pantheism

American  

[pan-thee-iz-uhm] / ˈpæn θiˌɪz əm /

noun

1. the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which the material universe and human beings are only manifestations: it involves a denial of God's personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature.

2. any religious belief or philosophical doctrine that identifies God with the universe.

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pantheism British  

/ ˈpænθɪˌɪzəm /

noun

1. the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which man, nature, and the material universe are manifestations

2. any doctrine that regards God as identical with the material universe or the forces of nature

3. readiness to worship all or a large number of gods

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pantheism Cultural  

1. The belief that God, or a group of gods, is identical with the whole natural world; pantheism comes from Greek roots meaning “belief that everything is a god.”

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pantheistically
  adverb
• pantheist
  noun
• pantheistic
  adjective
• pantheistical
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of pantheism

First recorded in 1700–10; from French panthéisme, equivalent to pan- ( def. ) + theism ( def. )

Explanation

If you believe in pantheism, you see God in the whole world around you. Pantheism is a religious belief that includes the entire universe in its idea of God. A person who follows the religious doctrine of pantheism believes that God is all around us, throughout the whole universe. Pantheism implies a lack of separation between people, things, and God, but rather sees everything as being interconnected. More rarely, pantheism refers to a belief in all gods from all religions, or a tolerance for those beliefs. In Greek, pan means "all" and theos means "god."

Example Sentences

Ruskin’s ill-tempered insistence that drawing is an exercise of virtue was alien to Church’s character, but the same conjunction of extreme naturalism and a sort of vague pantheism is always present.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

Lovecraft’s favorite supernatural short story, “The Willows,” also produced several head-spinning visionary novels around his belief in cosmic pantheism and the supra-human, most notably “The Centaur” and “Julius LeVallon.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 16, 2021

Sometimes our own elite opinion seems to be shopping for a new religion: I have read books in the last year pitching versions of Buddhism, pantheism and paganism to the post-Christian educated set.

From New York Times • Dec. 23, 2017

A more unexpected corollary of Spinoza’s pantheism is that it eliminates the possibility of free will, or of contingency of any kind.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 29, 2016

But from this test, mysticism tends from the start to shut itself off, and so, assuming the experience to be truly religious, ends often in virtual pantheism.

From Theology and the Social Consciousness A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.) by King, Henry Churchill