Pantheism is the belief that God is everything, and everything is God. The universe and nature are not separate from God, but are considered divine. Pantheists thus do not believe in a distinct supernatural being, but see the universe itself as divine. There are different interpretations on what pantheists call God, as pantheism has varied forms. But in general, pantheists refer to the unified whole of existence as God, rather than a separate conscious entity.
Etymology of “God” in Pantheism
The word “God” as used by pantheists does not refer to an anthropomorphic creator deity. Rather, it symbolizes the spiritual unity and divinity of existence. The word “God” is used poetically by pantheists to convey a sense of sanctity and reverence towards nature and the universe. Pantheists do not believe God is a distinct being, but equate God with the totality of everything that exists.
The etymology of the word “God” is important in understanding the pantheist view. The word comes from Proto-Germanic “guthan”, which originally meant “that which is invoked.” This meaning is retained in pantheism, where God refers to the sacredness inherent in the natural world and cosmos. The semantics allow pantheists to use the word God symbolically rather than literally.
God as the Universe
Most pantheists equate God with the universe. The universe itself is considered supremely divine, as it is all-encompassing and the source of everything. Since God is not seen as separate from nature, God is another word for the universe and its natural forces. The universe encompasses all of space, time, matter, energy, and the physical laws governing them. Pantheists reverence the beauty, complexity, and grandeur of the universe.
Names for God used by pantheists in this context include “Nature”, “Universe”, “the All”, and “Infinity”. These terms reflect the pantheist view that God equals existence in its totality. The infinite universe represents the supreme divinity and source of all things. Everything is unified and part of the continuous cosmic web.
Quotations
Here are some pantheist quotations illustrating this conception of God:
“Nature is none other than God in things… Animals and plants are living effects of nature; Whence all of God is in all things.” – Giordano Bruno
“The universe is God, for God is intelligence…Intelligence cannot become intelligent unless it gains experience, and so God had to become the universe.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“There is no God separate from the world. The world itself is God.” – Baruch Spinoza
God as Natural Law
Another perspective in pantheism is that God represents the natural laws which govern the functioning of the universe. The laws of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, etc. constitute the will of God as expressed through nature’s rational order and structure.
These immutable laws determine how the physical world operates. They generate the intricate patterns and processes we observe in nature. The laws cause phenomena like planetary motion, light waves, DNA replication, ecosystem dynamics, and countless other natural mechanisms.
Pantheists venerate the eternal laws of nature as the supremely rational and divine ordering principles of an intelligent universe. The miraculous complexity and harmonious functioning of the natural world is attributed to God’s divine laws.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“To sense the law within nature, and to heed that law, is to worship.” – Zenna Henderson
“The laws of nature are the decrees of God.” – Johann Kepler
“The natural laws of the universe are so precise that we have no difficulty building a spaceship to fly to the moon and can time the flight with the precision of a fraction of a second. These laws must have been set by somebody.” – Wernher von Braun
God as the World Soul
Some pantheists believe in an immanent metaphysical entity of which the universe is an expression. This entity animates nature and sustains it from within. It has been termed the “world soul”, “anima mundi”, or “natural divinity”.
God as world soul is understood not anthropomorphically, but as the spiritual essence of living existence. It is the source of abstract ideals like truth, beauty, love, and justice. God is the inner light which illuminates nature through beauty and meaning.
The concept dates back to Plato, who spoke of the world soul and used the term deity “to account for the experience of value, harmony, and integrated meaning in the world.” Later philosophers such as Giordano Bruno and Gottfried Leibniz embraced the idea, influencing pantheism’s development.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this world soul concept include:
“There is a life poured into all things from a common fount, like a mother breathing her spirit into her children.” – Marcus Aurelius
“The soul of the world is nature itself.” – John Toland
“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.” – Albert Einstein
God as the Totality of Existence
Perhaps the simplest pantheist view is that “God” is just another word for all of existence, the totality of everything that is. This avoids metaphysical speculation about a conscious deity or cosmic force animating the world from within. God is the external physical universe itself in its entirety throughout space and time.
In this interpretation, God is not an ethereal spirit or abstract philosophical principle. God is the tangible reality we inhabit and observe empirically – the stars, planets, and galaxies; the oceans, mountains, plants and animals. God is every atom of matter and quantum of energy that makes up the cosmos.
Pantheism in this strict sense relegates God to a poetic synonym one can use for the entirety of the natural world. God does not symbolize anything supernatural, mystical or distinctly spiritual. There is no divine “other”; there is only the physical universe and its contents, which together comprise God.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“Pantheists do not have a belief in a supernatural God at all. We believe that the universe itself is divine. It has no independent conscious power – it is not sentient. It is simply holy, sacred and divine because it is existence itself.” – Harrison Owen
“The pantheist does not deny that the finite exists, but identifies it with the infinitely existent Unity, explaining that the infinite causes the finite to appear.” – Paul Harrison
“God is everything and everything is God.” – Joseph Campbell
God as Existence
Closely related to the concept of God as the totality of existence is the identification of God with existence itself. In pantheism, there is no separation between creator and creation – there is only unified existence.
God is not an entity that created or caused existence. Rather, God simply is bare existence itself, devoid of supernaturalism. The fact anything exists at all, the simple state of being, constitutes the pantheist God.
This interpretation has a long history in philosophical pantheism. The philosopher John Scotus Eriugena defined God simply as “that which exists.” British writer Samuel Coleridge described God as “the sole existence in and through which all things subsist.”
