Concept in Definition ABC

Pantheism is a approach philosophical according to which the universe and everything that exists is equivalent to God. In other words, that everything is God. In fact, if we attend to the etymology from the term, it comes from the Greek pan, which means everything and from theos, which means God. A similar version of pantheism is panentheism, a philosophical doctrine proposed by the German philosopher Christian Friedrich Kraus in the 19th century.

Pantheism versus panentheism

According to pantheism, the concept of God and the world are equivalent, since God is not found at margin of the world. The ID between God and the world as a single reality implies a criticism of Christianity, since according to the Bible God is the creator of the world, so they are two different concepts. In this sense, pantheism has been accused at times as a form of atheism.

Instead, the doctrine panentheism holds that the idea of ​​God and the world are closely related, but they are not identifiable concepts. Consequently, panentheism defends reciprocity between God and the world, but denies the equivalence between the two.

The philosophical approach to panentheism is an attempt to reconcile two opposing positions: theism and pantheism.

According to theism there is a God who creates the world and from the point of view of pantheism it is not possible to speak of a God who creates the world.

These two views are clearly opposite and, in beginning, irreconcilable. However, panentheism presents a argument that allows to harmonize the two visions: the nature of God has two dimensions in the same being, since on the one hand it is the same as the world and, in parallel, it is something transcendent to the world.

Christianity opposes both pantheism and panentheism

In the Bible the origin of the world is explained from the act of a creator God. Consequently, God is necessarily distinct from and independent of the world. According to Christian theologians, both pantheism and panentheism fall into the error of identifying the idea of ​​God and the world, two concepts that are related but are not equivalent or complementary, since God cannot be the same as what he has created.

According to Christian doctrine, especially Catholic, today there are new forms of pantheism and panentheism. Thus, those ideas that advocate the salvation of man following the dictates of nature put of manifest a disregard for God's role as creator.

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