{"id":216139,"date":"2025-06-17T17:04:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T22:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/panentheism-is-god-in-the-world-or-does-god-transcend-the-world-st-james-church-london"},"modified":"2025-06-17T17:04:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T22:04:17","slug":"panentheism-is-god-in-the-world-or-does-god-transcend-the-world-st-james-church-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/panentheism-is-god-in-the-world-or-does-god-transcend-the-world-st-james-church-london","title":{"rendered":"Panentheism: Is God in the World? Or Does God Transcend the World? [St James Church, London]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xFM6Aak3eNM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Please consider joining my Substack at <a href=\"https:\/\/rupertsheldrake.substack.com\">https:\/\/rupertsheldrake.substack.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In this talk, Rupert Sheldrake explores panentheism\u2014the idea that the divine is not separate from the world but present throughout it, while also transcending it. With the grip of mechanistic materialism loosening, Rupert invites us to reconsider how we see nature, mind, and spirit. Tracing a broad arc from ancient philosophies and Christian mysticism to AI-generated worldviews, panpsychism, and psychedelics, he reflects on how the sacred presence in nature\u2014-long affirmed by spiritual traditions-\u2014is re-emerging through science, experience, and renewed practices of attention.<\/p>\n<p>This talk was recorded at St James Church, Piccadilly, a longstanding hub for open spiritual inquiry and progressive theology in the heart of London.<\/p>\n<p>Table of Contents.<br \/> 00:00:00 \u2014 What Is Panentheism?<br \/> 00:00:37 \u2014 The Dominant Worldview: Mechanistic Materialism.<br \/> 00:01:46 \u2014 The Decline of Materialism &amp; Rise of Alternatives.<br \/> 00:02:21 \u2014 AI &amp; Worldview Generation: A Symptom of Our Time.<br \/> 00:03:55 \u2014 Return to a Living World: Gaia Hypothesis &amp; Distributed Consciousness.<br \/> 00:05:01 \u2014 God: Immanent vs. Transcendent (with Cultural Examples)<br \/> 00:07:27 \u2014 Historical Tour: European Intellectual History.<br \/> 00:07:42 \u2014 Pre-Christian &amp; Ancient Greek Animism (Aristotle\u2019s Souls)<br \/> 00:09:51 \u2014 Medieval Period: Christianization of Greek Thought (Aquinas)<br \/> 00:11:20 \u2014 Early British\/Celtic Nature Mysticism.<br \/> 00:12:51 \u2014 The Protestant Reformation: De-sacralizing Nature.<br \/> 00:16:00 \u2014 The Scientific Revolution &amp; Cartesian Dualism (Nature as Machine)<br \/> 00:18:05 \u2014 From Deism to Atheism.<br \/> 00:20:59 \u2014 The \u201cHard Problem\u201d of Consciousness for Materialism.<br \/> 00:23:28 \u2014 Panpsychism: Consciousness as Fundamental (Even in Stars)<br \/> 00:26:26 \u2014 Pantheism (Spinoza) and Idealism (Kastrup) as Alternatives.<br \/> 00:28:55 \u2014 Revival of Mystical Sense: Meditation.<br \/> 00:31:00 \u2014 Psychedelics and Experiences of Greater Consciousness.<br \/> 00:33:16 \u2014 The Experiential Roots of Religion (David Bentley Hart)<br \/> 00:35:23 \u2014 Models of Ultimate Reality: Hindu Perspectives.<br \/> 00:37:35 \u2014 Models of Ultimate Reality: The Christian Trinity &amp; Speech Metaphor.<br \/> 00:41:15 \u2014 Nature Reflecting Trinitarian Principles.<br \/> 00:43:15 \u2014 The Cosmic Christ &amp; Universe as Incarnation (Bede Griffiths)<br \/> 00:44:57 \u2014 Aquinas: Nature Striving for Divine Perfection.<br \/> 00:46:50 \u2014 Reconciling Immanence &amp; Transcendence in an Evolving, Creative Universe.<br \/> 00:48:17 \u2014 Spiritual Practices for Experiencing Panentheism (Singing, Festivals, Nature Connection)<br \/> 00:53:46 \u2014 End of Lecture \/ Start of Q&amp;A<\/p>\n<p>By joining Rupert\u2019s Substack, you\u2019ll receive articles, ad-free episodes, early access to videos, and exclusive content:<br \/> \ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/rupertsheldrake.substack.com\">https:\/\/rupertsheldrake.substack.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>#Panentheism.<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/panentheism-is-god-in-the-world-or-does-god-transcend-the-world-st-james-church-london\">Continue reading \u201cPanentheism: Is God in the World? Or Does God Transcend the World? [St James Church, London]\u201d | &gt;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Please consider joining my Substack at https:\/\/rupertsheldrake.substack.com. In this talk, Rupert Sheldrake explores panentheism\u2014the idea that the divine is not separate from the world but present throughout it, while also transcending it. With the grip of mechanistic materialism loosening, Rupert invites us to reconsider how we see nature, mind, and spirit. Tracing a broad arc [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}