Monism - Monism, Pantheism, and Panentheism

Monism, Pantheism, and Panentheism

Following a long and still current tradition H.P. Owen (1971: 65) claimed that

"Pantheists are ‘monists’...they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it."

Most pantheists are monists because they believe all of reality is one substance, called God or Nature. Dualist pantheism, however, rejects monism. Some of the most famous pantheists are the Stoics, Giordano Bruno and Spinoza. In addition, monists can be Deists, Pandeists, Theists, Naturalists, or Panentheists; believing in a monotheistic god that is omnipotent and all-pervading, and both transcendent and immanent. There are monist pantheists and panentheists in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism (particularly in Advaita and Vishistadvaita), Judaism (monistic panentheism is especially found in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy), and in Islam (among the Sufis, especially the Bektashi).

While pantheism means that the totality of all that exists is God, panentheism means All is in God, the divine being both immanent and transcendent. Such a concept, some may argue, is more compatible with God as personal while not barring a bridge between God and creation. Paul Tillich has argued for such a concept within Christian theology, as has liberal biblical scholar Marcus Borg and mystical theologian Matthew Fox, an Episcopal priest. See Creation Spirituality.