RajputMaster24
Member
Dear Friends, is it true some schools of Ancient Greek philosophy were pantheist? If so which ones and what other religions are pantheist?
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Ancient Greek Religion
- Thread starter RajputMaster24
- Start date
"Ancient Greek Religion" has a term for itself: Hellenismos. (Or just Hellenism.) That is, the religion of the Hellenic (Greek) people.
There might have been some schools of philosophy that were pantheist in Antiquity, but I don't know of any specifically off-hand. I can't imagine they would have been terribly prevalent, though; most of the philosophical schools, from what I understand, were typically limited to a very small population of upper class men; they weren't representative of the general beliefs and practices of the people.
I suppose I could make a terrible pun, though, and say that most Greeks were quite literally "Pan-theists", since so many of them worshiped the Theos Pan.
However, I'd be very surprised if there weren't pantheist Hellenics today. While most of modern Hellenismos is straight up polytheism, there are those who take on various other types of theisms.
As for other religions that are pantheist, well... I'm not sure. Pantheism seems to me to be less an inherent aspect of any specific religion, and more of an interpretation within some religions. I saw it a lot in Hinduism, and I could see it working in most indigenous religions I can think of, like Shen Dao and Shinto.
There might have been some schools of philosophy that were pantheist in Antiquity, but I don't know of any specifically off-hand. I can't imagine they would have been terribly prevalent, though; most of the philosophical schools, from what I understand, were typically limited to a very small population of upper class men; they weren't representative of the general beliefs and practices of the people.
I suppose I could make a terrible pun, though, and say that most Greeks were quite literally "Pan-theists", since so many of them worshiped the Theos Pan.
However, I'd be very surprised if there weren't pantheist Hellenics today. While most of modern Hellenismos is straight up polytheism, there are those who take on various other types of theisms.
As for other religions that are pantheist, well... I'm not sure. Pantheism seems to me to be less an inherent aspect of any specific religion, and more of an interpretation within some religions. I saw it a lot in Hinduism, and I could see it working in most indigenous religions I can think of, like Shen Dao and Shinto.
It seems to me that pretty much any theistic religion that doesn't put a wedge between gods and nature is basically pantheistic. As far as I'm aware, the lack of such a wedge describes most theistic religions, but it just so happens that the numerically dominant religions in Western culture are ones that do put a wedge between god (well, God, more properly) and nature. Of course, these same religions that tend towards pantheism also don't tend to put emphasis on orthodoxy - what is believed about the gods is less important than the ritual behaviors and actions taken towards the gods.
GoodbyeDave
Well-Known Member
If you take pantheism to be something like the Advaita philosophy in Hinduism — the idea that everything a a manifestation of God — then there were some. The Stoics were originally pantheist. But Just as Hindus like Ramanuja and Madva put forward powerful arguments against Advaita, so people like Cicero criticised the Stoics. It didn't help the Stoics that they tried to be (pan)theists and materialists at the same time! By the time of the Roman Empire Stoicism had become just a school of ethical teaching and the metaphysics had been ditched.
The modern Hellenists I've encountered on the internet and whose books I own are all, like me, polytheists, but obviously that doesn't mean that there isn't a pantheist lurking somewhere and calling themself Hellenic!
The modern Hellenists I've encountered on the internet and whose books I own are all, like me, polytheists, but obviously that doesn't mean that there isn't a pantheist lurking somewhere and calling themself Hellenic!
Nefelie
Member
Pantheism is not really a religion as it is a theistic point of view and, as a term, it is born in ancient Greece. Pan (all) + Theos (god) = everything is god.
The first Pantheists are considered to be the Pythagoreans, even though the Orphics (that pre-date Pythagoras) did also have strong pantheistic view points.
“En to Pan” (One is All = everything is One) is assigned to Pythagoras, but we are not sure that he was the first that actually teached it.
I think the most “famous” ancient Pantheist is Empedocles, who was a Pythagorean.
The Ephesians where also Pantheists and flourished around the same time with the Pythagoreans.
Heraclitus was also a Pantheist and he came from the Ephesians.
Other strongly Pantheistic philosophies are the Tao and Zen.
As for religions, most (if not all) have Pantheistic elements. Some stronger others lesser.
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If you feel pantheism isn't a religion, why are you using proper case, Nefelie? That strikes me as grammatically incorrect if you do not consider it a religion?
Nefelie
Member
I use proper case for "Pythagoreans", "Ephesians", "Zen", "Tao"... "Atheism", "Humanism" etc. These are not religions either.
I don't know if it is grammatically incorrect or not, but I really don't care. I use proper case because they deserve it.
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I don't know if it is grammatically incorrect or not, but I really don't care. I use proper case because they deserve it.
Fair enough. The grammar nazi in me just twitches a little bit inside.
Although, I twitch more inside when I routinely see Paganism (which is a religious demographic) is routinely left uncapitalized in professional press releases and news stories. This happens because that's how it is suggested in the baseline style manual, which in spite of a petition that happened a while back that got tons of signatures, still maintains Paganism isn't a religious demographic and therefore shouldn't be in proper case. Stuff like that makes me want to cad-slap people.