Editing Pantheism (section)

==History==
===Pre-modern times===
Early traces of pantheist thought can be found within animistic beliefs and tribal religions throughout the world as an expression of unity with the divine, specifically in beliefs that have no central [[polytheist]] or [[monotheist]] personas.  [[Hellenistic]] theology makes early recorded reference to pantheism within the [[ancient Greek religion]] of [[Orphism (religion)|Orphism]], where ''pan'' (the all) is made cognate with the creator God [[Phanes]] (symbolizing the universe),<ref>Damascius, referring to the theology delivered by Hieronymus and Hellanicus in {{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/af/af12.htm|title=''The Theogonies''|work=sacred-texts.com}}:"... the theology now under discussion celebrates as Protogonus (First-born) [Phanes], and calls him Dis, as the disposer of all things, and the whole world: upon that account he is also denominated Pan."</ref> and with [[Zeus]], after the swallowing of Phanes.<ref>Betegh, Gábor, ''The Derveni Papyrus'', Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 176–178 {{ISBN|978-0-521-80108-9}}</ref>

Pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the [[Middle Ages]].<ref name=Worman/> These included the beliefs of mystics such as [[Ortlieb of Strasbourg]], [[David of Dinant]], [[Amalric of Bena]], and [[Meister Eckhart|Eckhart]].<ref name=Worman/>{{rp|pp. 620–621}}

The [[Catholic Church]] has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy.<ref>Collinge, William, ''Historical Dictionary of Catholicism'', Scarecrow Press, 2012, p 188, {{ISBN|9780810879799}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-pantheism|title=What is pantheism?|work=catholic.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801114835/https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-is-pantheism|archive-date=1 August 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref> [[Sebastian Franck]] was considered an early Pantheist.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KPbWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+first+pantheist%22 |title=The Two Eyes of Spinoza & Other Essays on Philosophers – Leszek Kołakowski – Google Books |date=2009-06-11 |isbn=9781587318757 |accessdate=2022-10-08|last1=Kołakowski |first1=Leszek |publisher=St. Augustine's Press }}</ref> [[Giordano Bruno]], an Italian friar who evangelized about a transcendent and infinite God, was burned at the stake in 1600 by the [[Roman Inquisition]]. He has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science.<ref>McIntyre, James Lewis, ''Giordano Bruno'', Macmillan, 1903, p 316.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.science20.com/science_20/bruno_was_martyr_magic_not_science-115582|title=Bruno Was a Martyr for Magic, Not Science &#124; Science 2.0|date=27 August 2014}}</ref>

