Immanentist

Immanentist refers to a person or doctrine that emphasizes immanence—the idea that the divine or ultimate reality is present within the world and does not stand apart from it. In this sense, immanence implies that God, life force, or the fundamental order of reality is accessible through reason, experience, or everyday practice rather than exclusively through revelation, transcendence, or other-worldly separation.

Etymologically, immanentism centers on immanence as a characteristic of reality. The term is used across philosophy and theology to describe positions in which the sacred or ultimate reality is conceived as inherent to the material world, nature, or human experience. It is often contrasted with transcendence, which locates the divine beyond or apart from the world.

Historically, immanence has played a significant role in various traditions. In Spinoza’s pantheism, God and Nature are identical and divinity is wholly immanent in the world. In other monistic or panentheistic streams, the sacred is regarded as inseparable from the fabric of reality. In modern philosophy, immanence can be invoked to explain how meaning, value, or causation arise from within experience and nature rather than from a separate, transcendent realm. In contemporary discourse, immanence is also discussed in process theology, phenomenology, and related spiritualities that stress present experience, embodiment, and interdependence.

Usage of the term varies by context, and immanentist is not tied to a single school. It describes adherents who stress immanence in theology, metaphysics, or ethics and may appear in debates on naturalism, religious pluralism, and the relation between faith and reason.