The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence in

Contemporary Western and Indian Theories of God

David Peter LAWRENCE
Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Introduction
I am a scholar working on comparative philosophical dialogue between
areas of Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, and Western thought Unfortunately,
I am not familiar with Robert Neville's work or the debates surrounding it
However, I have been interested for some time in issues of transcendence and
immanence in religion, and I hope that I can make some contribution to the
discussion in this conference
In this paper I will endeavor to situate historically and offer some con-
structive comments on what I consider a set of analogous arguments made by
some recent Christian and Hindu metaphysicians I will place the most em-
phasis on Christianity as I believe it is more likely familiar to the scholars
here The various theorists in question contend that traditional understandings
of God or the religious Ultimate Reality place too much emphasis on His/Her/
Its transcendence of this world They propose an alternative understanding of
God as paradoxically both transcendent of this world and immanent within it
The process philosopher Charles Hartshorne has established the common use
of a term for this view, which was originally coined by the early 19th century
German idealist Karl Christian Friednch Krause, viz , "panentheism'"

1 See Charles Hartshorne and William L Reese, "Introduction The Standpoint of Panentheism,"
in Philosophers Speak of God, ed Charles Hartshorne and William L Reese (Chicago Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 1953), pp 1-25
348

Panentheism literally means "all-in-God-ism." According to this conception,

God somehow contains the world within Himself. He thereby both transcends
the world and is immanently constitutive of it.

I. Panentheistic Themes in Traditional Religious Thought

Contemporary panentheism is usually advocated as an alternative to both

classical monotheism, which asserts God's complete transcendence of the world;
and pantheism, which fully identifies Him with it. In my opinion both these
doctrines are to a large extent merely "straw men" for the new advocates of
transcendence in immanence. Pantheism has also for a long time been a straw
man for orthodox monotheism. In my study of religion, I have never found a
doctrine which simply equates God with the world. Neither Spinoza, Whitman,
nor any Indian mystics do this. Their views can be distinguished from mere
naturalism precisely by their understandings of transcendence.
With regard to classical monotheism, it must be acknowledged that many
Christian theologians, especially Protestant — like many Jewish and Moslem
thinkers — do argue that God completely transcends the world. However, I
believe that even the most radical expressions of monotheism unavoidably
ascribe to God particular kinds of immanence. This is evinced in the common
notion of divine omnipresence as well as in the idea that the world and human
life in certain ways reflect their Creator. Likewise, for even the most radical
monotheism, humans have the possibility of intimacy with God through His
revelations and His grace, and their response of faith and love.
In Christianity, the central doctrine of the Trinity gives strong orthodox
justification for conceptions of immanence. God as the first member of the
Trinity, the Father, may be understood especially in a transcendent aspect.
However, God as the second member — the Son and Logos — is the rational
order by which the universe is created, the totality of the divine revelation to
humanity in the scriptures and otherwise, as well as the simultaneously divine
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 349

and human incarnation Jesus Christ. As the third member of the Trinity, the
Holy Spirit, God is also immanent for Christians in the form of spiritual inspi-
ration.
Throughout history, it is particularly in philosophical theological inter-
pretations of the second member, the Logos, that there have been elaborated
strong metaphysical conceptions of immanence. Patristic and medieval theol-
ogy assumed clear panentheistic features especially through the incorporation
of Neoplatonism. Christians, while adhering to the dictum of creation ex nihilo,
nevertheless used the Neoplatonic scheme of the One's emanation of a series
of hypostases to map out a hierarchical structure of all reality.2 For example,
after God the Father is the Logos, identified with God's Mind (nous), and said
to comprehend all the Platonic ideas; then in the created order come souls and
the material world. Now, according to this scheme the reality of each lower
level is found in nothing but its reflection of, or participation in, the higher
level. Thus the "reality" of this physical world is ultimately nothing other than
the immanence within it of the transcendent Logos or mind of God, identical
with God Himself.
Even Aristotelian philosophical theology, which it must be acknowledged
was influenced by Neoplatonism, included a panentheistic moment. Thus Tho-
mas Aquinas interpreted the Logos as the unlimited Act of God's intellect,
which comprehends all objects of experience within His subjectivity. It is this

