A couple of weeks ago in a footnote to the post The Big Bounce I mentioned panentheism, the belief that God is in and through and part of everything, the conviction that God’s essence permeates all creation. (Go here for some thought-provoking articles by Franciscan father Richard Rohr.)
For me and many others, scientific advances like new discoveries in the field of quantum physics and geneticists mapping the genome as events that have created paradigm shifts in how we see the universe and our place in it, which (because I am an existentialist by hard-wiring) I think inevitably leads to shifts in how we think of God, or hearkening back to Barry Taylor’s poetic description, maybe the blanket we’ve thrown over mystery changes its shape yet again.
On the other hand, pantheism is a belief that the universe and nature are God. It’s a fine distinction, I know, but one that matters. Rohr writes about it this way: “Note that I’m not saying God is all things (pantheism), but that each living thing reveals some aspect of God. God is both greater than the whole of our universe, and as Creator inter-penetrates all created things (panentheism). No exceptions.”
There is a wideness to Rohr’s description of panentheism, and the implication of divine agency at work in every atom and every particle and every bit of energy in this infinite universe. I invite you to just sit with that and ponder what it means to you.
Back next week with resuming the journey through Old Testament stories and unpacking big-picture meaning.
I remember contemplating that idea when reading Siddhartha.