Is Pantheism the Same as Panentheism?

No. A lot of confusion exists between pantheism and panentheism. Here’s a clarification:

Pantheism:  “God is the whole”. God is synonymous with the Omniverse. The Omniverse is practically the whole itself, the one itself. If you have to use the word god in Pantheism then the omniverse and god are coextensive.

Panentheism: “The whole is in God”. The universe and God are not ontologically equivalent. God is not necessarily the creator or demiurge, but the eternal animating force behind the universe, some versions positing the universe as nothing more than the manifest part of God. In some forms of panentheism, the universe/cosmos exists within God, who in turn “pervades” or is “in” the cosmos. God is greater than the universe and some forms hold that the universe is contained within God.

Pantheists do not worry about god watching them, judging them, who god is, god is not  a person to them. They view the Omniverse as a whole oneness as ALL THERE IS. The one infinite eternal Omniverse always was and always will be what is.

You will find pantheists or pantheistic ideas within these religions: Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Neopaganism,  Theosophy, Gaia theory, Unitarian Universalists, Sufism, traditional and folk religions including African traditional religions and Native American religions.

On the other hand, Panenthesits do refer to God often and view this god in a fashion more similar to the Abrahamic religions, as an encompassing force or a creator, one that transcends the creation (but is not it). You will see panentheists within these religions: Christianity, Islam (Ismaili doctrine, Sufism [universal sufism] and Shi’ism), Judaism, Hinduism, Bahá’í Faith, Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Kabbalism

Updated Dec 19, 2010