Emile Brehier describes Plotmus' conception of emanation as the postulation of "imma-

nence in the transcendent, of an absorption of things into their principle " Emile Brehier, The
Philosophy of Plotmus, trans Joseph Thomas (Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 1958),
p 159 The classic, albeit critical, study of the Western history of the metaphysics of tran-
scendent-immanence is Arthur Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being A Study of the History of
an Idea (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1936) Lovejoy traces this
metaphysics to Plato's effort to synthesize "this-wordliness" with "other-worldlmess" in his
understandings of God and the Ideas
Act which informs the rational order of the universe 3
Moreover, for both Neoplatonic and Aristotelian theology, it is God's
Logos which is immanent as an inner light within the operations of the human
mind providing the ground for all cognition 4 Human beings can through the
inward journey of either philosophical dialectic or prayer find Jesus as the
Logos in their own hearts and minds
In the long history of the Christian tradition there have been numerous
elaborations of notions of transcendence in immanence which it is not possi-
ble to discuss in detail Thus in pre-modern Christian thought complex, proto-
scientific homologies were established between the divine and the human,
animal and physical realms Also important are Catholic and Eastern ortho-
dox sacramental and iconographic theologies, which understand God as medi-
ated to devotees through ritual and aesthetic experience
Turning to India, there are almost countless schools and subschools of
Hindu philosophy, theistic and nontheistic, monist and dualist, idealist and
realist Most likely to be familiar to outsiders is the tradition called Advaita
Vedanta, which claims that only an abstract and incomprehensible Self (some-
times called God) is real, and that the limited individual and the physical world
are illusory Advaita Vedanta also maintains that renunciation of worldly life is
the best way to find the Self It would seem that this is a doctrine with an
exclusive emphasis on transcendence However, I point out that Advaita does
have an understanding of a kind of immanence, in the view that though the
world is an illusion, the reality m the objects of all our worldly cognitions is
the transcendent Atman/Brahman 5 Moreover, it does not seem to me nor to
some other contemporary scholars that Advaita Vedanta gives the best mter-

3 For an excellent study of Thomas' understanding of the Logos, see Bernard J Lonergan,
Verbum Word and Idea in Aquinas, ed David B Burrell (Notre Dame University of Notre
Dame Press, 1967)
4 This is treated by Lonergan, ibid
5 This is explained in Dharmaraja, Vedantapanbhasa ed and trans S S Suryanarayana Sastn
(Madras Adyar Library and Research Centre, 1971), 1 42-44, pp 20-21
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 351

pretation of its own foundational scriptures, the Upanisads. The most frequent
relevant expression in the Upanisads is not that the Self alone is real, but rather
that everything in the universe is this Self.6 As it was put earlier in a hymn of
the Rig Veda, one quarter of the primordial Cosmic Man {puru$a) became the
world and the other three quarters remain in heaven.7
Classical Hinduism developed a number of more profoundly dialectical
conceptions of transcendence in immanence. Most devotional traditions claim
that God, whether Siva, Visnu or the Goddess, created the world through ema-
nation and continues to pervade it.8 As in Christianity, the devotee realizes a
deep intimacy with God, or may even become completely one with Him or
Her.
The most strongly panentheistic doctrines may be found in varieties
of Hindu tantrism. According to Kashmiri Saiva tantrism (which is my own
academic specialty), Siva divides himself from His power and consort Sakti,
and in sexual union emanates the universe through Her. The Saivas repeat-
edly state that God is therefore both transcendent (visvottlrrta) and imma-
nent (visvamaya). Tantric spiritual practice endeavors to transfigure worldly

