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Lucretius
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This article might be useful: Transcendence as opposed to reduction | Just Thomism
I think pantheism can stem from a failure to understand the difference between transcendence and reduction.
I think some people are also tempted to pantheism because it preserves the basic “feeling” of divinity, the immanent god, that atheism and deism lack, yet doesn’t critique ones life like theism. This was Chesterton’s point in his book, The Everlasting Man: when people view nature as divine, they view nature as divine…the sun giving life is divine, the sun scorching the slave is divine. Worshiping nature as an idol can lead both to the innocent rites of Jupiter or Apollo and to the sharp knives of Baal or the fires of Moloch. And given the downward impetus of original sin, even the most innocent rites decay, such as the respectable myths of Jupiter decaying into the adulteries of Jupiter, or even to the outright perversion of Ganymede.
Anyway, I believe the correct way to counter the errors of pantheism is to deepen our understanding of theosis, which preserves the feelings and even truth of pantheism, while understanding the truth of the distinction between the nature of the Creator and that of the creature.
God, after all, is three persons utterly distinct from each other, and yet are reducible to one in terms of power, majesty, glory, essence, substance, nature, mind, will, and so forth. Pantheism feels the truth of the latter, the God who is one, but misses the truth of the former, the God who is three.
I think pantheism can stem from a failure to understand the difference between transcendence and reduction.
I think some people are also tempted to pantheism because it preserves the basic “feeling” of divinity, the immanent god, that atheism and deism lack, yet doesn’t critique ones life like theism. This was Chesterton’s point in his book, The Everlasting Man: when people view nature as divine, they view nature as divine…the sun giving life is divine, the sun scorching the slave is divine. Worshiping nature as an idol can lead both to the innocent rites of Jupiter or Apollo and to the sharp knives of Baal or the fires of Moloch. And given the downward impetus of original sin, even the most innocent rites decay, such as the respectable myths of Jupiter decaying into the adulteries of Jupiter, or even to the outright perversion of Ganymede.
Anyway, I believe the correct way to counter the errors of pantheism is to deepen our understanding of theosis, which preserves the feelings and even truth of pantheism, while understanding the truth of the distinction between the nature of the Creator and that of the creature.
God, after all, is three persons utterly distinct from each other, and yet are reducible to one in terms of power, majesty, glory, essence, substance, nature, mind, will, and so forth. Pantheism feels the truth of the latter, the God who is one, but misses the truth of the former, the God who is three.
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