Pantheism, Its Story and Significance: Religions Ancient and ModernPicton, J. Allanson (James Allanson)
Religion
Pantheism, Its Story and Significance: Religions Ancient and Modern
Picton, J. Allanson (James Allanson)
Pantheism; Religion
The position of Xenophanes, who, toward the latter part of the sixth
century B.C. migrated, apparently for political reasons, in fear of
Persian imperialism, from Colophon in Asia Minor to Elea in Italy, was a
little different, and, for our purpose, more interesting. For the few
fragments which are unfortunately all that is left to us of his
philosophical poetry, are strongly suggestive of Pantheism, and the
interpretation put upon them by later classical and sub-classical
writers, who had his works before them, would appear decisive. True, the
distinguished and enlightened scholar, Simon Karsten, who, in the first
quarter of the nineteenth century, found a labour of love in collecting
and editing the remains of early Greek philosophers, deprecated such a
judgment. Yet, while the motives for his special pleading were
honourable, seeing the odious misrepresentations of Pantheism still
prevalent in the Dutch scholar's native land,--misrepresentations
undissipated even by the splendour of Spinoza,--his protest remains
special pleading still. And he himself candidly quotes at large from an
alleged work of Aristotle--possibly, only a student's notes of the
latter's lectures--and also from Simplicius, as reported by Theophrastus
in a comment on Aristotle's Physics, sentences which describe the system
of Xenophanos as unquestionably Pantheistic. From, which description I
gather that the devout philosopher regarded God as the only real Being,
including all that in human language has been, is, and will be, without
beginning or end, living and perceiving equally everywhere throughout
His infinite essence. And if that essence is compared by Xenophanes to a
sphere, neither bounded nor boundless, neither moving nor immovable,
this is only because few, if any, in that age of the world, could
content themselves with loyally accepting the limits imposed on man by
the very nature of things, limits which now compel us to own that, while
the Eternal is more real than ourselves, yet, in the strict sense of
knowing, He is, from an intellectual standpoint, the Unknowable.
[Sidenote: Extent of his Sympathy with Popular Religion.]
[Sidenote: A Pantheistic Communion Feast.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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