Theopanism (Greek: Theos = God, pan = all) was first used as a technical term by the Jesuits in elucidating Hinduism[citation needed]. "[O]ne may distinguish pantheism[citation needed], which imagines the world as an absolute being ("everything is God"), from theopanism, which conceives of God as the true spiritual reality from which everything emanates: "God becomes everything", necessarily, incessantly, without beginning and without end. Theopanism is (with only a few other dualistic systems) the most common way in which Hindu philosophy conceives God and the world."[1]
Theopanism has also been more broadly stated as inclusive of any theological theory by which God is held equivalent to the Universe.[citation needed] As one author puts it: "In theopanism the meaning given the word God is of an entity that is not separate from the universe. Theopanism includes among its major concepts pantheism and panentheism."[2] This broader statement would also include Pandeism.[citation needed]
References [edit]
- ^ Civita Cattolica, 5, July, 1930, pp. 17-8, in Antonio Gramsci, "The Prison Notebooks", p. 121.
- ^ Alvin Jay Reines, Polydoxy: explorations in a philosophy of liberal religion, 1987, page 77.
See also [edit]
