-5-
THE CONCEPTS OF GOD (PANTHEISM AND
PANENTHEISM)
PANTHEISM
All is God: Everything that exists constitutes a unity and this unity is God.
God is immanent, not transcendent to the universe.
God and the universe are somehow identical.
There is not a substantial ontological distinction between God and other beings.
Hence, there is no real distinction between the creator and the created.
In the modern western philosophy, Spinoza is the foremost defender of pantheism.
For Spinoza, there is only one substance which has infinite attributes: Thought and Extension.
The particular beings are modes or manfestations of these infinite attributes.
This eternal and indivisible substance is God.
One can call this Substance God or Nature. (Deus sive Natura).
Still, Spinoza makes a distinction between in Substance and its attributes. Because, by definition substance precedes its attributes.
The distinction between Natura naturans and Natura naturata is another expression of this distinction.
Natura naturans; The eternal, infinite, essential state of God. This is the active nature of God.
Natura naturata; The necessary modes or manifestations of the attributes of God. This is the passive nature of God.
Therefore God is not a transcendent being
distinct from the world, material and
immaterial beings alike.
Pantheism maintains a deterministic view.
The universe is the necessary manifestations of God. The universe cannot/ could not have been otherwise.
According to Spinoza, to attribute will (in the ordinary sense) to God is incompatible with the divine nature.
Everything flow from God’s nature in a
necessary manner.
PANENTHEISM
Panentheism is also known as «Process Theism».
God has personal attributes, but the world is conceived as God’s body.
So, unlike theism, an ultimate ontological distinction between God and the world does not hold.
The world is equally necessary and eternal,
The idea of temporal begining of the universe
is repudiated.
PANENTHEISM
According to Panentheism as defended by Whitehead and Hartshorne God has a dipolar nature: Primordial and
Consequent.
Primordial nature is the first and eternal nature of God beyond all changes.
Consequent nature is the becoming nature of God.
Unlike theism, for the panentheist, God is not absolute or perfect all at once, He is in the process of becoming
perfect. Divine perfection therefore is not absolute but relative and open to further becoming.
Everything in the universe is like cells in the body of God.
God is neither entirely transcendent to the universe, nor entirely immanent in the universe.
While pantheism says “everything is God”, for panentheism
“everything is in God”.
Evaluation
Since, according to panentheism, God is limited in some respects, it is difficult to conceive how it can respond to our philosophical and theological intutions about Divine perfection.
God always transcends himself in time, He seems to be conceived in rather anthropomorfic terms. This also
evident in the consideration that the world is God’d body.
But, given that the world is contingent, such an
identification between God and the world remains as problem for panentheism as well as pantheism.
Given these considerations, it is hard to see how
pantheism as well as panentheism can do justice to the intution of Divine perfection..
