Pantheism is the idea that God and the world are identical—that the creator, sustainer, destroyer, and transformer of all things is the universe itself. From a monotheistic perspective, this notion is irremediably heretical since it suggests divinity might be material, mutable, and multiple. Since the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, Western thought has therefore demonized what it calls pantheism, accusing it of incoherence, absurdity, and—with striking regularity—monstrosity.

In this book, Mary-Jane Rubenstein investigates this perennial repugnance through a conceptual genealogy of pantheisms. What makes pantheism “monstrous”—at once repellent and seductive—is that it scrambles the raced and gendered distinctions that Western philosophy and theology insist on drawing between activity and passivity, spirit and matter, animacy and inanimacy, and creator and created. By rejecting the fundamental difference between God and world, pantheism threatens all the other oppositions that stem from it: light versus darkness, male versus female, and humans versus every other organism. If the panic over pantheism has to do with a fear of crossed boundaries and demolished hierarchies, then the question becomes what a present-day pantheism might disrupt and what it might reconfigure. Cobbling together heterogeneous sources—medieval heresies, their pre- and anti-Socratic forebears, general relativity, quantum mechanics, nonlinear biologies, multiverse and indigenous cosmologies, ecofeminism, animal and vegetal studies, and new and old materialisms—Rubenstein assembles possible pluralist pantheisms. By mobilizing this monstrous mixture of unintentional God-worlds, Pantheologies gives an old heresy the chance to renew our thinking.

". . . Rubenstein’s writing is delightfully witty and often poetic in a way which can uniquely maintain its many strands." - Worldviews

"Rubenstein’s critical readings are cogent and deft. The book is both erudite and adventurous." - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

"Rubenstein's examination of pantheism renders a comprehensive and pluralistic view of the cosmos that will interest readers curious about the intersection of religion and philosophy." - Library Journal

"Given the rise of scholarship in 'new materialism' and renewed focus on immanence, this book is an important addition to the literature. . . Recommended." - Choice

"Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s book, Pantheologies, is an essential addition to any science and religion class or graduate studies class in philosophy of religion or theology. It gives a solid overview of Baruch Spinoza, Giordano Bruno, and Albert Einstein, introduces many new animist viewpoints, and examines the metaphysics of numerous indigenous religions." - Nova Religio

"Pantheologies should be of interest to religious studies scholars, philosophers, scientists, and theologically curious political activists alike, by virtue of its broad intellectual scope, engaging rhetoric, and urgent ethical reflection." - Reading Religion