The Hindu philosophy of [[Advaita Vedanta]] is thought to be similar to pantheism. The term ''Advaita'' (literally "non-secondness", but usually rendered as "[[Nonduality (spirituality)|nondualism]]",{{sfn|Deutsch|1988|p=3}}{{sfn|Milne|1997}} and often equated with [[monism]]{{refn|group=note|name=Monism|Form of monism: 
* {{harvnb|Malkovsky|2000|p=71}}: "The interpretation of advaita that is the most common equates non-duality with monism and acosmic illusionism. Only the Absolute, or the paraa brahma, is said to exist; everything else is but an illusory appearance." 
* {{harvnb|Menon|2012}}: "The essential philosophy of Advaita is an idealist monism, and is considered to be presented first in the Upaniṣads and consolidated in the Brahma Sūtra by this tradition."
* {{harvnb|King|1995|p=65}}: "The prevailing monism of the Upanishads was developed by the Advaita Vedanta to its ultimate extreme."
* {{harvnb|Mohanty|1980|p=205}}: "Nyaya-Vaiseshika is realistic; Advaita Vedanta is idealistic. The former is pluralistic, the latter monistic."}}) refers to the idea that ''[[Brahman]]'' alone is ultimately [[Satya|real]], while the transient [[phenomenon (philosophy)|phenomenal world]] is an illusory appearance (''[[Maya (religion)|maya]]'') of Brahman. In this view, ''[[Jiva|jivatman]]'', the experiencing self, is ultimately non-different ("na aparah") from ''[[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]]-[[Brahman]]'', the highest Self or [[ultimate Reality|Reality]].{{sfn|Menon|2012}}{{sfn|Deutsch|1973|p=3, note 2; p.54}}{{sfn|Koller|2013|p=100-101}}{{refn|group=note|name=Brahman|Highest self:
* Shankara, ''Upadesasahasri'' I.18.3: "I am ever-free, the existent" (''[[Sat (Sanskrit)|Sat]]''). I.18.6: "The two [contradictory] notions "I am the Existent-''Brahman''" and "I act," have ''Atman'' as their witness. It is considered more reasonable to give up only [that one] of the two [notions] which arises from ignorance. I.18.7: "The notion, "I am the Existent," arises from right means of knowledge [while] the other notion has its origin in fallacious means of knowledge." ({{harvnb|Mayeda|1992|p=172}})
* ''Brahmajnanavalimala'' Verse 20: "Brahman is real, the universe is mithya (it cannot be categorized as either real or unreal). The jiva is Brahman itself and not different." Translation by S. N. Sastri [https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/snsastri/brahmajnaanaavalimaalaa.pdf]
* {{harvnb|Sivananda|1993|p=219}}: "Brahman (the Absolute) is alone real; this world is unreal; and the Jiva or individual soul is non-different from Brahman."
* {{harvnb|Menon|2012}}: "The experiencing self (jīva) and the transcendental self of the Universe (ātman) are in reality identical (both are Brahman), though the individual self seems different as space within a container seems different from space as such. These cardinal doctrines are represented in the anonymous verse "brahma satyam jagan mithya; jīvo brahmaiva na aparah" (Brahman is alone True, and this world of plurality is an error; the individual self is not different from Brahman)."
* {{harvnb|Deutsch|1973|p=54}}: "[the] essential status [of the individual human person] is that of unqualified reality, of identity with the Absolute [...] the self (''jiva'') is only misperceived: the self is really Brahman."
* {{harvnb|Koller|2013|pp=100–101}}: "Atman, which is identical to Brahman, is ultimately the only reality and [...] the appearance of plurality is entirely the work of ignorance [...] the self is ultimately of the nature of Atman/Brahman [...] Brahman alone is ultimately real."
* {{harvnb|Bowker|2000a|loc="Advaita Vedanta"}}: "There is only Brahman, which is necessarily undifferentiated. It follows that there cannot even be a difference, or duality, between the human subject, or self, and Brahman, for Brahman must be that very self (since Brahman is the reality underlying all appearance). The goal of human life and wisdom must, therefore, be the realization that the self (ātman) is Brahman."
* {{harvtxt|Hacker|1995|p=88}} notes that Shankara uses two groups of words to denote 'atman': "One group - principally ''jiva'', ''vijnanatman'', and ''sarira'' - expresses the illusory aspect of the soul [...] But in addition there are the two expressions ''atman'' and ''pratyagatman''. These also designate the individual soul, but in its real aspect." {{Harvtxt|Mayeda|1992|pp=11, 14}} uses the word ''pratyagatman''; {{harvtxt|Sivananda1993|p=219}}, {{harvtxt|Deutsch|1973|p=54}}, and {{harvtxt|Menon|2012}} use the term ''jiva'' when referring to the identity of ''atman'' and ''Brahman''.}} The ''jivatman'' or individual self is a mere reflection or limitation of singular ''Ātman'' in a multitude of apparent individual bodies.{{sfn|Indich|2000|p=50}}

