Friday, April 29, 2005
Nonsense
SmartChristian is wondering what people think about an emerging school of thought called "panentheism." Here's a definition
In general, people are drawn to those metaphors that seem to best capture the relationship they believe God has with the world. In both classical theism and deism, God created the world out of nothing and, therefore, transcends it in the sense that God is not essentially affected by it and could exist just as well without it.Sounds like drivel to me. But things become really enlightening when one reaches the end of the article.
At the other end of the spectrum, pantheism rejects divine transcendence entirely, regarding the world and God as identical. Christianity is not the only religion to have proponents of this unified view. Kabbalistic Judaism and Advaita Vedanta Hinduism share it as well.
Panentheism stakes out the middle ground. ?A pantheist would say, ?God is in all creation but that?s because God is all creation,?? according to Thomas J. Oord, a professor of theology and philosophy at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho, and contributing editor for Science & Theology News. ?A panentheist would say that God is in all creation, but God is more than creation.? In other words, God is both immanent and transcendent.
Theologians and scientists alike have found that panentheism provides a compelling case for environmental stewardship.Sounds like the issue driving the theology or philospohy rather than the other way around. Doesn't that sort of belie a stance that God is what we make Him? Not much of a God to me.
