Naturalistic pantheism

The term "pantheism" is derived from the Greek words pan (Greek: πᾶν), meaning "all," and theos (Greek: θεός), meaning God. It was coined by Joseph Raphson in his work De spatio reali, published in 1697.Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54. The term was introduced to English by Irish writer John Toland in his 1705 work Socinianism Truly Stated, By A Pantheist, which described pantheism as the "opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe".{{cite web|last=Harrison|first=Paul|title=Toland: the father of modern pantheism|url=http://www.pantheism.net/paul/history/toland.htm|work=Pantheist History|publisher=World Pantheist Movement|access-date=7 September 2012}} The term "naturalistic" derives from the word "naturalism", which has several meanings in philosophy and aesthetics.A Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. T. Mautner, Blackwell, 1996 In philosophy, the term frequently denotes the view that everything belongs to the world of nature and can be studied with the methods appropriate for studying that world, i.e., the sciences.Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Honderich, Oxford University Press, 1995 It generally implies an absence of belief in supernatural beings.

Joseph Needham, a modern British scholar of Chinese philosophy and science, identified Taoism and the technology of the Wuxing as "a naturalistic pantheism which emphasizes the unity and spontaneity of the operations of Nature".Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2, Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, 1956, p. 38 This philosophy can be dated to the late 4th century BCE.Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. (London and New York: Routledge, 2004). p. 61. {{ISBN|978-0-415-26321-4}} The Hellenistic Greek philosophical school of Stoicism (which started in the early 3rd century BCE)[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/ Stoicism], Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. rejected the dualist idea of the separate ideal/conscious and material realms, and identified the substance of God with the entire cosmos and heaven. However, not all philosophers who did so can be classified as naturalistic pantheists.{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=John W.|title=Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers: From Plato to the Present|year=2006|publisher=Baker Academic|page=16|quote=Naturalistic pantheism anticipates Bruno, Spinoza, Toland, Einstein (not Schelling, Hegel) defining God in terms of Nature should not be construed as naturalistic pantheism. By "Nature" Eriugena means something like "Reality" rather than the mere physical universe. "But his position is in fact closer to the naturalistic pantheism of ancient Stoicism. The World-Soul is not a higher reality that generates the physical world but the rational causal agent immanent in the world"...}}

Naturalistic pantheism was expressed by various thinkers, including Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake for his views.Turner, William (prof. of philosophy at the Catholic University), "History of Philosophy", 1903, p. 429 The 17th-century Jewish Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza became particularly known for it, receiving a herem for his work. In 1705, the Irish writer John Toland endorsed a form of pantheism in which the "God-soul" is identical with the material universe."Materialism in Eighteenth-Century European Thought" in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 2005, ed. Peter Machamer and Francesca di PoppaThe Middle Works of John Dewey, Volume 2, SIU Press, 1976, p. 184 German naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919)"Ernst Haeckel – Britannica Concise" (biography), Encyclopædia Britannica Concise, 2006, Concise. Britannica.com webpage: [http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9366404/Ernst-Haeckel CBritannica-Haeckel] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111013059/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9366404/Ernst-Haeckel |date=2006-11-11 }}. proposed a monistic pantheism in which the idea of God is identical with that of nature or substance.The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Volume 7, Anson D.F. Randolph, 1896, p217 The World Pantheist Movement, started in 1999, describes naturalistic pantheism as including reverence for the universe, realism, strong naturalism, and respect for reason and the scientific method as methods of understanding the world.{{cite web|title=Is your spiritual home right here on Earth?|url=http://www.pantheism.net|publisher=World Pantheist Movement|access-date=7 September 2012}} Paul Harrison considers its position the closest modern equivalent to Toland's.

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• Anima mundi
• Animism
• Classical pantheism
• Deism
• Gaia hypothesis
• Metaphysical naturalism
• Naturalism (philosophy)
• Philosophical realism
• Religious naturalism

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