===Baruch Spinoza===
[[File:Spinoza.jpg|thumb|160px|The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often regarded as pantheism.<ref name=Picton/><ref>*Fraser, Alexander Campbell "Philosophy of Theism", William Blackwood and Sons, 1895, p 163.</ref>]]
In the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza.<ref name=Picton/>{{rp|p.7}} Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese descent raised in the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] community in [[Amsterdam]].<ref name=tws908>{{cite news | first=Anthony |last=Gottlieb | title = God Exists, Philosophically (review of "Spinoza: A Life" by Steven Nadler) | work=The New York Times |date=18 July 1999 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/18/reviews/990718.18gottlit.html | access-date =7 September 2009}}</ref> He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible and the nature of the Divine, and was effectively excluded from Jewish society at age 23, when the [[Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam)|local synagogue]] issued a ''[[Herem (censure)|herem]]'' against him.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/feature/why-spinoza-was-excommunicated|title=Why Spinoza Was Excommunicated|date=2015-09-01|website=National Endowment for the Humanities|language=en|access-date=2017-09-05|archive-date=8 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908105602/https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/septemberoctober/feature/why-spinoza-was-excommunicated|url-status=dead}}</ref> A number of his books were published posthumously, and shortly thereafter included in the Catholic Church's ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Forbidden Books]]''.<ref name=tws9906>{{cite news| title = Destroyer and Builder |magazine=The New Republic | date = 3 May 2012 | url = https://newrepublic.com/book/review/book-forged-hell-spinoza-treatise-steven-nadler| access-date =7 March 2013 }}</ref>

In the posthumously published ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]'', he opposed [[René Descartes]]' famous [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|mind–body dualism]], the theory that the body and spirit are separate.<ref name=Plumptre /> Spinoza held the [[Monism|monist]] view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man" and used the word "God" to describe the unity of all substances.<ref name=Plumptre>{{cite book|last=Plumptre|first=Constance|title=General sketch of the history of pantheism, Volume 2|year=1879|publisher=Samuel Deacon and Co|location=London|isbn=9780766155022|pages=3–5, 8, 29}}</ref> This view influenced philosophers such as [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], who said, "You are either a [[Spinozism|Spinozist]] or not a philosopher at all."<ref name="Hegel's History of Philosophy">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESNZ3TUdN40C&pg=PA144 |title=Hegel's History of Philosophy |access-date=2 May 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110513033919/https://books.google.com/books?id=ESNZ3TUdN40C&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=%22you+are+either+a+spinozist+or+not+a+philosopher+at+all%22&source=bl&ots=XRsqJEbyNT&sig=bCClaJ9V6lL_CJbOR-S3zaGwHqo&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result| archive-date= 13 May 2011 | url-status= live|isbn=9780791455432 |year=2003 |publisher=SUNY Press }}</ref> Spinoza earned praise as one of the great [[rationalism|rationalists]] of [[17th-century philosophy]]<ref>Scruton 1986 (2002 ed.), ch. 2, p.26</ref> and one of [[Western philosophy]]'s most important thinkers.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Gilles |last1=Deleuze|title=Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza|date=1990|publisher=Zone Books|chapter=(translator's preface)}} Referred to as "the prince" of the philosophers.</ref> Although the term "pantheism" was not coined until after his death, he is regarded as the most celebrated advocate of the concept.<ref name="Shoham 2010 111">{{cite book|last=Shoham|first=Schlomo Giora|title=To Test the Limits of Our Endurance|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|isbn=978-1443820684|page=111}}</ref> His book, ''Ethics'', was the major source from which Western pantheism spread.<ref name="Genevieve Lloyd 1996"/>

