About Providence, Divine Action and the Church


In this blog, Terry J. Wright posts thoughts and shares research on the Christian doctrine of providence. This doctrine testifies to God’s provision for all things through creation’s high priest, the man Christ Jesus. However, the precise meaning and manner of this provision is a perpetually open question, and this blog is a forum for discussion of the many issues relating to providence and the place of the Church within God’s action.

Thursday, 28 November 2013

A New Book on Panentheism

There’s a new book on panentheism due out next year. Here’s the blurb:

Panentheism Across the World’s Traditions
Edited by Loriliai Biernacki and Edited by Philip Clayton
OUP USA 240 pages | 235x156mm 978-0-19-998990-4 | Paperback | January 2014 (estimated)

One of the fundamental premises of this groundbreaking collection of essays is that panentheism, despite being unlabeled until the nineteenth century, is not merely a modern Western invention. The contributors examine a number of the worlds established and ancient religious traditions: Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and others to draw out the panentheistic dimensions of these traditions and the possibilities they suggest. Panentheism is not only an esoteric, potentially heretical, and deeply mystical vision of the world’s great religious pasts; it is also a key feature of contemporary global spirituality. As this volume demonstrates, the metaphors and practices associated with modern panentheism speak powerfully to the realities of our evolving species and our evolving technological world. Panentheism’s enticingly heretical vision of the relationship between the divine and matter has historically been denied a serious place in scholarship. As Panentheism Across the World’s Traditions shows, the dynamism between matter and spirit that panentheism offers has had a profound influence in the modern world.

2 comments:

  1. What is "heretical" about any of these ancient and modern understandings?
    Perhaps the left-brained all objectifying power-and-control-seeking religion of Christian-ISM is both a heresy and the primary source/cause of the relentless destruction of the Earth world. And of humankind too!
    Consider this very sobering essay:
    www.beezone.com/AdiDa/Aletheon/ontranscendingtheinsubordinatemind.html
    And particularly part 3 of this extraordinary essay - on the hunter-gatherer motive of our presumed "knowledge".
    www.dabase.org/Reality_Itself_Is_Not_In_The_Middle.htm
    A related essay Space-Time IS Love-Bliss
    http://spiralledlight.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/4068
    Two reference on the drive to total power and control at the root of the entire Western cultural project.
    www.aboutadidam.org/readings/bridge_to_god/index.html
    The Realization of The Beautiful
    www.adidamla.org/newsletters/newsletter-aprilmay2006.pdf
    And of course the website introduced via this essay:
    http://sacredcamelgardens.com/wordpress/wisdom/observe-non-humans-and-learn
    Plus the set of resources available here - all of which are purposed to counter and transform the slick-and-clever-mind that mis-informs Westerners altogether
    www.beezone.com/whiteandorangeproject/index.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wondered when you'd come back...

    I'm not sure why you're asking the question about heresy, when it's the publisher's own blurb that uses the term.

    ReplyDelete

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