panteistes

Pantheists are adherents of pantheism, a philosophical and theological position that identifies the divine with the universe or regards the divine as immanent in all things. In this view, God is not a transcendent, personal creator distinct from creation; instead, God and the totality of existence are essentially one. Sacredness is found in nature and the cosmos, not in a separate deity whose will governs events from above.

Origins of pantheistic ideas can be traced to ancient philosophies and mysticism, but modern pantheism is especially associated with the 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose view of God or Nature (Deus sive Natura) equates God with the natural world. Other precursors include certain strands of Heraclian and Stoic thought and Giordano Bruno. In the 18th and 19th centuries, pantheistic and naturalistic ideas influenced Romantic and liberal religious currents; in the 20th century, naturalistic and secular forms of pantheism persisted and broadened through science-informed and eco-spiritual aesthetics.

In contemporary usage, pantheism is commonly invoked by individuals who value science, nature, and a non-personal or non-theistic sense of the divine. It is distinguished from panentheism, which holds that God pervades the universe but also transcends it, and from atheism or theism, which posit a personal deity either independent of or irreconcilable with the natural world.

See also: Panentheism, Monism, Naturalism.