===18th century===
The first known use of the term "pantheism" was in Latin ("pantheismus"<ref name="Taylor"/>) by the English mathematician Joseph Raphson in his work ''De Spatio Reali seu Ente Infinito'', published in 1697.<ref name=Thomson>Ann Thomson; Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment, 2008, page 54.</ref> Raphson begins with a distinction between atheistic "panhylists" (from the Greek roots ''[[wikt:pan-|pan]]'', "all", and ''[[wikt:hyle|hyle]]'', "matter"), who believe everything is matter, and Spinozan "pantheists" who believe in "a certain universal substance, material as well as intelligence, that fashions all things that exist out of its own essence."<ref>{{cite book|last=Raphson|first=Joseph|title=De spatio reali|year=1697|publisher=Londini|page=2|language=la}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Suttle|first=Gary|title=Joseph Raphson: 1648–1715|url=http://naturepantheist.org/raph-son.html|publisher=Pantheist Association for Nature|access-date=7 September 2012|archive-date=7 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407140352/http://naturepantheist.org/raph-son.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Raphson thought that the universe was immeasurable in respect to a human's capacity of understanding, and believed that humans would never be able to comprehend it.<ref>{{cite book|last=Koyré|first=Alexander|title=From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe|year=1957|publisher=Johns Hopkins Press|location=Baltimore, Md.|isbn=978-0801803475|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fromclosedworldt0000koyr/page/190 190–204]|url=https://archive.org/details/fromclosedworldt0000koyr/page/190}}</ref> He referred to the pantheism of the [[Ancient Egypt|Ancient Egyptians]], [[History of Iran|Persians]], [[Syrians]], [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]], [[Ancient Greece|Greek]], [[History of India|Indians]], and Jewish [[Kabbalists]], specifically referring to Spinoza.<ref name="T Bennet">{{cite book|last1=Bennet|first1=T|title=The History of the Works of the Learned|date=1702|publisher=H.Rhodes|page=498|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zv0vAAAAYAAJ&pg=498|access-date=28 July 2017}}</ref>

The term was first used in English in a translation of Raphson's work in 1702. It was later used and popularized by [[Irish people|Irish]] writer [[John Toland]] in his work of 1705 ''[[Socinianism]] Truly Stated, by a Pantheist''.<ref name="Dabundo">{{cite book|last1=Dabundo|first1=Laura|title=Encyclopedia of Romanticism (Routledge Revivals)|date=2009|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1135232351|pages=442–443|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMeOAgAAQBAJ|access-date=27 July 2017}}</ref><ref name=Worman/>{{rp|pp. 617–618}} Toland was influenced by both Spinoza and Bruno and had read Joseph Raphson's ''De Spatio Reali'', referring to it as "the ingenious Mr. Ralphson's (sic) Book of Real Space".<ref>Daniel, Stephen H. "Toland's Semantic Pantheism," in John Toland's Christianity not Mysterious, Text, Associated Works and Critical Essays. Edited by Philip McGuinness, Alan Harrison, and Richard Kearney. Dublin, Ireland: The Lilliput Press, 1997.</ref> Like Raphson, he used the terms "pantheist" and "Spinozist" interchangeably.<ref>R.E. Sullivan, "John Toland and the Deist controversy: A Study in Adaptations", Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 193.</ref> In 1720 he wrote the ''Pantheisticon: or The Form of Celebrating the Socratic-Society'' in Latin, envisioning a pantheist society that believed, "All things in the world are one, and one is all in all things ... what is all in all things is God, eternal and immense, neither born nor ever to perish."<ref>{{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=5 September 2012}}</ref><ref>Toland, John, Pantheisticon, 1720; reprint of the 1751 edition, New York and London: Garland, 1976, p. 54.</ref> He clarified his idea of pantheism in a letter to [[Gottfried Leibniz]] in 1710 when he referred to "the pantheistic opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe".<ref name=Worman/><ref name="ReferenceA">Paul Harrison, ''Elements of Pantheism'', 1999.</ref><ref>Honderich, Ted, ''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 641: "First used by John Toland in 1705, the term 'pantheist' designates one who holds both that everything there is constitutes a unity and that this unity is divine."</ref><ref>Thompson, Ann, ''Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment'', Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 133, {{ISBN|9780199236190}}.</ref>

In the mid-eighteenth century, the English theologian [[Daniel Waterland]] defined pantheism this way: "It supposes God and nature, or God and the whole universe, to be one and the same substance—one universal being; insomuch that men's [[soul]]s are only modifications of the divine substance."<ref name="Worman">Worman, J. H., "Pantheism", in ''Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Volume 1'', John McClintock, James Strong (Eds), Harper & Brothers, 1896, pp. 616–624.</ref><ref>Worman cites Waterland, Works, viii, p. 81.</ref> In the early nineteenth century, the German theologian [[Julius Wegscheider]] defined pantheism as the belief that God and the world established by God are one and the same.<ref name=Worman/><ref>Worman cites Wegscheider, ''Institutiones theologicae dogmaticae'', p. 250.</ref>

