PDF here 

Cite: Morris, B. (1998) Visions of Pantheism. Unpublished manuscript. www.philosopher.eu/visions-of-pantheism [2025]

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Note:

Prof. Em. Brian Morris is emeritus professor of anthropology at Goldsmith’s College, University of London. This unpublished manuscript was posted to Dr Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes, University of Exeter, who typeset it into the current format here, and received permission from Morris to release it online, in November 2025. This paper was originally presented as a talk to the Anthropology Society at SOAS in 1998, and it was essentially a summary of Morris’ book on pantheism that was never published.

Dr Sjöstedt-Hughes asked for the paper because he was preparing his own (2025) paper on the subject – ‘Pantheism: One and All’ – and knew that Brian (the good friend of his primary school headmaster, Michael Cox) had once written a text on it.  Unfortunately the text was not received till after the publication of Sjöstedt-Hughes’ paper, but as Brian (b. 1936) said he had never really engaged with the internet, Peter suggested that this paper paper be there (here) made available to the world rather than being lost in aeternum. And so here it is.

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Outline:

1. Introduction
2. Pantheism as a Religion Ontology
   1.  Deism
   2. Theism
   3. Gnosticism
   4. Panentheism
   5. Paganism

3. The Classical Forms of Pantheism
4. Conclusion
   1. An Ecological Perspective
   2. A Dialectical Approach
   3. Ethical Naturalism
   4. Radical Politics

5. References

[appx. 9000 words]