The emphasis is on pure existence as the ultimate reality. Existence requires no rational explanation or cause; it just is. Existence is self-explanatory and self-sustaining. This indivisible oneness of being is God.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“God is to us what we name existence.” – Ludwig Feuerbach
“God is simple Being itself, the Absolute.” – Georg Hegel
“God…a being whose only definition is that he is…the sheer act of being itself.” – Alan Watts
God as the Eternal Energy
Modern physics has led some pantheists to identify God with energy. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be transformed but can neither be created nor destroyed. While matter can change form through chemical and nuclear processes, the total quantity of energy remains the same.
From this perspective, energy is eternal – it had no beginning and will have no end. The constancy of the speed of light and other physical constants are further evidence of the permanence of energy. Like existence itself, energy requires no external cause.
Considering these scientific insights, pantheists associate the eternal indestructibility of energy with qualities traditionally attributed to God. God is infinite, constant, immortal – and so is the energy that drives all activity in the universe. Therefore, the concept of God as eternal energy is coherent with physics.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“God is energy. As energy God expresses and creates itself as the universe.” – Hazrat Inayat Khan
“What is the nature of God?…God is energy without end.” – Bruce Lee
“Einstein showed that matter and energy are dual aspects of the same phenomenon. Matter is concentrated energy. Energy is liberated matter. God is this eternal dance of energy and matter.” – Michael Dowd
God as Love
Some modern pantheists associate God with love. Love drives human relations, impels reproduction, bonds parents with children, and forms the basis of morality. Love seems to transcend material reductionism as an irreducible aspect of human consciousness.
If God is identified not with the observable universe but with its inner essence, this essence may be characterized as love. Love is intangible yet real. Attempts to reduce love to biology miss its deeper spiritual character. The unconditional love of the divine is giving, selfless and sacrificial.
The concept of God as love has philosophical precedents. Hegel described God as “pure Idea that loves itself as absolute mind.” Schleiermacher defined God as “that being who establishes community.” Connecting God with love emphasizes pantheism’s basis in unity, interdependence and reverence for life.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.” – Michael Jackson
“Love is our ultimate reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.” – Gary Zukav
“God is not in strength but in the gentleness and tenderness of love.” – Olatokunboh Adedayo
God as the All
Pantheists sometimes use the term “the All” in place of “God” to emphasize pantheism’s non-theistic foundations. “The All” refers simply to the sum total of existence, the entirety of the universe as a single integrated and interconnected reality.
This avoids the connotations of supernaturalism and mysticism associated with the term “God”. It makes clear that pantheists do not accept the traditional theistic deity – an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent personal creator being who exists outside of nature.
“The All” also signifies the unity of cosmos. Everything is part of one unified system, with all forces, particles and entities interacting and combining in a holistic web. “The All” reinforces pantheism’s central tenet of the unity of all existence in an all-encompassing oneness.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this view include:
“All things come out of the one and the one out of all things. I saw eternity the other night like a great ring of pure and endless light, also like the boundless circle of the stars. And yet the circle had no bounds.” – Henry Vaughan
“The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinite variety of existing phenomena that exist all around us. We are completely dependent on the ever-changing web of life.” – Albert Einstein
“There is nothing but All. The All is entwined into an inseparable totality. It has no parts. If you take away anything it is no more the All.” – John Davidson
God as Holism
Some modern pantheists conceive God as holism – the all-encompassing oneness and interrelation of all existence. Also called “holistic pantheism”, this is the view that the universe and everything in it exists, happens, and evolves as integrated parts within an interconnected whole.
Holism reflects core pantheist values of unity, synthesis and mutual dependence. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Reductionism cannot fully explain nature, as organisms and ecosystems exhibit “emergent” properties beyond their components. Holism parallels common spiritual notions of oneness and integration.
This holistic paradigm is increasingly influential in science. Evidence now supports interdependence and synergy at all levels – quantum, molecular, biological and ecological. Holism is coming to define our relationship with nature. Conceptualizing God as holism thus coheres with modern knowledge in physics, biology and environmentalism.
Quotations
Pantheists expressing this holistic view include:
“The entire cosmos is a continuum. It is not composed of things; it is not composed of particles; it is not composed of atoms; it is not composed even of electrons and protons. It is composed solely and completely of conceptual events.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
“The whole is something other than the sum of its parts. Therefore those who think they can unravel the whole by understanding its parts have cotton wool instead of brains.” – Henri Barbusse
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.” – Albert Einstein
Are Pantheists Polytheistic, Monotheistic or Atheistic?
Pantheism does not neatly fit into traditional Western religious categories. The pantheist equation of God with Nature or the Universe is non-theistic. But pantheists nonetheless consider existence itself sacred and use “God” as a synonym for nature. This combination of reverence with a rejection of theism has led to debate.
Polytheism? Pantheism is not polytheistic, as pantheists do not believe God consists of multiple personal deities. They equate God with the unity of Nature.
Monotheism? Pantheism is not strictly monotheistic. While pantheists use the term “God”, they reject the monotheistic God as a distinct supernatural being separate from the world.
Atheism? Pantheism is not atheistic, as pantheists believe in the sanctity of Nature/Universe and use “God” terminology. However, their concept of God is naturalistic.
Pantheism transcends these categories, reconciling reverence for the Divine Unity with naturalism and rejection of supernatural deities. This combination of sacredness and empiricism makes its theological classification ambiguous.
Conclusion
Pantheists use the term “God” in drastically different ways from traditional Abrahamic religions. God does not refer to an anthropomorphic creator being, but to Nature, Existence, or the Universe itself – conceived as forming an all-encompassing unity. Specific meanings include the totality of existence, the laws of nature, the eternal energy, and holistic unity. This reflects the pantheist attitude of reverence towards Nature, coupled with empiricism and rejection of supernaturalism. The central principles of unity, sacredness, empiricism and naturalism define the pantheist use of the term “God”.