Between 1785–89, a controversy about Spinoza's philosophy arose between the German philosophers [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]] (a critic) and [[Moses Mendelssohn]] (a defender). Known in German as the ''[[Pantheism controversy|Pantheismusstreit]]'' (pantheism controversy), it helped spread pantheism to many German thinkers.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Giovanni | first1=di | last2=Livieri | first2=Paolo | title=Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi | website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=2001-12-06 | url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friedrich-jacobi/ | access-date=2021-09-25}}</ref>

===19th century===

====Growing influence====
During the beginning of the 19th century, pantheism was the viewpoint of many leading writers and philosophers, attracting figures such as [[William Wordsworth]] and [[Samuel Coleridge]] in Britain; [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], Schelling and Hegel in Germany; [[Knut Hamsun]] in Norway; and [[Walt Whitman]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] and [[Henry David Thoreau]] in the United States. Seen as a growing threat by the Vatican, in 1864, it was formally condemned by [[Pope Pius IX]] in the ''[[Syllabus of Errors]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Pope BI. Pius IX|title=Syllabus of Errors 1.1|url=http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm|website=Papal Encyclicals Online|access-date=28 July 2017|date=9 June 1862}}</ref>

A letter written in 1886 by [[William Herndon (lawyer)|William Herndon]], [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s law partner, was sold at auction for US$30,000 in 2011.<ref name=Letter>{{cite web|title=Sold – Herndon's Revelations on Lincoln's Religion|url=http://www.raabcollection.com/abraham-lincoln-autograph/Abraham-Lincoln-Autograph-Religion/|publisher=Raab Collection|access-date=5 June 2012|first=William|last=Herndon|format=Excerpt and review|date=4 February 1866}}</ref> In it, Herndon writes of the U.S. President's [[Abraham Lincoln and religion|evolving religious views]], which included pantheism.
{{blockquote|"Mr. Lincoln's religion is too well known to me to allow of even a shadow of a doubt; he is or was a Theist and a Rationalist, denying all extraordinary – supernatural inspiration or revelation. At one time in his life, to say the least, he was an elevated Pantheist, doubting the immortality of the soul as the Christian world understands that term. He believed that the soul lost its identity and was immortal as a force. Subsequent to this he rose to the belief of a God, and this is all the change he ever underwent."<ref name=Letter /><ref name=Lincoln>{{cite news|last=Adams|first=Guy|title='Pantheist' Lincoln would be unelectable today|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pantheist-lincoln-would-be-unelectable-today-2269024.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pantheist-lincoln-would-be-unelectable-today-2269024.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=5 June 2012|newspaper=The Independent|date=17 April 2011|location=Los Angeles}}</ref>}}

The subject is understandably controversial, but the letter's content is consistent with Lincoln's fairly lukewarm approach to organized religion.<ref name=Lincoln />

====Comparison with non-Christian religions====
Some 19th-century theologians thought that various pre-Christian religions and philosophies were pantheistic. They thought Pantheism was similar to the ancient Hinduism<ref name=Worman/>{{rp|pp. 618}} philosophy of [[Advaita]] (non-dualism).<ref>Literary Remains of the Late Professor Theodore Goldstucker, W. H. Allen, 1879. p. 32.</ref>

19th-century European theologians also considered [[Ancient Egyptian religion]] to contain pantheistic elements and pointed to Egyptian philosophy as a source of Greek Pantheism.<ref name=Worman/>{{rp|pp. 618–620}} The latter included some of the [[Presocratics]], such as [[Heraclitus]] and [[Anaximander]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Thilly |first=Frank |title=Pantheism |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 18 |editor-last=Hastings |editor-first=James |publisher=Kessinger Publishing |date=2003 |orig-year=1908 |page=614 |isbn=9780766136953}}</ref> The [[Stoics]] were pantheists, beginning with [[Zeno of Citium]] and culminating in the emperor-philosopher [[Marcus Aurelius]]. During the pre-Christian Roman Empire, [[Stoicism]] was one of the three dominant schools of philosophy, along with [[Epicureanism]] and [[Neoplatonism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Armstrong|first=AH|title=The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy|year=1967|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978052104-0549|pages=57, 60, 161, 186, 222}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McLynn|first=Frank|title=Marcus Aurelius: A Life|year=2010|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=9780306819162|page=232}}</ref> The early [[Daoism|Taoism]] of [[Laozi]] and [[Zhuang Zhou|Zhuangzi]] is also sometimes considered pantheistic, although it could be more similar to [[panentheism]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

