“I wanted to become a theologian; for a long time I was unhappy. Now, behold, God is praised by my work even in astronomy.” – Johannes Kepler
“What more powerful form of study of mankind could there be than to read our own instruction book?” – Francis S. Collins
“Those who have dissected or inspected many [bodies] have at least learnt to doubt; while others who are ignorant of anatomy and do not take the trouble to attend it are in no doubt at all.” – Giovanni Battista Morgagni
“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
“[Defining Life] The constant uniformity of phenomena under diversity of external influences.” – Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus
“The significant chemicals of living tissue are rickety and unstable, which is exactly what is needed for life.” – Isaac Asimov
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14
Volume: 2, Issue: 2, March 2016 Publisher: EDIS - Publishing Institution of the University of Zilina Powered by:RCDST (Research Center on the Dialogue between Science & Theology), Ovidius Univesity of Constanta. Romania
In philosophy of religion the term of Immanence is mostly applied to GOD in contrast to the divine Transcendence. This relation, as we will see here, it is not far from the truth since one cannot be without the other, however they are not to be put in contrast, but in conjunction. The one-sided insistence on the immanence of God, to the exclusion of His transcendence, leads to Pantheism, just as the one-sided insistence upon His transcendence, to the exclusion of His immanence, leads to Deism. These two can be separated, but the consequences are great for human knowledge and society; it is the two taken together that result in, and are necessary to Theism. But from the least complicated idea that even the name of God is a manifestation of His immanence contrasting with Deus absconditus, whose existence and name cannot be known or thought, theology and religion in general need to regard immanence of God as crucial for the acts of worship. What are the philosophical background for Christian theology to imply the immanence characteristic for God’s existence related to His creation? – This is the main question the present work tries to answer as an overview.
Author keywords
immanence
God
worldly
religion
pantheism
deism
theism
philosophy
indwelling
omnipresence
differentness
to pervade
References
[1] J. Warschauer, Problems of immanence: studies critical and constructive. The Project
Gutenberg EBook, 2007, 14.
[2] Paula Fredriksen, Christians in the Roman Empire in the First Three Centuries CE. In
"", 589.
[3] Ibidem, 598.
[4] Arthur Hilary Armstrong, An Introduction to Ancient Philosophy. New Jersey: Rowman &
Allanheld, 1983, 87.
[5] Ibidem.
[6] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
2003, 1.
[7] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07682a. htm.
[8] Andrei Cornea, O istorie a neființei în filozofia greacă: de la Heraclit la
Damascios. (eng. A history of nothingness in the greek philosophy: from Heraclitus to
Damascus) Bucureşti: Humanitas, 2010, 27.
[9] Frederick Copleston. Istoria filosofiei (eng. The history of philosophy) Volumul I:
Grecia şi Roma. trad.: Ştefan-Dominic Georgescu, Dragoş Roşea. București:
Editura ALL, 2008, 39.
[10] Ibidem, 40.
[11] Cornea, O istorie a neființei, 30.
[12] Romulus Chiriță, Prelegeri de Istoria Filosofiei Antice Greceşti (eng. Lectures
on the History of Greek Ancient Philosophy). Brașov, 2007, 22.
[13] Copleston. Istoria filosofiei, vl. 1, 160.
[14] Reference to: Alain de Libera, La querrelle des universaux: de Platon a la fin du
Moyen Age. Paris: Editionis du Seuil, 1996.
[15] Ibidem, 161-162.
[16] Damian Gheorghe Patrascu, "Conceptia despre suflet în Platonism si la primii
Parinti ai Bisericii", în Caietele Institutului Catolic VII (2008, 1), 39.
http://caiete.ftcub.ro/2008/ Caiete%202008-1%20Patrascu.pdf
[17] Jaroslav Pelikan, What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? Timaeus and Genesis in
counterpoint. USA: The University of Michigan Press, 2000, 14.
[18] Copleston. Istoria filosofiei, vl. 1, 263.
[19] Ibidem, 272.
[20] Ibidem, 43.
[21] Andrei Cornea, "Interpretare la Metafizica lui Aristotel" in Aristotel, Metafizica.
Bucuresti: Humanitas, 2007, 28.
[22] We mention here the example of the acorn which encompasses the final pattern of the
tree, because the individual belonging to a species naturally tends to embody that
specific form as precise as possible. For acorn, the oak is also its formal and final
cause toward which it aims. This natural tendency toward form denotes that often the
final, formal and effective causes are identical. Cf. Copleston. Istoria filosofiei,
vl. 1, 282.
[23] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 340.
[24] Andrei Cornea, "Interpretare la Metafizica lui Aristotel", 24.
[25] Aristotel, Metafizica, VIII, 1079 b.
[26] Pelikan, What Has Athens…, 14.
[27] Aristotel, Etica Nicomahică, București: Editura Ştiinţifică si Enciclopedică,
1988, III.
[28] Ibidem, XVI.
[29] Ibidem.
[30] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 341.
[31] A.H. Armstrong, An Introduction, 88.
[32] Ibidem.
[33] These are seen as immutable; for example the connections between mathematical names,
between knowledge and the object of knowledge, between the epistemological and
ontological relativism, or between things and forms. Cf. Metafizica, 1093 a.
