Interpretation of Biblical Texts in Contemporary Panentheistic Discourse

Andrii Palchyk

doi:10.18290/rt2024.3s

Published : 2024-12-06

Vol. 71 No. Zeszyt Specjalny (2024)

Interpretation of Biblical Texts in Contemporary Panentheistic Discourse

Andrii Palchyk

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1247-1734

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rt2024.3s

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of the interpretation of biblical texts by representatives of contemporary panentheistic thought. While examining the issue of the “God – world” relationship, they not only used fragments of the Holy Scripture to develop their concepts, but at the same time gave these fragments a panentheistic tone. Therefore, understanding the specificity of the panentheistic interpretation of such fragments in the works of individual authors becomes possible only after taking into account the internal logic of this or that concept.

The article presents the panentheistic understanding of biblical fragments in the context of Ch. Hartshorne’s processual panentheism, where certain fragments of the Holy Scripture are understood as a pattern of quasi-panentheistic thought. The paper also includes the concept of the “field of rationality” by J. Życiński; the value of biblical texts in the soteriological panentheism presented by N. Gregersen is emphasized, and the panentheistic interpretations of the description of the creation of the world in the works of Ph. Clayton and D. Griffin are discussed. The conducted analysis allows us to state that the specificity of some panentheistic concepts determines the selection of these and not other biblical texts. These texts not only emphasize God’s immanence in the world, but also His transcendence.

Keywords:

panentheism, Holy Scripture, biblical hermeneutics, processual theology, field of rationality

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