Monism

===Pantheism===
{{Main|Pantheism}}
Pantheism is the belief that everything composes an all-encompassing, [[immanence|immanent]] God,<ref name="Edwards">{{Cite book|title = Encyclopedia of Philosophy ed. Paul Edwards |publisher=Macmillan and Free Press |year = 1967 |location = New York|pages=34}}</ref> or that the [[universe]] (or [[nature]]) is identical with [[divinity]].<ref>{{Cite book | title = The New Oxford Dictionary Of English | publisher = Clarendon Press|year = 1998 | location = Oxford | pages = 1341|isbn = 0-19-861263-X}}</ref> Pantheists thus do not believe in a [[personal god|personal]] or [[anthropomorphic]] god, but believe that interpretations of the term differ.

Pantheism was popularized in the modern era as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher [[Baruch Spinoza]],<ref name=Picton>{{cite book|last=Picton|first=James Allanson|title=Pantheism: its story and significance|year=1905|publisher=Archibald Constable & CO LTD.|location=Chicago|isbn=978-1419140082|url=https://archive.org/details/pantheismitsstor00pictrich}}</ref> whose ''[[Ethics (Spinoza)|Ethics]]'' was an answer to [[Descartes]]' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate.<ref name=Plumptre /> Spinoza held that the two are the same, and this monism is a fundamental quality of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man," and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance.<ref name=Plumptre>{{cite book|last=Plumptre|first=Constance|title=General sketch of the history of pantheism, Volume 2|year=1879|publisher=Samuel Deacon and Co|location=London|isbn=9780766155022|pages=3–5, 8, 29}}</ref> Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate.<ref>{{cite book|last=Shoham|first=Schlomo Giora|title=To Test the Limits of Our Endurance|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars|isbn=978-1443820684|pages=111}}</ref>

[[Huw Owen|H. P. Owen]] claimed that
{{blockquote|Pantheists are "monists" ... they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it.<ref>H. P. Owen, 1971, p.65</ref>}}

Pantheism is closely related to monism, as pantheists too believe all of reality is one substance, called Universe, God or Nature. [[Panentheism]], a slightly different concept (explained below), however is dualistic.<ref>Crosby, Donald A. (2008). Living with Ambiguity: Religious Naturalism and the Menace of Evil. New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 124. {{ISBN|0-7914-7519-0}}.</ref> Some of the most famous pantheists are the [[Stoics]], [[Giordano Bruno]] and [[Baruch Spinoza|Spinoza]].