6 E g , " . Stmaivedam sarvam " Chandogya Upamsad 7 25.2, in Upamsatsangraha, ed. Jagadisa
Sastii (Delhi Motilal Banarsidass, 1970), p 77 See Paul Deussen, The Philosophy of the
Upamshads (New York Dover Publications, 1966), on the "pantheistic" identification of
Atman/Brahman with the world as the dominant position of the Upanisads
7 "Purusa-Sukta" 10 90 3, in The Rig Veda An Anthology, trans WendyDoniger O'Flaherty
(Harmondsworth Penguin Books, 1981), p 30
8 This doctrine is characteristic of the Bhagavad-Glta The famous revelation of chapter eleven,
in which Krsna displays the whole universe as contained within His body is eminently
"panentheistic " See Bhagavad-Grta, ed and trans R C. Zaehner (Oxford Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1975), pp 303-20 The Tamil poet Nammalvar inquires of Visnu about the mys-
tery of His simultaneous transcendence and immanence " only you can tell us /becoming
fire, water, earth, / sky, and wind, / becoming father, mother, / and the children too / and all
others / and all things unnamed, / the way you stand there, / being yourself, / what's it all
about?" Hymns for the Drowning Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar, trans A K Ramanujan
(Princeton Princeton University Press, 1981), p 17
352

experience to find the infinite God within it. Such practice includes sexual
rituals in which the practitioners reintegrate the cosmogonic union and bliss
of Siva and Sakti, philosophical contemplations, and heightened forms of
aesthetic appreciation.9

II. Modern Reevaluations of Immanence

Contemporary panentheism is thus not as great a departure from tradi-
tional thinking about God's relation to the world as it often claims to be. I
believe that it has only more strongly thematized and given greater impor-
tance to the dialectic of transcendence and immanence as a means of address-
ing the persistent and multifaceted conflict between "tradition" and "moder-
nity." In the last few hundred years, religious traditions have often been viewed
by their modernistic opponents as "other-worldly" and therefore incompatible
with diverse new "this-worldly" values. These values include scientific and
historical modes of understanding; technological, economic, social and politi-
cal progress; and worldly comforts including a more liberal role for sexuality.
The new "panentheistic" theories take the apologetic stance of further devel-
oping the resources of their respective traditions in order metaphysically to
encompass and sacralize these typical modern values.
In the West, new metaphysical valorizations of divine immanence be-
came important as early as the Renaissance. Thus the highly influential 16th

9 For a basic overview of Kashmiri Saiva tantnsm, see Mark S G Dysczkowski, The Doctrine
of Vibration An Analysis of the Doctrines and Practices of Kashmir Shaivism, SUNY Series
in the Shaiva Traditions of Kashmir, ed. Harvey Alper (Albany State University of New York
Press, 1987) For a study of the Pratyabhijna philosophical apologetics for these traditions
developed by Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta, see my Rediscovering God with Transcenden-
tal Argument A Contemporary Interpretation of Monistic Kashmiri Saiva Philosophy, SUNY
Series Toward a Comparative Philosophy of Religions, ed Paul J Griffiths and Laurie L
Patton (Albany State University of New York Press, 1999)
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 153

century Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino reworked the Neoplatonic theory

of emanation to emphasize more strongly the continuity between higher and
lower planes of reality. In this connection, he also ascribed great significance
to the position of the human soul in the middle of the cosmic hierarchy—
between God and matter. Ficino prescribed homologous circular paths of love
and philosophical dialectic. One ascends to contemplate the Platonic ideas in
God's mind. Then one descends to appreciate their exemplification in nature
and to produce intellectual and artistic artifacts or, in the case of love, chil-
dren. Ficino also prescribed magic as a means to control God's immanence for
worldly advantages; this involves making special images to capture the reflec-
tions of divine ideas as rays emanating to the earth from stars. The immanentist
Renaissance Neoplatonism developed by Ficino and others, such as his stu-
dent Pico della Mirandola, had an enormous influence on later religious thought,
persisting even now, in spiritual interpretations of romantic love and aesthetic
experience, idealistic philosophies and occultism.10

