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Have you ever heard of the Overview Effect? It’s a cognitive shift reported by astronauts while looking at the Earth. It’s a state of awe infused with a sense of self-transcendence.1 Astronaunt Mae Jemison reflected, “When you look at the Earth from space, you realize that our planet is a beautiful, interconnected system. We are all in this together.” That’s a powerful sentiment, but it’s unnecessary to go to space to experience it. For some this total interconnectedness is a way of life. For them it’s a natural perspective and an essential facet of their beliefs and practices.
Eastern Orthodoxy makes a distinction between the God’s essence and energies. Much as light, heat, and radiation are produced by the sun and radiate from the sun without being the sun, so divine energies continually flow from the Creator without being the divine essence of the Creator. God’s transcendent essence is an unknowable mystery yet God can be partially known, or at least indirectly experienced, through God’s energies. This line of thinking is ancient but seldom comes up in Western Christianity since being characterized as a heresy after the Great Schism of 1054.
The Bible supports the belief that God created and sustains all that is. The author of Hebrews wrote, “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word.”2 God’s energies flow through all that is. These energies surround, penetrate, empower, and bind together the entirety of the universe.
Personally, my perspective pulls together the Overview Effect with Eastern Orthodoxy’s energy-essence distinction. I’m not a pantheist who believes that the cosmos are divine, that the entirety of the universe is God. But I’m not too far from that perspective, either. Whatever is a notch down from that? That’s where I am.3 God’s essence is interpersonal and God’s energies are way more active, present, and luminous than Christian theology tends to appreciate. Everything from Buddhist contemplation to science’s quantum entanglement seems to point to this reality.
The original beatniks were drawn to religious expressions that emphasized the spirituality and interconnectedness of everything. The Beats’ writings mirrored 19th century Transcendentalism, often touching upon the internal process of self-discovery, but they also sought to live with a consciousness that perceived the spiritual within the ordinary and physical realities of the world. I’m not suggesting they achieved that goal, but the attempt alone is better than I can say for most of Christian culture. That spirit is more than compatible with The Way of Jesus. It’s essential.4
According to Wikipedia, “The most prominent common aspects of personally experiencing the Earth from space are appreciation and perception of beauty, unexpected and even overwhelming emotion, and an increased sense of connection to other people and the Earth as a whole. The effect can cause changes in the observer’s self concept and value system, and can be transformative.”↩
In Colossians Paul writes something similar: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”↩
Well, maybe a couple notches down… Three thoughts regarding panentheism. First, my initial survey turned up understandings I’d support and others I’d reject. It appears to be a particularly slippery term, so I’m unwilling to sign off. It seems like it would create more confusion than clarity. Second, my conviction is that the hypostatic union exists in the incarnate Word alone. Creation contains a whole lot of divine energies, but the divine essence exists uniquely in Christ. Third, I don’t believe the cosmos are generative in the way God is. While believing creation contains the Creator’s divine energies, it seems vitally important to distinguish between Creator and creation.↩
When I suggest that the meaning of life is connection–with God, with other people, and with the natural world–this is what I mean. Also, it feels very Celtic to me.↩
