spiritual evolution....

[novapsyche]

I can't recall off the top of my head which book it was that introduced me to the term "panentheism", but once I came across it I recognized it as my own views of God. In panentheism, God is seen as both transcendent and immanent, both beyond and within. This is the true traditional stance of Christianity, but in recent centuries only the transcendent aspect has been emphasized.

I've since dropped my identification with animism. I realized that, in panentheism, the concept of animism simply becomes superfluous and unnecessary. It's rendered irrelevant.

Comments

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I find that living in America leaves one with a very skewed impression of normative Christianity.

This I do not doubt. I have only a cursory academic understanding of Catholicism. From the outside looking in, I have to admire the importance of the ritualism of Catholicism. I hope to increase my knowledge soon.

The Divine is in everything, but that does not mean that everything is the Divine.

Despite the lengths I've traveled this past year, I still have a hard time really wrapping my mind around this concept. I think of such a relationship mathematically. In addition, I also see God not only as being in everything, but just being everything. So I would see this as A=A.

I'm also very skeptical when it comes to transubstantiation, for the same reason. If God is the bread already, what does it matter if the bread is no longer viewed as bread but as God? It's the same thing!

Don't listen to me, though. I'm a novice heretic. I've just begun to nibble on the edges of philosophical and theological thought.

[badsede.livejournal.com]

In addition, I also see God not only as being in everything, but just being everything

From this perspective, transubstantiation *doesn't* make any sense. Unless the Creator and the creation are distinct, the substantio cannot change from one to the other. There is simply no room for transubstantiation in Monism (everything is God), but the Catholic view is not a Monist view.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

There is simply no room for transubstantiation in Monism (everything is God), but the Catholic view is not a Monist view.

*nod* I got that impression. Lately, I've come to describe my personal cosmology as a dualistic monism. I would guess this is closer to Taoism than anything else. And I know that Catholicism is certainly not Taoism!

Re:

[badsede.livejournal.com]

Well, both have followers, that's one similarity. ;)