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Immanence - the divine in the world
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Immanence
Immanence, derived from the Latin in manere "to remain within", refers
to philosophical and metaphysical theories of the divine as existing and
acting within the mind or the world. This concept generally contrasts or
coexists with the idea of transcendence.
Immanence in religion
In worship, a believer in immanence might say that one can find God
wherever one seeks Him. This understanding is often used in Hinduism to
describe the relationship of Brahman, or the Supreme Being, to the
material world (i.e., monistic theism). Hinduism posits Brahman as both
transcendent and immanent — varying emphasis on either quality is made
by the different philosophies/denominations within the religion.
Immanence is one of the five key concepts in Druze, and is represented
by the color white. Scholars such as Henry David Thoreau, who
popularised the concept of immanence, were influenced by Hindu views.
Immanence and Jesus in some theology of Christianity
In Christianity, the transcendent, almighty, and holy God, who cannot be
approached or seen, becomes immanent primarily in the God-man Jesus the
Christ, whom many believe to be the incarnate Second Person of the
Trinity.
This is most famously expressed in St Paul's letter to the Philippians,
where he writes:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a
servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. [1]
Tzimtzum in the Kabbalistic theory
In Jewish Mysticism, Tzimtzum (צמצום Hebrew: "contraction" or
"constriction") refers to the notion in the Kabbalistic theory of
creation that God "contracted" his infinite essence in order to allow
for a "conceptual space" in which a finite, independent world could
exist. The concept of Tzimtzum contains a built-in paradox, as it
requires that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent:
* On the one hand, if the "Infinite" did not restrict itself, then
nothing could exist — everything would be ?
* On the other hand, God continuously maintains the existence of, and is
thus not absent from, the created universe. "The Divine life-force which
brings all creatures into existence must constantly be present within
them... were this life-force to forsake any created being for even one
brief moment, it would revert to a state of utter nothingness, as before
the creation...".
Dzogchen
Tantric Buddhism and Dzogchen, posit a non-dual basis for both
experience and reality that could be considered an exposition of a
philosophy of immanence that has a history on the subcontinent of India
from the early common era to the present. A paradoxical non-dual
awareness or rigpa (Tibetan — vidya in Sanskrit) — is said to be the
'self perfected state' of all beings. Scholarly works differentiate
these traditions from monism. The non-dual is said to be both immanent
and transcendent, neither, nor both. One classical exposition is the
Madhyamaka refutation of extremes that the philosopher-adept Nagarjuna
propounded.
Exponents of this non-dual tradition emphasize the importance of a
direct experience of non-duality through both meditative practice and
philosophical investigation. In one version, one maintains awareness as
thoughts arise and dissolve within the 'field' of mind, one does not
accept or reject them, rather one lets the mind wander as it will until
a subtle sense of immanence dawns. Vipassana or insight is the
integration of one's 'presence of awareness' with that which arises in
mind. Non-duality or rigpa is said to be the recognition that both the
quiet, calm abiding state as found in samatha and the movement or
arising of phenomena as found in vipassana are not separate. In this way
it could be stated that Dzogchen is a method for the recognition of a
'pure immanence' analogous to what Deleuze theorized about.
Extended usage
Another meaning of immanence is the quality of being contained within,
or remains within the boundaries of a person, of the world, or of the
mind.
This meaning is more common within Christian and other monotheist
theology, in which the one God is considered to transcend his creation.
Immanence in philosophy
The term "immanence" is usually understood to mean that the divine
force, or the divine being, pervades through all things that exist, and
is able to influence them. Such a meaning is common in pantheism &
panpsychism, and it implies that divinity is inseparably present in all
things. In this meaning immanence is distinct from transcendence, the
latter being understood as the divinity being set apart from or
transcending the World (an exception being Giovanni Gentile's "Actual
Idealism" wherein immanence of subject is considered identified with
transcendence over the material world). Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinoza
and, it may be argued, Hegel's philosophy were philosophies of
immanence, as well as stoicism, versus philosophies of transcendence
such as thomism or Aristotelian tradition. Gilles Deleuze qualified
Spinoza as the "prince of philosophers" for his theory of immanence,
which Spinoza resumed by "Deus sive Natura" ("God is Nature"). Such a
theory considers that there is no transcendent principle or external
cause to the world, and that the process of life production is contained
in life itself. [2] When compounded with Idealism, the immanence theory
qualifies itself away from "the world" to there being no external cause
to one's mind.
In the context of Kant's theory of knowledge Immanence means to remain
in the boundaries of possible experience.
The French 20th century philosopher Gilles Deleuze used the term
immanence to refer to his "empiricist philosophy", which was obliged to
create action and results rather than establish transcendentals. His
final text was titled Immanence: a life..., spoke of a plane of
immanence.[1] Similarly, Giorgio Agamben writes in The Coming Community
(1993) : "There is an effect something that humans are and have to be,
but this is not an essence nor properly a thing: It is the simple fact
of one's own existence as possibility or potentiality".
In a similar vein, the term has been utilized by the Kennesaw School to
elucidate the emergent nature of communalized relationality and the
potential for becoming within an Age of Globalization.
Endnotes
1. ^ The Bible, Philippians 2:6–8, (KJV)
2. ^ See Antonio Negri, The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's
Metaphysics and Politics (transl. 1991, Minnesota Univ. Press)
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