10 I have treated Ficino's effort to metaphysically sacrahze emerging modern values m "The
Doctrine of Love of Marsilio Ficino and its Relations to His Conceptions of Dialectic and
Magic" (unpublished) Two of Ficino's most significant works in this regard are Theologie
Platomcienne de I Immortahte des Ames, 3 vols., ed and trans Raymond Marcel (Pans,
Societe d'edition "Les belles lettres," 1964-1970) and Marsilio Ficino's Commentary on
Plato's Symposium, trans Sears Reynolds Jayne (Dallas Spring Publications, 1985) See
E H Gombnch, "Icones Symbohcae The Visual Image in Neoplatonic Thought," Journal
of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 11 (1948), pp 163-92, on the importance for Ren-
aissance artists of Ficino's "confusion" of the symbolic (l e , of the transcendent) with the
representational and expressive features of art Likewise see Ernst Cassirer, The Individual
and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, trans Mario Domandi (Philadelphia Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), p 135, on how Ficino's understanding of the circularity of
love provided a kind of theodicy for art which explained the artist's simultaneous dedication
to the world of appearance and striving for the transcendent On Ficino's influence on later
conceptions of romantic love, see Jean Festugiere, La Philosophie de I 'amour de Marsile
Fwin et son influence sur la litteraturefranfaise au XVI siecle (Pans, 1941) On the histori-
cal significance of Ficino's theory of magic, see D P Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic
from Ficino to Campanella (London Warburg Institute, 1958)
354

Much of German idealism, particularly that of Hegel, exemplifies the

modernist valuation of divine immanence which I am discussing here. Hegel
was quite explicitly elaborating the Christian philosophical theology of the
Logos to comprehend modern understandings of political, social and economic
progress, as well as historical awareness itself. Hegel explains the entire de-
velopment of human history as the immanent self-recognition of the Absolute
Spirit."
In the twentieth century we find a number of examples of panentheistic
theories following the same basic agenda. The most well-known of these is
process philosophy and theology, developed originally by Alfred North White-
head and Charles Hartshorne. Process thought endeavors rigorously to incor-
porate the findings of modern science, especially physics and biology, within
its understanding of divine immanence. God is conceived to encompass the
totality of the cosmic process, including the most elementary synthetic
"prehensions" of subatomic and atomic particles, all of life, and the highest
human moral and spiritual attainments. One novel feature of the process theo-
rization about God's intimate involvement in modern life is the notion that He
does not have any final perfection, but is still developing Himself, both as-
sisted by and assisting human progress.12
Another influential panentheistic theory which attempts to appropriate
the findings of modern science is that of the Catholic priest, physical anthro-
pologist and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard was particularly con-

11 On Hegel's metaphysics as a synthesis of Christianity with modernity, see Emile L

Fackenheim, The Religious Dimension in Hegel's Thought (Chicago University of Chicago
Press, 1982)
12 Alfred North Whitehead's foundational works include, Process and Reality An Essay in
Cosmology, corrected edition (New York. Free Press, 1978); and Religion in the Making
(New York Fordham University Press, 1996) See also Charles Hartshorne, A Natural Theol-
ogy for Our Time (La Salle, Illinois Open Court, 1989) The classic historical survey of
doctrines of God from a process panentheistic viewpoint is Hartshorne and Reese, Philoso-
phers Speak of God
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 355

cerned with metaphysically situating the theory of evolution. He additionally

wished to find a theoretical justification for the sacrality of modern worldly
vocations, such as his own as a scientist. Teilhard argued that Christ is at work
in the physical world, striving to bring it back to God through what he de-
scribed as a "law of the complexification of matter." In accordance with this
law there have evolved increasingly complicated organizations of atomic and
molecular structure, organic molecules, and ever more sophisticated forms of
life. With human consciousness and culture there has finally emerged, beyond
the biosphere, what Teilhard calls the "noosphere." The final goal or "Omega"
for each individual, and finally for all of humanity is a life in union with
Christ. This is a mystic experience of Christ's love as encompassing and
divinizing the world, the "divine milieu."13
Besides these efforts to synthesize religion and scientific cosmology,
panentheistic theories have also been elaborated within the broad field of reli-
gious hermeneutics.14 Very interesting in this regard is the project of the great
historian of religions Mircea Eliade to mediate what he views as the universal
nature of all traditional religious symbolism with modern understandings of
history. Among the influences on Eliade's syncretistic theory of interpretation
are Renaissance Neoplatonism, German romanticism, Eastern Orthodox icono-

