Panentheism: (from Greek πᾶν (pân) "all"; ἐν (en) "in"; and θεός (Theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system which posits that God interpenetrates every part of nature, and timelessly extends beyond as well. Panentheism is distinguished from pantheism, which holds that God is synonymous with the material universe.

Anyone who's read and heard N.T. Wright at any length might well wonder whether the good bishop is a closet panentheist. Wright's view of biblical cosmology/eschatology has that ring to it. We should all know well, by now, his cosmological insistence that heaven and earth are the "overlapping and interlocking dimensions of God's creation."

But it is his eschatological vision that really seems, at first glance, an affirmation of panentheism. After all, two of his favorite eschatological portraits are the Isaianic image of "the earth being filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea," and the Pauline vision of "God being all in all." A few other choice examples:

"The material world is a recepticle designed to be filled by God's love."

"There is no square inch of space, no split second of created time, that is not desired by God, claimed by God, and will one day be filled by God."

These and dozens of other of the bishop's oft-repeated sentiments beg the question: Isn't N.T. Wright simply espousing a panenthesit worldview in a unique way?

The short answer? No.

The explanation is a bit subtle. But what Wright is in fact espousing, what he is insisting that the entirety of Scripture espouses, rather, (and I'm not sure if I'm using the Greek correctly here, but here it goes anyway) is a worldview that can be called theo-en-panism. It is not that creation is wholly contained within God, but that the Creator God, Yahweh, has desired from the get-go to become wholly contained within His creation.

Like I said, the distinction is subtle, but it is also massively significant. And that significance gets magnified when we consider the notion of love, or agape, as revealed by the entire biblical narrative, climaxing with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The panentheist worldview rings of a "love" which seeks to possess, to cling onto the beloved. Anyone ever see the movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer? OK movie, but the story as a parable of the subtle-but-profound difference between love and lust was simply awesome.

N.T. Wright is desperately trying to re-tell us about a God who loved the world into existence as something wholly other than Himself, and has never stopped loving that creation. The seemingly paradoxical thing about true love, about agape, about self-giving love, is that the giving of such love creates a context, a "hermaneutical space," as Wright likes to call it, for true love to be given back in return, to be received, in a kind of cycle which allows for freedom and unity not to cancel one another out but to co-exist within and to celebrate one another.

In other words, Wright's vision of a theo-en-panistic cosmology/eschatology presupposes a God who is love. Not a God who creates heaven and earth as part of Himself (that would be too easy...too non-Jesus-shaped, as my brother Michael Spencer would say), but one who loves a creation wholly other than Himself into being, thereby to spend the rest of eternity loving it, with all the pain and risk that such an act entails.

And it is that God who we are called to reflect.

Up for the challenge?

I'm not...but I'm trying.

Grace and Peace,

Raffi

Is N.T. Wright a Panentheist?