Panentheism--The Other God of the Philosophers: From Plato to the Present

by John W. Cooper

Overview

Panentheism has gained popularity among contemporary thinkers. This belief system explains that "all is in God"; as a soul is related to a body, so God is related to the world. In Panentheism—The Other God of the Philosophers, philosopher and theologian John Cooper traces the growth and evolution of this intricate theology from Plotinus to Alfred North Whitehead to the present.

This landmark book—the first complete history of panentheism written in English—explores the subject through the lens of various thinkers, such as Plato, Jürgen Moltmann, Paul Tillich, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Charles Hartshorne, and discusses how panentheism has influenced liberation, feminist, and ecological theologies. Cooper not only sketches the evolution of panentheism but also critiques it; ultimately, he offers a defense of classical theism. This book is for readers who care deeply about theology and think seriously about their faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801049316
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/15/2013
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

John W. Cooper (PhD, University of Toronto) is professor of philosophical theology at Calvin Theological Seminary. He has written Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Anthropology and the Monism—Dualism Debate and Our Father in Heaven: Christian Faith and Inclusive Language for God.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 9

Abbreviations 11

1 Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers 13

Classical Theism, Relational Theology, and "the God of the Philosophers"

The Other God of the Philosophers: The Panentheistic Tradition

The Two Purposes of This Survey

The Intended Readers: Theological Learners

A Preliminary Overview

Basic Terms and Distinctions in Panentheism

2 Panentheism from Plato through Christian Neoplatonism 31

Platonism: Source of Two Theological Traditions

Plato

Stoicism: Naturalistic Pantheism

Neoplatonism

Pseudo-Dionysius and Christian Neoplatonism

John Scotus Eriugena

Meister Eckhart

Nicholas of Cusa

Jakob Bohme

Conclusion

3 Pantheism and Panentheism from the Renaissance to Romanticism 64

Giordano Bruno

Baruch Spinoza

Seventeenth-Century Neoplatonism

Jonathan Edwards

Early German Romanticism: Lessing and Herder

Friedrich Schleiermacher

Conclusion

4 Schelling and Hegel: The Godfathers of Modern Panentheism 90

Background: Kant and Fichte

Schelling

Hegel

Conclusion

5 Nineteenth-Century Proliferation 120

Germany

Karl Krause

Isaak Darner

Gustav Fechner

Hermann Lotze

Otto Pfleiderer

Ernst Troeltsch

England

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Thomas Hill Green

John and Edward Caird

James Ward

Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison

Samuel Alexander

William Ralph Inge and Anglican Theology

The United States

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism

Charles Sanders Peirce

William James

France

Jules Lequier

Charles Renouvier

Henri Bergson

Conclusion

6 Teilhard de Chardin's Christocentric Paneatheism 148

Cosmic Evolution to the Omega Point

Teilhard's Theology: Omega Is God in the Cosmic Christ

Teilhard's Panentheism: "Christian Pantheism"

Conclusion: From Heretic to Prophet

7 Process Theology: Whitehead, Hartshorne, Cobb, and Griffin 165

Alfred North Whitehead

Charles Hartshorne

John Cobb and David Griffin's Christian Process Theology

Process Theology and Free-Will (Open) Theism

Conclusion

8 Tillich's Existential Panentheism 194

Tillich's Correlation of Philosophy and Theology

Tillich's Existential Ontology

Tillich's Doctrine of God and the World

Tillich's Panentheism

9 Diversity in Twentieth-Century Philosophy, Theology, and Religion 213

Philosophers in the Christian Tradition

Martin Heidegger

Hans-Georg Gadamer

Nicolai Berdyaev

Theologians in the Christian Tradition

William Temple

John A. T. Robinson

John Macquarrie

Karl Rabner

Hans Kung

Non-Christian Panentheists

Martin Buber and Judaism

Muhammed Iqbal: Islam

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: Hinduism

Masao Abe and Alan Watts: Zen Buddhism

Starhawk: Wiccan Neopaganism

Conclusion

10 Moltmann's Perichoretic Panentheism 237

Overview

Dialectical Ontology and the Theology of Hope

The Crucified God

The Trinity and the Kingdom

God in Creation: Perichoresis Universalized

The Coming of God

Moltmann's Panentheism as Christian Theology

11 Pannenberg's Panentheistic Force Field 259

Is Pannenberg a Panentheist?

An Overview of His Life and Theology

Pannenberg's Panentheism: The Divine Force Field

Pannenberg's Historical-Trinitarian Panentheism

Conclusion

12 Panentheistic Liberation and Ecological Theologies 282

James Cones Black Theology

Latin American Liberation Theology

Gustavo Gutierrez

Juan Luis Segundo

Leonardo Boff

Feminist-Ecological Theology

Rosemary Rustier

Sallie McFague

Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality

Conclusion

13 Panentheism in Theological Cosmology 301

Barbour's Qualified Process Panentheism

The Uniformitarian Panentheism of Davies

Peacocke's Naturalistic Sacramental Panentheism

Claytons Emergent Personal Panentheism

Polkinghorne's Eschatological Panentheism

Conclusion

14 Why I Am Not a Panentheist 319

The Nature of the Response

The God of the Bible

Doctrinal and Theological Issues

Philosophical Issues

The Biblical Worldview and Redemptive History

Conclusion

Name Index 347

Subject Index 351