Pantheism

RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND PANTHEISM Its Story and Significance RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN. Foolscap Sto. is. net - per volume IT is intended in this series to present to a large public the SAL IENT FEATURES, first of the GREAT RELIGIONS, secondly of the GREAT PHILOSOPHIES, and thirdly of the . GREAT LITERARY and ARTISTIC REPUTATIONS of the Human Race. PANTHEISM ITS STORY AND SIGNIFICANCE. ByJ. ALLANSON PICTON, M. A. Author of The Religion of the Universe etc. RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE. By Miss JANE HARRISON, Fellow of Newnham College, Author of Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, etc. ANIMISM. By EDWARD CLODD, Author of Pioneers of Evolution. RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA. By H. A. GILES, M. A., LL. D. Aberd., Professor ot Chinese at Cambridge University. The following Volumes are in preparation ISLAM. Mr. T. W. ARNOLD, Assistant Librarian, India Office. BUDDHISM, svols. Prof. RHYS DAVIDS, LL. D. HINDUISM. Mr. T. W. ARNOLD. FETISHISM AND MAGIC. Prof. ALFRED C HADDON F. R. S. THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN Mr CHARLES SQUIRE. CELTIC RELIGION. Prof. ANWVL. SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. Mr. W. A, CRAIGIK. THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. FLIN DERS PETRIE. F. R. S. THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA Dr. THEOPHILUS Gv PINCHES, PANTHEISM Its Story and Significance BY J. ALLANSON PICTON AUTHOR OF U THE RELIGION JO F THK U N I V K R 5 F. T H E M V ST F. K Y t F MATT KM F. TC LONDON ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE CO LTD BUTLER TANNER, THE SELVTOOD PRINTING WORKS FROMB, AND LONDON, CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE FOREWORD 7 I. PRE-CHRISTIAN PANTHEISM. 1.6 II. POST-CHRISTIAN PANTHEISM ..... 47 III. MODERN PANTHEISM . 56 AFTERWORD 70 PANTHEISM FOREWORD. Pantheism PANTHEISM differs from the systems of to or evenbelief constituting the main religions Racial. O f the world in being comparatively free from any limits of period, climate, or race. For while what we roughly call the Egyptian Religion, the Vedic Religion, the Greek Religion, Buddhism, and others of similar fame have been necessarily local and temporary, Pantheism has been, for the most part, a dimly discerned back ground, an esoteric significance of many or all religions, rather than a denomination by it self. The best illustration of this characteristic of Pantheism is the catholicity of its great prophet Spinoza. For he felt BO little antagonism to any Christian sect, that he never urged any member of a church to leave it, but rather encouraged his humbler friends, who sought his advice, to make 7 PANTHEISM full use of such spiritual privileges as they appre ciated most. He could not, indeed, content him self with the fragmentary forms of any sectarian creed. But in the few writings which he made some effort to adapt to the popular understand ing, he seems to think it possible that the faith of Pantheism might some day leaven all religions alike. I shall endeavour briefly to sketch the story of that faith, and to suggest its significance for the future. But first we must know what it means. Meaning of Pantheism, then, being a term de-Pantheism. r ve j from two Greek words signifying all and God, suggests to a certain extent its own meaning. Thus, if Atheism be taken to mean a denial of the being of God, Pantheism is its extreme opposite because Pantheism declares that there is nothing but God. This, however, needs explanation. For no Pantheist has ever held that everything is God, any more urOCl 15 Ail than a teacher of physiology, in en forcing on his students the unity of the human organism, would insist that every toe and finger is the man. But such a teacher, at least in these days, would almost certainly warn his pupils against the notion that the man can be really 8 FOREWORD divided into limbs, or organs, or But not i Everything ties, or even into soul and body. In deed, he might without affectation adopt the language of a much controverted creed, so far as to pronounce that the reasonable soul M a and flesh is one man cc one alto-Analogy of the Human gether...