13 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's classic works are The Phenomenon of Man, trans Bernard Wall
(New York' Harper & Row, 1959); and The Divine Milieu An Essay on the Interior Life,
trans Bernard Wall et al. (New York- Harper & Row, 1960)
14 1 will not treat Heidegger here, because of his notorious ambiguity about the relations of his
thought with theology. His thought has clear trajectories both back into the philosophical
theology of Logos and into deconstructionism. In any event, for some of his theological
interpreters such as Paul Tillich and John Macquarne, Heidegger has provided a way of
thinking about God both as transcendent eternal Being and as immanent within our histori-
cally concrete experiences. See the balanced assessment of Heidegger in John Macquarne,
In Search of Deity An Essay in Dialectical Theism (New York- Crossroad, 1987), pp 153-
67. This book is also notable for a sensitive review of some formulations of the dialectic of
transcendence and immanence throughout the history of Western religious thought
356

graphic theology and Jungian psychology. According to Eliade, all kinds of

religious expression have the structure of what he calls a hierophany, i.e., a
manifestation of the sacred. Eliade furthermore identifies the transcendence
of history as the essential nature of the sacred in all the hierophanies of the
world's religions — whether the sacred is understood as God or gods, the
primordial models revealed in origin myths, the communal renewal experi-
enced on religious holidays, or the eternal now of the mystic experience.
The panentheistic feature in Eliade's thought is found in his analysis of
all hierophanies as involving what he calls the "dialectic of the sacred." This
dialectic refers to the fact that the eternal sacred is, in hierophanies, always
manifested in concrete experiences, ideas and practices, and in particular physi-
cal situations, all comprehended within finite historical circumstances. The
basic pattern is the same whether the sacred is manifested in myths, rituals,
philosophical theologies, mystical experiences or even a rock. Now, according
to Eliade, there is a hierarchy of increasingly perfect realizations of this dia-
lectic of the sacred. The culmination is none other than the Christian under-
standing of the incarnation of God as the humble carpenter Jesus, who was
crucified, died and resurrected. For Eliade, Christianity thus transfigures his-
tory, and so provides the best answer to the problem of reconciling humanity's
traditional experience of the eternal with modern historical awareness.15

15 For illustrations of Mircea Eliade's understanding of the culmination of the dialectic of the
sacred in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, see his Images and Symbols Studies in Religious
Symbolism, trans. Philip Mairet (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1961), p. 170, and Patterns in
Comparative Religion, trans. Rosemary Sheed (New York. Meridian, 1974), pp 23-30 (In
the latter work Eliade also discusses sympathetically the effort of the philosopher of Hindu
devotionahsm, Lokacarya, to explain how the absolute deity Vi s nu becomes embodied in
idols and other concrete vehicles of worship.) Also see Stephen J Reno, "Eliade's Progres-
sional View of Hierophanies," Religious Studies, 8 (1972), pp. 153-60. Eliade interprets Chris-
tianity as the appropriate religion for modern humanity struggling with otherwise-terrifying
history in The Myth of the Eternal Return or, Cosmos and History, trans. Willard R. Trask
(Princeton. Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 159-62. Eliade in fact did his masters
degree in Italian Renaissance philosophy He intimates that in this early work he was
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 357

The philosopher Paul Ricoeur and the philosophical theologian David

Tracy have further developed and modified Mircea Eliade's theories on tran-
scendence and immanence. These thinkers endeavor to comprehend within
Christianity not only modern this-worldly values, but also "archaic" religios-
ity which would have at one time been labeled "idolatry." Ricoeur and Tracy
attempt this by mediating a dichotomy between two ideal types of religiosity.
On the one hand are religious expressions emphasizing divine immanence,
which they call "manifestation." On the other hand are religious expressions
of "proclamation." These are prophetic expressions of radical monotheism
which iconoclastically deny all claims to manifestation, and exhort men and
women to humility before God and an open-ended program of ethical im-
provement. According to Ricoeur and Tracy, manifestation and proclamation
are best synthesized in the Logos as Christ, who is simultaneously the mani-
festation of the gracious God in all of nature, and the one who has most fully
proclaimed God's transcendence and the ethic of self-less love.16

endeavoring "through a serious study of neo-pagan immanentism, pantheism, and 'philoso-

