Panentheism (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system which posits that God exists and interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well. Panentheism is distinguished from pantheism, which holds that God is synonymous with the material universe. Briefly put, in pantheism, "God is the whole"; in panentheism, "The whole is in God." This means that the Universe in the first formulation is practically the Whole itself, but in the second the universe and God are not ontologically equivalent.

In panentheism, God is not exactly viewed as the creator or demiurge, but the eternal animating force behind the universe, with the universe as nothing more than the manifest part of God. The cosmos exists within God, who in turn "pervades" or is "in" the cosmos. While pantheism asserts that God and the universe are coextensive, panentheism claims that God is greater than the universe and that the universe is contained within God.

North American Native Peoples (i.e.members of pre-European native ethnic groups, Aboriginal Native Americans such as the nations of the Cree, Iroquois, Huron, Navaho, and others) were and still are largely panentheistic, conceiving of God as both immanent in Creation and transcendent from it. (North American Native writers have also translated the word for God as the Great Mystery or as the Sacred Other) An exception is the Cherokee who were monotheistic but apparently not panentheistic (as the two are not mutually exclusive). Most South American Native peoples were largely panentheistic as well (as were ancient South East Asian and African cultures).[citation needed] The Central American empires of the Mayas, Aztecs as well as the South American Incans (Tahuatinsuyu) were actually polytheistic and had very strong male deities.[citation needed]

Similar to 0 things you like: