The Image of God in Western (Christian) Panentheism: A Critical Evaluation from the Point of View of Classical Theism

A considerable group of contemporary philosophers and theologians—including those engaged in the science-theology dialogue, such as Barbour, Clayton, Davies, and Peacocke—supports panentheism, i.e., a theistic position which assumes that the world is in God, who is yet greater than everything he cre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tabaczek, Mariusz 1980- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Netherlands 2022
In: Sophia
Year: 2022, Volume: 61, Issue: 3, Pages: 611-642
Further subjects:B Divine Action
B Panentheism
B Classical Theism
B Transcendence and immanence of God
B science and theology
B God-world relationship
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:A considerable group of contemporary philosophers and theologians—including those engaged in the science-theology dialogue, such as Barbour, Clayton, Davies, and Peacocke—supports panentheism, i.e., a theistic position which assumes that the world is in God, who is yet greater than everything he created. They see it as a balanced middle ground between the positions of classical theism and pantheism. In this article, I offer a presentation and a critical evaluation of the most fundamental principles of panentheism from the point of view of classical theism. First, I list six main species of panentheism and the motivations of those who support it. In the second part, I analyze the three main difficulties concerning its ontological and theological principles, i.e., (1) the meaning of the preposition ‘in’ (en) in ‘panentheism’; (2) the accuracy of panentheistic definition of divine immanence, and (3) the question of whether panentheism is successful in protecting God’s transcendence. I conclude that panentheism fails as a Christian theistic position. Nevertheless, it might still be valuable and play an important role in addressing the cognitive drama of the modern human beings, often seduced by secular (scientific) or spiritual naturalism, or pantheism.
ISSN:1873-930X
Contains:Enthalten in: Sophia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11841-021-00848-2