Thursday 22 November 2012

Emanationism

Emanationism


emanation


In contrast to the familiar Judaeo-Christian monotheistic view, according to which the whole universe just appears ready- made through Divine Fiat (or command), and the materialistic view which simply ignores first principles, Emanationism explains creation as a gradual process of emanation and descent from a transcendental Absolute to mundane reality. Thus there is no Creator God standing apart from, even if intimately connected with, the universe as in monotheism; but rather a series of stages of down-grading of Consciousness-Being, by means of which the Absolute principle actually becomes the multiplicity of entities and objects

It has been suggested (by Professor Huston Smith, in his book Amazon com Forgotten Truth) that the basic cosmology, arrived at independently by many different philosophies and spiritual traditions, shows Reality to be divided into a very minimum of four levels or planes of reality: the Infinite or Absolute (the topic of Monism), the Celestial or Divine, the Intermediate or Psychic (with which occultism deals), and the Terrestrial or Physical (the level considered by Materialism). Each of these can in turn be sub-divided

Thus, applying this in an emanationist perspective, the process of creation, in the emanationist cosmogony and cosmology, proceeds through a number of distinct stages. First the Absolute produces the Spiritual reality (or "God"). The Spiritual reality in turn produces the Psychic reality. And finally, the Psychic reality produces the Physical reality; the material world. Each reality constitutes a specific stage of manifestation

Emanationism understands the more subtle and spiritual realities as preceding and generating the grosser and more material ones, and not vice-versa as materialism assumes; and that moreover those grosser realities are the result of an out-flowing from the subtle, rather than being created ex nihilo - out of nothing - as the Theistic religions claim

Emanationism also avoids the Monist's dilemma of how to reconcile Unity (the Absolute) and Multiplicity (the World) by recognising that both the universe and the Absolute are "equally" real and valid, but they simply have a different position or status in the spectrum of being.









Web links Links Web links

Online versions of Traditional Encyclopeadias


external link Emanation - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

external link Emanationism - Original Catholic Encyclopedia ; mirror: Emanationism - Catholic Encyclopedia

external link Emanation - JewishEncyclopedia.com


Web-built Encyclopaedias


Wikipedia link Emanationism - Wikipedia

external link Emanationism - Answers.com


Independent Essays and Pages


Adobe Acrobat document Emanation & Ascent in Hermetic Kabbalah - pdf essay






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by Alan Kazlev

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