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    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance
    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance
    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance
    Ebook71 pages1 hour

    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance

    By J. Allanson Picton

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    About this ebook

    This antiquarian volume contains a fascinating treatise on pantheism, with information on its history, significance, variations, and much more. Written in clear, understandable language and full of insightful information on the subject, this book is a must-read for those with an interest in pantheism, and it would make for a worthy addition to collections of allied literature. The chapters of this volume include: 'Pre-Christian Pantheism', 'Indian Pantheism', 'Its Original Doubtful and Unimportant', 'The Secret of Pantheism is Within Us', 'Post-Christian Pantheism', 'Modern Pantheism', etcetera. James Allanson Picton (1832 -1910) was a British author, minister, and Liberal politician. This book is being republished now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned biography of the author.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781447487784
    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance

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    • 5/5
      Regardless of agreement or not, the book helps much in ordering thoughts on Divinity, and offers clear broad-shaped philosophical and theological knowledge.
    • 2/5
      Interesting to read about religion and philosophy from 1905. The author refers to poets, religious texts, and other philosophers as if they all have the same authority on the subjects of God and the Universe. He accepts that science is changing, he accepts evolution. I can't figure if he believes in Pantheism or not, but nice overview, for the early 20th century. Such a treatment would not fly today. I read it because the book caught me eye one the shelf. It's old and pretty.
    • 5/5
      Rather old-fashioned account of the history of Pantheism; nonetheless valuable for its description of the variety of sources contributing to a Pantheist world-view. Picton's chart on the Evolution of Religions shows Pantheism as the ultimate and enlightened completion of what began as mere animism.

    Book preview

    Pantheism - Its Story and Significance - J. Allanson Picton

    RELIGIONS ANCIENT AND MODERN

    PANTHEISM

    Its Story and Significance

    RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN.

    Foolscap 8vo. Is. net per volume.

    IT is intended in this series to present to a large public the SALIENT FEATURES, first of the GREAT RELIGIONS, secondly of the GREAT PHILOSOPHIES, and thirdly of the GREAT LITERARY and ARTISTIC REPUTATIONS of the Human Race.

    PANTHEISM: ITS STORY AND SIGNIFICANCE.

    By J. ALLANSON PICTON, M.A. Author of The Religion of the Universe, etc.

    RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE.

    By Miss JANE HARRISON, Fellow of Newnham College, Author of Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, etc.

    ANIMISM.

    By EDWARD CLODD, Author of Pioneers of Evolution.

    RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA.

    By H. A. GILES, M.A., LL.D. (Aberd.), Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University.

    The following Volumes are in preparation:

    ISLAM. Mr. T. W. ARNOLD, Assistant Librarian, India Office.

    BUDDHISM. 2 vols. Prof. RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D.

    HINDUISM. Mr. T. W. ARNOLD.

    FETISHISM AND MAGIC. Prof. ALFRED C. HADDON, F.R.S.

    THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN. Mr. CHARLES SQUIRE.

    CELTIC RELIGION. Prof. ANWYL.

    SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION. Mr. W. A. CRAIGIE.

    THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. FLINDERS PETRIE. F.R.S.

    THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA, Dr. THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES.

    PANTHEISM

    Its Story and Significance

    BY J. ALLANSON PICTON

    AUTHOR OF "THE RELIGION OF THE

    UNIVERSE THE MYSTERY OF

    MATTER" ETC

    Copyright

    CONTENTS

    PANTHEISM

    FOREWORD.

    Pantheism not Sectarian or even Racial.

    PANTHEISM differs from the systems of belief constituting the main religions of the world in being comparatively free from any limits of period, climate, or race. For while what we roughly call the Egyptian Religion, the Vedic Religion, the Greek Religion, Buddhism, and others of similar fame have been necessarily local and temporary, Pantheism has been, for the most part, a dimly discerned background, an esoteric significance of many or all religions, rather than a denomination by itself. The best illustration of this characteristic of Pantheism is the catholicity of its great prophet Spinoza. For he felt so little antagonism to any Christian sect, that he never urged any member of a church to leave it, but rather encouraged his humbler friends, who sought his advice, to make full use of such spiritual privileges as they appreciated most. He could not, indeed, content himself with the fragmentary forms of any sectarian creed. But in the few writings which he made some effort to adapt to the popular understanding, he seems to think it possible that the faith of Pantheism might some day leaven all religions alike. I shall endeavour briefly to sketch the story of that faith, and to suggest its significance for the future. But first we must know what it means.

    Meaning of Pantheism.

    God is All.

    But not Everything is God.

    Analogy of the Human Organism.

    Pantheism, then, being a term derived from two Greek words signifying all and God, suggests to a certain extent its own meaning. Thus, if Atheism be taken to mean a denial of the being of God, Pantheism is its extreme opposite; because Pantheism declares that there is nothing but God. This, however, needs explanation. For no Pantheist has ever held that everything is God, any more than a teacher of physiology, in enforcing on his students the unity of the human organism, would insist that every toe and finger is the man. But such a teacher, at least in these days, would almost certainly warn his pupils against the notion that the man can be really divided into limbs, or organs, or faculties, or even into soul and body. Indeed, he might without affectation adopt the language of a much controverted creed, so far as to pronounce that the reasonable soul and flesh is one man—one altogether. In this view, the man is the unity of all organs and faculties. But it does not in the least follow that any of these organs or faculties, or even a selection of them, is the man.

    The Analogy Imperfect but Useful.

    If I apply this analogy to an explanation of the above definition of Pantheism as the theory that there is nothing but God, it must not be supposed that I regard the parallelism as perfect. In fact, one purpose of the following exposition will be to show why and where all such analogies fail. For Pantheism does not regard man, or any organism, as a true unity. In the view of Pantheism the only real unity is God. But without any inconsistency I may avail myself of common impressions to correct a common mis-impression. Thus, those who hold that the reasonable soul and flesh is one man—one altogether—but at the same time deny that the toe or the finger, or the stomach or the heart, is the man, are bound in consistency to recognise that if Pantheism affirms God to be All in All, it does not follow that Pantheism must hold a man, or a tree, or a tiger to be God.

    Farther Definition.

    Excluding, then, such an apparently plausible, but really fallacious inversion of the Pantheistic view of the Universe, I repeat that the latter is the precise opposite of Atheism. So far from tolerating any doubt as to the being

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