There is neither Jew nor Gentile [Christian, buddhist, hindu, muslim, catholic, pentecostal, mormon, jehovahs witness, ....], slave nor free, male nor female, but you are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus -Gal.3.28 [you are ALL in the light and ALL in darkness, some MORE, some LESS] Pantheism is the belief that the universe (or nature as the totality of everything) is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God. Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct personal or anthropomorphic god. Pantheism was popularized in the modern era as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza... Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and MONISM is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as A GOD-INTOXICATED MAN, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance. Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate Pantheism is derived from the Greek roots pan (meaning all) and theos (meaning God). There are a variety of definitions of pantheism. Some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God.[4]:p.8 As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism Although the term pantheism did not exist before the 17th century, various pre-Christian religions and philosophies can be regarded as pantheistic. Pantheism is similar to the ancient Hindu philosophy of Advaita (non-dualism) to the extent that the 19th-century German Sanskritist Theodore Goldstücker remarked that Spinozas thought was ... a western system of philosophy which occupies a foremost rank amongst the philosophies of all nations and ages, and which is so exact a representation of the ideas of the Vedanta, that we might have suspected its founder to have borrowed the fundamental principles of his system from the Hindus. Others include some of the Presocratics, such as Heraclitus and Anaximander.[20] The Stoics were pantheists, beginning with Zeno of Citium and culminating in the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius. During the pre-Christian Roman Empire, Stoicism was one of the three dominant schools of philosophy, along with Epicureanism and Neoplatonism.[21][22] The early Taoism of Lao Zi and Zhuangzi is also sometimes considered pantheistic.[18] Johannes Scotus Eriugena was, as much as possible, a Christian pantheist. The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often regarded as pantheism, although he did not use that term.[4][23] The Catholic church regarded pantheism as HERESY.[24] Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who was BURNED AT THE STAKE [a CROSS] in 1600 for heresy, is considered by some to be a pantheist. [Work out your SALVATION in FEAR AND TREMBLING-Phil.2.12] In 1785, a major controversy about Spinozas philosophy between Friedrich Jacobi, a critic, and Moses Mendelssohn, a defender, known in German as the Pantheismus-Streit, helped to spread pantheism to many German thinkers in the late 18th and 19th centuries. For a time during the 19th century pantheism was the theological viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge in Britain; Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Germany; and Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in the United States. Seen as a growing threat by the Vatican, it came under attack 1862 in the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX.... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 05:52:06 +0000