(no subject)
Places to look for pantheistic philosophy:
Vedantic Hinduism
Parmenides
Xenophanes
The Stoics
Dionysius the Areopagite
Amalrich of Bena
John Scotus Erigena
Giordano Bruno
Benedict Spinoza
Johann Fichte
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Arthur Schopenhauer
Alfred North Whitehead and other process theologians, because Process Theology is ohsoveryimportant to pantheism.
Probably lots more, but those are what I could find in just over an hour of searching Google Books.
The major (maaaaaaaaaajor) blot of historical pantheism seems to have been the influence it had on German nationalism: Mankind is the highest form that the Absolute takes, and therefore the highest form of mankind is the closest to the Absolute. Not to mention Darwinism: If God is nature, then evolution is moral. The strong survive, the weak perish; this is natural morality, so we should enforce it in human society.
*shudder*
First, the declaration of humanity as the highest form of existence is just another form of anthropocentrism--which, for modern pantheism, is probably the closest thing to heresy there is.
And second, sure, evolution works by survival of the fittest. And our fittest ancestors were the ones who came equipped with empathy and a moral sense. We ignore these at our peril.
Vedantic Hinduism
Parmenides
Xenophanes
The Stoics
Dionysius the Areopagite
Amalrich of Bena
John Scotus Erigena
Giordano Bruno
Benedict Spinoza
Johann Fichte
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Arthur Schopenhauer
Alfred North Whitehead and other process theologians, because Process Theology is ohsoveryimportant to pantheism.
Probably lots more, but those are what I could find in just over an hour of searching Google Books.
The major (maaaaaaaaaajor) blot of historical pantheism seems to have been the influence it had on German nationalism: Mankind is the highest form that the Absolute takes, and therefore the highest form of mankind is the closest to the Absolute. Not to mention Darwinism: If God is nature, then evolution is moral. The strong survive, the weak perish; this is natural morality, so we should enforce it in human society.
*shudder*
First, the declaration of humanity as the highest form of existence is just another form of anthropocentrism--which, for modern pantheism, is probably the closest thing to heresy there is.
And second, sure, evolution works by survival of the fittest. And our fittest ancestors were the ones who came equipped with empathy and a moral sense. We ignore these at our peril.