Pantheism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Pantheism controversy==== {{Main|Pantheism controversy}} Between 1785–89, a major controversy about Spinoza's philosophy arose between the German philosophers [[Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi]] (a critic) and [[Moses Mendelssohn]] (a defender). Known in German as the ''[[Pantheism controversy|Pantheismusstreit]]'' (pantheism controversy), it helped spread pantheism to many German thinkers.<ref>{{cite web | last1=Giovanni | first1=di | last2=Livieri | first2=Paolo | title=Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi | website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | date=2001-12-06 | url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friedrich-jacobi/ | access-date=2021-09-25}}</ref> A 1780 conversation with the German dramatist [[Gotthold Ephraim Lessing]] led Jacobi to a protracted study of Spinoza's works. Lessing stated that he knew no other philosophy than Spinozism. Jacobi's ''Über die Lehre des Spinozas'' (1st ed. 1785, 2nd ed. 1789) expressed his strenuous objection to a dogmatic system in philosophy, and drew upon him the enmity of the Berlin group, led by Mendelssohn. Jacobi claimed that Spinoza's doctrine was pure [[materialism]], because all Nature and God are said to be nothing but extended [[Substance theory|substance]]. This, for Jacobi, was the result of Enlightenment [[rationalism]] and it would finally end in absolute atheism. Mendelssohn disagreed with Jacobi, saying that pantheism shares more characteristics of [[theism]] than of atheism. The entire issue became a major intellectual and religious concern for European civilization at the time.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Dahlstrom|title=Moses Mendelssohn|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mendelssohn/#ConJacOveLesAllPan|website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|access-date=28 July 2017|date=3 Dec 2002}}</ref> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe rejected Jacobi's personal belief in God as the "hollow sentiment of a child's brain" (Goethe 15/1: 446) and, in the "Studie nach Spinoza" (1785/86), proclaimed the identity of existence and wholeness. When Jacobi speaks of Spinoza's "fundamentally stupid universe" (Jacobi [31819] 2000: 312), Goethe praises nature as his "idol" (Goethe 14: 535).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Bollacher |first=Martin |date=2020 |title=Pantheism |editor-last=Kirchhoff |editor-first=T. |encyclopedia=Online Encyclopedia Philosophy of Nature |publisher=Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg |doi=10.11588/oepn.2020.0.76525 |page=5}}; "Goethe 14" and "Goethe 15/1" in the passage refers to volumes of Johann Wolfgang Goethe 1987–2013: Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher und Gespräche. Vierzig Bände. Frankfurt/M., Deutscher Klassiker Verlag.</ref> Willi Goetschel argues that Jacobi's publication significantly shaped Spinoza's wide reception for centuries following its publication, obscuring the nuance of Spinoza's philosophic work.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goetschel|first1=Willi|title=Spinoza's Modernity: Mendelssohn, Lessing, and Heine|url=https://archive.org/details/spinozasmodernit00goet|url-access=limited|date=2004|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|location=Madison, Wisconsin|isbn=978-0299190804|pages=[https://archive.org/details/spinozasmodernit00goet/page/n22 12]–13|ref=Goetschel2004}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page