Panentheism is a doctrine which aims to reconcile scientific naturalism with a religious vision. through an alternative to both traditionnal theism and pantheism. Whereas for pantheism, the words God and Nature have similar meanings, for panentheism Nature is in God, but differs from God. Such an idea is quite old and can be found already in the philosophy of Plotinus, but the word of panentheism was coined during the XIXth century by the German philosopher Karl Friedrich Krause. During the XXth century this idea was further developed by the mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who had cowritten Principia Mathematica together with Bertrand Russel, as a part of the process philosophy that he introduced during his stay at Harvard University. The recent book written by David Ray Griffin, Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont University présents a global view of panentheism in light of the ideas brought mainly by Whitehead. He shows that panentheism makes possible to avoid a contradiction between scientific naturalism and theism. Furthermore panentheism seems compatible with most religious beliefs, as long as they do not imply a strictly dogmatic attitude. Therefore, such an approach might help building a much needed synthesis between science, philosophy and religion, providing a new worldview for the fuure.
La panenthéisme est une doctrine qui vise à réconcilier le naturalisme scientifique avec la vision religieuse, en proposant une alternative à la fois au théisme traditionnel et au panthéisme. Alors que pour le panthéisme, Dieu se confond avec la Nature, position proche de de celle de Spinoza (Deus sive natura), selon le panenthéisme la Nature, est en Dieu, mais ne se confond pas avec Dieu. Cette conception n'est pas nouvelle. On la trouve déjà chez Plotin, mais c'est au XIXe siècle que le terme de panenthéisme a été proposé par le philosophe allemand Karl Friedrich Krause .
