Pantheism

Abstract

This paper begins with various interpretations of a basic pantheist slogan. The ambiguity of the slogan is illustrated by a critique of Jonathan Bennett's interpretation of Spinoza's pantheism, which has Spinoza's "Whatever is, is in God" entail further that whatever is in God, is God. Next it is argued that pantheism does not offer any solution to the problem theists have over whether there are things distinct from God but not created by God. Then it is argued that the existence of the kind of totality required by pantheism is no less problematic than the existence of theism's God as creator. And finally it is held that the latter is a proper object of worship in a way that the former is not.