phy of Nature,' to counterbalance my passion for transcendence, mysticism and Oriental
spiritualism," in Autobiography, Volume 1, 1907-1937 Journey East, Journey West, trans
Mac Linscott Ricketts (San Francisco Harper & Row, 1981), p. 128 Eliade notes the affin-
ity between his own thought and that of Teilhard de Chardin in No Souvenirs Journal, 1957-
1959, trans Fred H Johnson, Jr (New York Harper & Row, 1977), pp 189-90
16 See Paul Ricoeur, "Manifestation and Proclamation," The Journal of the Blaisdell Institute,
12 (Winter 1978), pp 13-35; and David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination Christian Theol-
ogy and the Culture of Pluralism (New York. Crossroad, 1981). It would seem that Ricoeur
and Tracy are not entirely satisfied that Eliade's theory of the transcendent/eternal which
manifests immanently/historically is adequate for Christian theology In my understanding,
these two thinkers incorporate Eliade's conception of the dialectical hierophany largely within
the single polarity of the manifestation/immanence epitomized in "archaic religiosity" In
this way they endeavor to counterbalance Eliade's cosmic (and perhaps in some ways amora!)
spiritual vision with the prophetic, ethical and iconoclastic import of monotheistic procla-
mation. For Tracy's reading of Eliade also see "The Challenge of the Archaic Other The
Hermeneutics of Mircea Eliade," in Dialogue with the Other The Inter-Religious Dialogue,
Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs, 1 (Louvain. Peeters Press, 1990), pp 48-67
358

The conflict between tradition and various facets of modernity began

later in India than the West, as it was introduced originally through British
colonialism. A very influential thinker who propounded the kind of
panentheistic modernist strategy which I have been expositing is Sri Aurobindo
Ghose. Originally a fighter for Indian independence, Aurobindo had pivotal
mystical experiences while imprisoned. He began to argue that the Advaita
Vedanta views about the transcendence of the Atman, the illusoriness of the
world, and the need for renunciation are misguided and lead to political weakness.
Aurobindo's philosophy, which has some remarkable similarities with
that of the Teilhard de Chardin,17 endeavors to incorporate the theory of evolu-
tion along with Western ideas of social, economic and political progress. For
Aurobindo the world is the emanation of the divine, and evolution a process of
return, the goal of which is the mystical realization of the "Supermind." This
experience, which reveals the world as contained within the divine, at first
empowers individuals to work for the progress of humanity. Finally, the
Supermind will become the guiding consciousness of a world Utopian soci-
ety.18
Another sphere of contemporary Hindu thought in which a panentheistic
metaphysics has been promoted as the best way of comprehending modern
values has been in a widespread revival of tantrism. As I have explained, much

17 There has been speculation about whether one of these thinkers was influenced by the other
18 Sri Aurobindo articulates his grand metaphysical synthesis of traditional Hindu transcend-
ence and the modern, evolutionary understanding of immanence in his The Life Divine, 2
vols (Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1977) He endeavors to reformulate traditional
Hindu spiritual praxis in this light in The Synthesis of Yoga (Pondicherry Sri Aurobindo
Ashram, 1984) Aurobindo himself notes that a synthesis of Spirit and Nature had already
been anticipated in tantrism, but he speaks disparagingly of its "social immorality," ibid, pp
37-29, 585-586 I modestly suggest that Aurobindo's philosophy would have been enriched
by a greater understanding of the history of tantnc as well as bhakti approaches to transcend-
ence in immanence In this regard, it would be interesting to study whether Aurobindo's
thought was in any way stimulated in correspondence he is known to have had with the
tantnc thinker Gopinath Kaviraj
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 359