[34] Aristotel, Etica Nicomahică, X, nota 47.
[35] Ibidem, Intro, nota 12.
[36] Ibidem, X, 1172 b, 10.
[37] Pelikan, What Has Athens…, 15.
[38] Aristotel, Metafizica, III, 999 b.
[39] Copleston. Istoria filosofiei, vl. 1, 282.
[40] Ibidem, 335.
[41] Ibidem, 274.
[42] Ibidem, 337.
[43] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 342.
[44] Romulus Chiriţă, Prelegeri de Istoria Filosofiei Antice Greceşti. 69.
[45] Ibidem, 70.
[46] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 357.
[47] Copleston, Istoria filosofiei, vl. 1, 348.
[48] Maria Bulgaru, Din istoria gindirii filosofice (eng. From the history of philosophic
thought), part I. Chisinau: Universitatea de Stat din Moldova, 1999, 130.
[49] Ricardo Salles, God and Cosmos in Stoicism, New York: Oxford University Press, 2009,
5.
[50] Ferguson Everett, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 368.
[51] Clement of Alexandria, Stromata. V, XII, 3084.
[52] Dr. Mihai D. Vasile, Logos’ life, from Plato to the teachings of early Christian
doctrine, in "Cogito", Open Access Journal, 2.2/2010, 10.
http://cogito.ucdc.ro/nr_2v2/ LOGOS%60%20LIFEroen.pdf
[53] Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, V, 89, 3. Trad. In romana by D. Fecioru. Bucuresti>
Ed. I.B.M.B.O.R, 1982, 361.
[54] Al. Boboc (coord.), Studies on the History of World Philosophy, XIX. Bucuresti: ed.
Academiei Romane, 2011, 71.
[55] Ricardo Salles, God and Cosmos in Stoicism, 6.
[56] Ibidem, 55.
[57] Plato, Sophist 247d. From the online project "Perseus Hopper" at http://www.perseus.
tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+soph.+247d.
[58] Ricardo Salles, God and Cosmos in Stoicism, 149-150.
[59] http://www.iep.utm.edu/stoicmind/.
[60] Ibidem.
[61] Theodore Scaltsas, Andrew S. Mason, The Philosophy of Epictetus. NY.: the Oxford
University Press, 2007, 255.
[62] Ricardo Salles, God and Cosmos in Stoicism, 244.
[63] M. Bulgaru, Din istoria gindirii filosofice, 140.
[64] Ciocan Tudor Cosmin, Jesus Christ - the fulfillment of God’s revelation, in
"Philosophy of religion" Collection, Sibiu: ed. Astra Museum, 2011, 59.
[65] Ibidem.
[66] From a Neoplatonist perspective, Plotinus, Enneads 3.5:15, speaks explicitly of one
providence (προνοια μια) which he characterizes as alone being on a high
level (υπερανω); on a lower level providence is fate (ειμαπμενη).
Peter Frick, Divine Providence in Philo of Alexandria, Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999,
57, Note 2.
[67] Peter Frick, Divine Providence in Philo, 59.
[68] Ibidem.
[69] David Runia, Philo and the Timaeus, 443.
[70] Ibidem.
[71] In adittion, Philos describes Logos as "the first principle, the archetypal idea
(αρξετυπος ιδεα), the pre-measurer (προμετπητης) of all
things". Peter Frick, Divine Providence in Philo, 75.
[72] Ibidem, 56.
[73] Everett Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 391.
[74] Eric D. Perl, Theophany: The Neoplatonic Philosophy of Dionysius the Areopagite,
State University of New York Press, 2007, 29.
[75] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‚Proclus’. Online:
http://plato.stanford.edu/ entries/proclus/
[76] E. Perl, Theophany, 22-23.
[77] Ibidem.
[78] Clarence E. Rolt, Dionysius the Areopagite on the Divine Names and the Mystical
Theology, New York: Cosimo, 56, 96.
[79] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ‚Proclus’.
[80] E. Perl, Theophany, 28.
[81] Claire Colebrook, Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed. A&C Black, 2006.
[82] Adrian Parr (edit.), The Deleuze Dictionary. Revised Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2010, p. 2.
[83] Gilles Deleuze, Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life. New York: Zone Books, 2001, p. 27.
[85] Alex Dubilet, Daniel Colucciello Barber, Deleuze and the Naming of God:
postsecularism and the future of immanence (Edinburgh University Press, 2014). In
"Parrhesia", 20/2014, 116.
[86] For Deleuze ‘becoming’ is not anymore the differences between a start- point and
endpoint, as Parmenides explained it, but another static state. For him, becoming is
neither merely an attribute of, nor an intermediary between events, but a
characteristic of the very production of events. It is not that the time of change
exists between one event and another, but that every event is but a unique instant of
production in a continual flow of changes evident in the cosmos. The only thing
‘shared’ by events is their having become different in the course of their
production.
[87] Damian Sutton & David Martin-Jones, Deleuze Reframed. London: I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd,
2013, 18.
[88] Adrian Parr (edit.), The Deleuze Dictionary, 26.
[89] Philon din Alexandria, Comentariu alegoric al Legilor Sfinte după lucrarea de şase
zile. Bucureşti: Herald, 2006, 34.