This is part five of an 8-part series. You can start with the Introduction here.
In the previous articles, I have explored the older meaning of “occult,” Christianity's own relationship with mystery, and the Wesleyan framework that continues to shape my spiritual discernment. That framework of bringing Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience into conversation has led me toward an understanding of the Divine that is broadly panentheistic.
By panentheism, I mean that all things exist within God
and God is present in and through creation, while also being infinitely more
than creation. This is not quite the same as saying, “Everything is God.” Creation
is not the totality of God. God cannot be reduced to the universe. But neither
is God absent from the universe. Nothing exists outside the sustaining presence
of the Divine. For me, this changes the way I encounter the world.
Nature is not merely a backdrop for human "salvation." The
body is not merely a temporary container for the soul. Matter and spirit are
not necessarily enemies. The Earth is not simply a collection of resources
placed here for human use. Creation can be encountered as sacred, not because
every part of creation is identical with God, but because all creation exists
within and participates in divine presence.
This understanding resonates with the sacramental
imagination I find within Christianity. A sacramental worldview recognizes that
material things can communicate spiritual meaning. Water can become more than
water without ceasing to be water. Bread and wine can carry layers of meaning
that exceed their ordinary use. Oil, touch, words, music, silence,
architecture, seasons, and shared meals can become ways of encountering grace.
Panentheism extends that intuition. If God is present
throughout creation, then the possibility of encounter is not confined to
officially designated sacred spaces. A forest may become a place of prayer. The
turning of the seasons may become a spiritual teacher. The body may become a
site of wisdom rather than an obstacle to spirituality. Earth herself may call
us into reverence and responsibility.
This does not mean that every spiritual impression is
automatically divine or that discernment becomes unnecessary. Quite the
opposite. If the sacred can be encountered throughout life, discernment becomes
a continual practice. My panentheistic understanding also shapes the way I
understand Jesus.
Jesus remains central to my spiritual life, but I do not
understand his centrality as requiring me to believe that God is absent
everywhere else. I encounter in Jesus a profound revelation of divine love:
love expressed through compassion, healing, justice, inclusion, liberation,
relationship, and self-giving. Following Jesus, for me, means learning to
perceive and participate in that love.
It does not require me to believe that wisdom, grace,
beauty, or genuine encounter with the sacred can occur only within explicitly
Christian settings. This is one reason I have been able to learn from
Theosophy, Wicca, neo-paganism, Druidic traditions, and other forms of
spirituality without feeling that I must simply exchange one identity for
another.
Different traditions offer different symbolic languages. They
make different claims, and those differences matter. But difference does not
necessarily mean that no genuine insight can cross a boundary.
My studies of earth-centered traditions have deepened my
awareness of season, place, embodiment, and the living world. They have
encouraged me to notice dimensions of spiritual life that Christianity has
sometimes neglected or subordinated. This has not led me away from the sacred. In
many cases, it has helped me see the sacred more widely. Once creation itself
can be encountered as existing within divine presence, ritual begins to look
different as well.
So do feminine images of the Divine.
Next in the series
My encounters with Wicca, neo-paganism, Druidry, and Goddess
spirituality did not simply give me additional beliefs. They gave me new
symbolic languages and new ways of attending to body, Earth, season, ritual,
and the Divine.
In Part Six, I will explore ritual and Goddess
spirituality, and why I find them useful and empowering without necessarily
experiencing them as a rejection of my Christian roots.