of even traditional tantrism places a great emphasis on the nature of God as

both transcendent and immanent. A number of holy men, scholars and
popularizers as diverse as Swami Lakshman Joo, Jaideva Singh, B.N. Pandit,
R.K. Kaw, Swami Muktananda, the British translator Sir John Woodroffe and
the American anthropologist Agehananda Bharati have identified this approach
as doing better justice to contemporary worldly values.19 As a visit to almost
any popular bookstore, even in Hong Kong, will attest there has been great
interest worldwide in the tantric view of the sacredness of sexual experience,
and corresponding methods for realizing the transcendent through His/Her
immanence in the act of sex.
One of the most fascinating recent interpretations of Hindu tantrism is
that propounded in the lineage of the Bengali Swami Vishuddhananda and his
disciple, the great scholar and holy man Gopinath Kaviraj. This lineage has
added an eschatological component to the tantric soteriology. According to
them, there is a secret ashram in Tibet called jndnagnj, 'the knowledge treas-
ury,' where practitioners are working on completing what is called
akhandamahayoga, 'the great integral yoga.' The one who completes this yoga
will descend to an ashram in Varanasi, India and sit on what is called the "nine
skull seat." (Incidentally, I have been to this mysterious ashram within an in-
conspicuous walled enclosure near Sanskrit University, and seen the seat.) At
this point (I don't know when it is supposed to happen) this practitioner will
save all humanity at once. For all humanity then the universe will be disclosed
as emanating Sakti, the power and consort of God.20

19 For two expressions of this agenda which extend the relevance of tantrism even to political
and social progress, see B N Pandit, "The Philosophy that We Need," in Aspects ofKashmir
Saivism (Snnagar- Utpal Publications, 1977), pp. 145-57, and R.K. Kaw, "Pratyabhijfia
Thought in Modern Context," in The Doctrine of Recognition (Pratyabhijfia Philosophy)
(Hoshiarpur Vishveshvaranand Institute, 1967), pp. 360-66
20 See Arlene Mazak Breuinin, "The Tantric Structure of Akhanda Mahayoga," in Navonmesa
Mahamahopadhyaya Gopinath Kaviraj Commemoration Volume, ed Jaideva Singh,
Govindagopal Mukhopadhyaya and Hemendra Nath Chakravorty (Varanasr M. M. Gopinath
Kaviraj Centenary Celebration Committee, 1987), pp 7-29
360

III. Constructive Suggestions on the Metaphysics of

Immanence and Transcendence
I hope that my brief historical exposition of recent Christian and Hindu
efforts to formulate enhanced understandings of divine immanence will help
to elucidate the contemporary significance of the main problematic of this
conference. I should say that I do not wish to imply that panentheistic meta-
physics is the only valid response for religious thinkers to the conflict of tradi-
tion and modernity. Indeed, while some wish to accommodate, others wish to
separate. Many religious philosophers and theologians resolutely maintain the
transcendence of God against all this-worldly values. Many also reject the
whole project of metaphysics, as is evinced in Christian neo-orthodox, death
of God, and postmodernist, deconstructionist theologies.
My presentation has not been concerned with laying the groundwork for
religious metaphysics. However, I will just state that I am committed to such
metaphysics, as a search for the most comprehensive rational explanation of
human experience, provided that it is carried out with sufficient modesty and
tentativeness.21 On this premise, I submit that it is not possible to formulate
any metaphysical conception of a religious Ultimate Reality without ascribing
to it both transcendence and immanence. I will offer some observations to
support this claim, which I hope can be useful in analogous discussions of
metaphysics in other areas of the comparative philosophy of religion.

21 I refer the reader to my effort constructively to argue for a kind of panentheistic metaphysics
in Rediscovering God with Transcendental Argument Also see the references to recent works
on metaphysics in n. 22
I observe that in a certain respect my book can be understood in terms of the agenda of
the tantnc revival discussed above That is, my comparative interpretation of the Saiva scho-
lastic system endeavors not only to demonstrate the existence of God for the contemporary
philosophy of religion My interpretation of the Saiva epistemological and ontological specu-
lations also aims, through overcoming problems raised by postmodern skepticism, to pro-
vide a foundation for traditional as well as modern interpretive realism
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence 361

On the one hand, there are a variety of considerations which indicate that
an Ultimate Reality must in some way be transcendent of the universe. Tran-
scendence is necessary in order for the Ultimate to be conceived as a suffi-
cient reason or foundation for all contingent states of affairs in the world, as a
model for our beliefs and actions, or as a goal of our ultimate concern.22 For
theism, God's transcendence is likewise essential to explaining the typical re-
ligious response of awe and fascination.
On the other hand, the Ultimate Reality's immanence is necessary for it
to have any connection with our lives. The most basic intelligibility requires
that it has a moment of immanence — whether this is explained in terms of
participation, reflection or otherwise. A God who is completely unknowable
could not even be an object of discussion, even in metaphorical or analogical
discourse. The problem is the same as establishing that we could have repre-
sentations of unknowable things in themselves. The Ultimate Reality must
likewise have some connection with worldly life for us to have any practical
orientation towards it. This is the case whether this reality is conceived as a
principle to evaluate ethical behavior, the goal of the mystic path or the climax
of all human history. Theism further requires that God has an intimate love for
His or Her devotees.

