However, ancient Middle Eastern doctrines whcih evolved in to Judaism and Christianity where pantheistic or panentheistic. In Asia, the pantheistic gods came to dominate, in the Middle East the theistic gods came to dominate.

Of twentieth-century pantheistic/panentheistic doctrines, the organismic analogy provides perhaps the most definitive analysis of panentheism. In this analysis, the world is included in god in the same way that cells are part of an organism. The cells may be autonomous in themselves but they function as part of the whole organism.

While pantheistic and theistic doctrines have the similar advantages of encompasing a range of beliefs and understandings, their absolute aspects make justification often difficult. Modern philosphy therefore often leans to panentheism as a compromise to the bias of other views.

Spiritual Systems				Main Religions
Agnosticism	Atheism	Monotheism	Polytheism	Buddhism	Islam
Ancestor	Deism	Naturism	Theism	Christianity	Judaism
Atheism	Dualism	Pantheism	Totemism	Hinduism