Criticism of pandeism
Criticism of pandeism from theological and ideological opponents.
Criticism of pandeism has been articulated by advocates of both atheism and theism, as well as by figures from Christian, Jewish, Islamic, New Thought, and Atheist perspectives. Proponents of pandeism have themselves published collections of such critiques to foster debate. Accusations of pandeism have also been used as a rhetorical tool to discredit political and religious figures.
Quick Facts
- Earliest criticism
- 1834
- Early critic italy
- Padre Filippo Nannetti di Bibulano
- Phrenologist critic
- Luigi Ferrarese
- Accusation against pope paul
- Pope Paul VI
- Accusation against pope francis
- Pope Francis
- Accused modern figures
- Barack Obama
- Al Gore
- Gail Collins
Facts from the source article.
Theology
Early 19th century criticism of pandeism arose in Italy. In 1834, a volume of sermons by Italian Padre Filippo Nannetti di Bibulano was posthumously published; he condemned pandeism alongside Jews, Muslims, Gentiles, Schismatics, Heretics, Deists, and other restless spirits. Nannetti specifically criticized pandeism, declaring that its laws are contingent and mutable, not a substance with forces driven by motions and developments. In 1838, phrenologist Luigi Ferrarese critically described Victor Cousin's philosophy as a sort of spiritual pandeism, absurd and injurious to the Supreme Being.
Later in the century, criticism emerged from White colonists in India. A February 1877 article in The Bengal Times accused certain colonists of using a hollow sham of white-pandeism to secure patronage. That same year, Peruvian scholar Carlos Wiesse Portocarrero wrote that metaphysics in India is pandeistic and degenerates into idealism. In 1896, historian Gustavo Uzielli described Indian Brahmanism as influenced by an incipient but growing pandeism.
The following year, Reverend Henry Grattan Guinness wrote critically that in India, God is everything and everything may be adored, calling its pan-deism a pandemonium. Later opposition has come from both theistic and atheistic or nontheistic directions.
As an accusation
On several occasions, theological and ideological opponents have accused prominent persons or movements of being pandeists. Luigi Ferrarese described Victor Cousin's philosophy negatively as a form of pandeism. Calvinist theologian Rousas John Rushdoony sharply criticized the Catholic Church in 1971, writing that the position of Pope Paul came close to being a pan-Deism, and that a sincere idealist implicitly pan-Deist in faith could be a Ghibelline pope.
Adventist theologian Bert B. Beach wrote in 1974 that during the Vatican Council, criticism from WCC Circles claimed ecumenism was being contaminated by pan-Deist and syncretistic tendencies. During the 2008 United States presidential election, psychologist Alan J. Lipman wrote a fictitious parody account grouping pandeism with drug use, adultery, Cubism, and miscegenation as things John McCain could accuse Barack Obama of. The following year, conservative blogger Mark Finkelstein labeled Obama, Al Gore, and New York Times columnist Gail Collins as pandeists in a piece titled 'Happy Pan-Deism Day From Gail Collins', after Collins noted the coincidence of Easter and Passover and wrote about Earth Day and Arbor Day celebrations.
Pope Francis has also been called by opponents a pandeist who does not believe in the transcendent God but in an immanent divine principle, described as a synthesis of the belief systems of Lord Shaftsbury, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Benedict Spinoza, Auguste Compte, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
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