Panentheism holds that God is a di-polar entity comprising both the physical world and a transcendent aspect of some sort. The most important thing to keep in mind in dealing with a panentheist is that there is just no good reason to believe that panentheism is true. You donâ??t have to refute your friendâ??s panentheism, Jane. Your friend bears the burden of giving you some reason to think that panentheism is true.
It should go without saying that the justification for panentheism cannot be biblical revelation or teaching. For the Bible knows nothing of the doctrine that the world is part of God. In his influential work on the character of ancient Jewish monotheism, Richard Bauckham identifies two characteristics that uniquely mark off Israelâ??s God from all others, namely that â??he is Creator of all things and sovereign Ruler of all things.â?[1] Thus, the world is not a part of God but a created entity dependent upon God and ruled by God. There is in Judaism a bright dividing line which separates God ontologically from everything else, a bifurcation which Bauckham attempts to capture by the term â??transcendent uniqueness.â? He writes,
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