[[Cheondoism]], which arose in the [[Joseon]] Dynasty of Korea, and [[Won Buddhism]] are also considered pantheistic. The [[Realist Society of Canada]] believes that the [[consciousness]] of the self-aware universe is reality, which is an alternative view of Pantheism.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Realism |publisher=The Realist Society of Canada |url=http://www.realistsocietyofcanada.com/ |access-date=5 February 2022}}</ref>

===20th century===
In the late 20th century, some declared that pantheism was an underlying theology of [[Modern Paganism|Neopaganism]],<ref>{{cite book |first=Margot |last=Adler |title=Drawing Down the Moon |publisher=Beacon Press |date=1986}}</ref> and pantheists began forming organizations devoted specifically to pantheism and treating it as a separate religion.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>
[[File:LuminariesofPantheism.jpg|thumb|left|[[Levi Ponce]]'s ''Luminaries of Pantheism'' mural in Venice, California, for [[The Paradise Project]]]]

===21st century===
[[File:Einstein 1921 portrait2.jpg|thumb|160px|Albert Einstein is considered a pantheist by some commentators.]]
[[Dorion Sagan]], son of scientist and science communicator [[Carl Sagan]], published the 2007 book ''Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature'', co-written with his mother [[Lynn Margulis]]. In the chapter "Truth of My Father", Sagan writes that his "father believed in the God of Spinoza and Einstein, God not behind nature, but as nature, equivalent to it."<ref>Sagan, Dorion, "Dazzle Gradually: Reflections on the Nature of Nature" 2007, p. 14.</ref>

In 2009, pantheism was mentioned in a [[Papal encyclical]]<ref name=Caritas>Caritas In Veritate, 7 July 2009.</ref> and in a statement on New Year's Day, 2010,<ref>{{Cite web |title=43rd World Day of Peace 2010, If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation {{!}} BENEDICT XVI |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20091208_xliii-world-day-peace.html |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=www.vatican.va}}</ref> criticizing pantheism for denying the superiority of humans over nature and seeing the source of man{{'s}} salvation in nature.<ref name=Caritas/>

In 2015, [[The Paradise Project]], an organization "dedicated to celebrating and spreading awareness about pantheism," commissioned Los Angeles muralist [[Levi Ponce]] to paint the 75-foot mural in [[Venice, Los Angeles|Venice]], California, near the organization's offices.<ref name="vp">{{cite web |title=New Mural in Vence: "Luminaries of Pantheism" |url=https://www.venicepaparazzi.com/recent-events-covered/new-mural-in-venice-inspiration-of-pantheism/ |publisher=VenicePaparazzi |access-date=15 October 2020}}</ref>  The mural depicts [[Albert Einstein]], [[Alan Watts]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], [[Terence McKenna]], [[Carl Jung]], [[Carl Sagan]], [[Emily Dickinson]], [[Nikola Tesla]], [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[W.E.B. Du Bois]], [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], [[Rumi]], [[Adi Shankara]], and [[Laozi]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Rod|first=Perry|title=About the Paradise Project|url=https://pantheism.com/about/pantheismcom/|publisher=The Paradise Project|access-date=21 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="Pantheist Vision">{{cite journal |last1=Wood |first1=Harold |title=New Online Pantheism Community Seeks Common Ground |journal=Pantheist Vision |date=Summer 2017 |volume=34 |issue=2 |page=5}}</ref>