22 Within traditional religious philosophy it is precisely the affirmation of foundations that are
in some way transcendent of the world which distinguishes "meta-physics " According to
such metaphysics, attempts to deny transcendence implicitly depend upon it and are there-
fore incoherent For recent works which endeavor to reintegrate classic Greek and Christian
understandings of metaphysics with Kant's critical conception of the "transcendental" as the
necessary, see Emench Coreth, Metaphysics, trans Joseph Donceel, with a Critique by Bernard
J. F. Lonergan (New York: Seabury, 1973), Bernard J. F Lonergan, Insight A Study of Human
Understanding, revised edition (San Francisco' Harper & Row, 1978), and David Tracy,
Blessed Rage for Order The New Pluralism in Theology (Minneapolis' Wmston-Seabuty
Press, 1975) Cf. F. C Coplestone's arguments that the principle of verification of logical
positivism itself requires support from facts lying outside the empirical and logical scope of
the principle, in A J Ayer and F C. Coplestone, "Logical Positivism A Debate," in The
Meaning of Life, ed A J Ayer (New York Charles Scnbner's Sons), pp. 18-52
362

I should also observe that the proposition that the Ultimate Reality needs
to be both transcendent and immanent is not self-contradictory. For the two
qualifications can be taken as referring to different aspects of it. There is no
more problem here than in saying that my head is both hairy and bald!
Granting that the religious Ultimate Reality must comprehend both tran-
scendence and immanence, it seems that the effort of the various thinkers dis-
cussed here to accommodate modern worldly experience and values within an
enhanced metaphysics of immanence is basically sound. As the Hindu tantric
philosopher Abhinavagupta said over 1000 years ago, worldly experience does
not disappear just because one curses it to do so.23 We cannot ignore human
experience since the Renaissance of understanding the world scientifically
and manipulating it technologically; the ethical value of improving our lives
economically, politically and socially; and even the value of worldly comforts
and pleasures. A coherent metaphysical understanding of God as foundation,
model or goal for human beliefs and practices must explain His relevance, i.e.,
His immanent relatedness to these important contemporary areas of experi-
ence.24
I will base my final constructive suggestions on David Tracy's effort to
mediate the religious orientations of manifestation and proclamation. Tracy
explains manifestation and proclamation — which we are here discussing as
immanence and transcendence — respectively as understandings of God as
"always already" and "not yet."25 The divine as immanent is "always already."
This means that the world and all human endeavors (including the modern
ones) — intellectual, spiritual, moral and social — are always already sacred.

23 Isvarapratyabhijnavimarsim ofAbhinavagupta, Doctrine of Divine Recognition Sanskrit

text with BfraskaTi, 2 vols , ed. K A Subramama Iyer and K C Pandey (Reprint, Delhi
Motilal Banarsidass, 1986), 1 3 7, Vol. 1, pp 138-39 Abhinava is here arguing against the
skepticism of the Buddhist logic school of Dignaga and DharmakTrti
24 This point is argued forcefully by the process philosopher Schubert Ogden in The Reality of
God, and Other Essays (Dallas. Southern Methodist University Press, 1992), pp 1-70
25 Tracy, The Analogical Imagination
The Dialectic of Transcendence and Immanence %1

God or the Ultimate Reality must already inform our lives for them to have
meaning God as transcendent is "not yet" This means that He or She will
never be captured in any human experience The proclamation of transcend-
ence reveals our hubris, and how our best achievements still disguise igno-
rance, and unspintual and unethical purposes This proclamation exhorts us to
improve in all ways — improve our understanding, improve ourselves ethi-
cally and improve the world It is likewise the proclamation of transcendence
which inspires us to seek and hope for God in the future — in the mystic
experience, the beatific vision, or the eschaton