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Panentheism: God is Within Us
Author Mark Link tells the story of a little girl who was
standing next to a well with her grandfather. As they lowered a
bucket down into the well for a drink of water, the little girl
asked her grandfather where God lived. In answer to her
question, her grandfather picked her up and held her so that she
could see down into the well. He told her to look in the water
and tell him what she saw, and she told him that she could see
herself in the reflection of the water. Her grandfather told her
that that was where God lived, inside of her.
What a wonderful image of God to share with a young child, that
God isn't out there, somewhere, up in the clouds, impersonal and
beyond us, out of our reach. Rather, God is right here with us,
all around us, within us, part of us. I wish someone had shared
that kind of image of God with me as a child, and told me that
in my own reflection resided an image and dwelling place for
God. I heard very little about God as an all-encompassing
Spirit, part of everything. Instead, I was taught about a
supernatural "God out there" who was separate and apart from me,
distant and available only if I was righteous and good enough.
What that grandfather was teaching his granddaughter was, in
it's simplest form, "Panentheism," a term devised by Karl C. F.
Krause over 150 years ago referring to the concept of God as
being present in everything, and everything being present in
God. For me Panentheism is like thinking of God as an ocean, and
everything else in creation as fish. We all swim in the ocean of
God, and the saline which makes up the ocean is also within our
own bodies, just as our bodies swim within the ocean of God.
It is important to distinguish between Panentheism and the more
familiar concept of Pantheism. The two are quite different, and
it is the middle syllable "en" in the former that is the vital
distinction. Pantheism refers to the belief that God IS
everything and everything IS God. Pantheism asserts that God and
the forces and matter of the universe are equal, and that God
and the sum total of the universe are one and the same.
Alternatively, Panentheism does not maintain that God and the
universe are identical, but that God and creation are intimately
related - present with one another. Panentheism asserts that God
isn't a supernatural being who is separate from creation. Rather
God is a Spirit who is all around us and within us (which also
differs in an important way from the traditional belief in
"Supernatural Theism," which views God as being completely
distinct and removed from creation).
The concept of Panentheism is not a sort of heresy that exists
outside the Christian tradition. In fact it has a basis in
church history and Scripture itself. For instance, it may have
been what Paul was trying to express when he talked about the
God in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).
And it is beautifully articulated in Psalm 139 where it says:
"Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from
your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I
make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings
of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
even there shall your hand lead me, and your
right hand shall
hold me."
Of course there are countless examples of Panentheism outside
Scripture as well. A poignant illustration appears in a scene
from the movie "Patch Adams," which tells the true-life story of
a doctor who was both passionate and unconventional in his
approach to medicine and caring for patients.
While in medical school, Patch befriended and fell in love with
another student. As their relationship grew over the years, so
did her trust in him. She eventually confided in Patch that she
had been sexually abused as a child. She shared that as a young
girl she would look out the window at butterflies in their
cocoons and wish she could become one, metamorphizing into a new
creature to fly away from her pain.
Shortly after she shared her story with Patch she was murdered,
and Patch was devastated. In his grief he considered quitting
medical school, and in one scene he stood over a beautiful cliff
in the mountains raging at God about what had happened,
considering a jump into the abyss beneath him.
His final words to the God "out there" concluded that if he did
jump, "God" (as Patch conceived of "him") wouldn't even care.
With this conclusion, he changed his mind about suicide and
turned away from the cliff, dismissing his supernatural theistic
conception of God and saying in disgust, "Forget it! You aren't
worth it." He then turned around, and there on his medical bag
sitting on a nearby stump perched a butterfly. As he approached
it, the butterfly flew around him and landed on his chest and
then on his finger, and he laughed with pure joy of it before it
flew away.
What a powerful illustration of converting one's view of God
from a supernatural theistic conceptualization to one which
experiences God as present and intimate. As Patch surmised when
he turned away from the cliff, the God "out there" really wasn't
worth it, wasn't worth his faith or belief. But in that moment
with the butterfly, he experienced a relationship with the
Spirit of a living, personal God, who was right there with him
and had been all along.
It has become increasingly difficult for me to believe in and
have a relationship with a supernatural theistic, singularly
transcendent God which I was taught to perceive as being "out
there" and separate from me. In its place has evolved the belief
that a living, breathing, growing faith experience must reject
the notion of God as "another being" who is somehow separate and
apart from me.
Thus I have ultimately traded my traditional belief in the God
"out there" for a relationship with the Spirit of God who dwells
in us and among us and all around us; the God "in whom we live
and move and have our being." Or, in the words of Marcus Borg,
rather than merely believing in God, I now seek relationship
with God, in whose image I am lovingly created, who lives within
me, and within whom I dwell. And that relationship is best
served for me by embracing Panentheism as part of my spiritual
journey.
About the author:
Susan Ryder is a progressive Christian, and an author on a site
for Writing
(http://www.Writing.Com/) - you can see more of her work at
(http://www.sophie.Writing.Com/).
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