Panentheism and Pantheism

I think of myself as a panentheist. I describe it as God being the “ground of being” as Paul Tillich did.

The line between all theisms remains blurry. According to Christianity God is both transcendent and immiment, i.e., everything arose directly and solely out of God’s will, power, wisdom, and God remains everywhere, so nothing exists apart from God.

Panentheism says much the same thing, that all things are like tiny flamelets emerging from a single fire — the fire is God, and we are the flamelets.

Same with Pantheism to some degree.

So the lines remain blurry no matter what “name” you call yourself.

There are also FOUR TYPES OF “GOD” that people envision in terms of God’s personality and activity vis a vis “the world.” http://edward-t-babinski.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-book-americas-four-gods-what-we-say.html

Which of the four types of “God” do you envision?

I’ve been known to explain panentheism with venn diagrams — classical theism would have, say, a blue circle for God over _here,_ and a red circle for the world over _there,_ while pantheism would have one purple circle; panentheism would have a blue circle with a purple circle inside it. “God in all the world – with leftovers!” 🙂 –which is to say, panentheism offers an understanding in which the Godhead is both immanent and transcendent, both immediately present with us in our lives (all the ‘us,’ not just human beings) *and* other than and beyond us to call us into a transformed/transformative future.