Concept

Pandeism

Summary
Pandeism (or pan-deism), is a theological doctrine that combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. Unlike classical deism, which holds that God does not interfere with the universe after its creation, pandeism holds that a creator deity became the universe and ceased to exist as a separate entity. Pandeism (as it relates to deism) purports to explain why God would create a universe and then appear to abandon it, and (as it relates to pantheism) seeks to explain the origin and purpose of the universe. Various theories suggest the coining of the word "pandeism" as early as the 1780s, but one of the earliest unequivocal uses of the word with its present meaning was in 1859 with Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal. The word "pandeism" is a hybrid blend of the root words "pantheism" and "deism" (pan and deus 'god'). The earliest use of the term pandeism appears to have been 1787, with another usage found in 1838, a first appearance in a dictionary in 1849 (in German, as 'Pandeismus' and 'Pandeistisch'), and an 1859 usage of "pandeism" expressly in contrast to both pantheism and deism by philosophers and frequent collaborators Moritz Lazarus and Heymann Steinthal. In his 1910 work Welt- und Lebensanschauungen, Hervorgegangen aus Religion, Philosophie und Naturerkenntnis ("World and Life Views, Emerging From Religion, Philosophy and Perception of Nature"), physicist and philosopher Max Bernhard Weinstein presented the broadest and most far-reaching examination of pandeism written up to that point. Weinstein noted the distinction between pantheism and pandeism, stating "even if only by a letter (d in place of th), we fundamentally differ Pandeism from Pantheism" - indicating that the words, though spelled similarly, have very different implications. Some pantheists identify themselves as pandeists as well, to underscore that "they share with the deists the idea that God is not a personal God who desires to be worshipped". It has also been suggested that "many religions may classify themselves as pantheistic" but "fit more essentially under the description of panentheistic or pandeistic.
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