Pantheism
the view that God and the universe are identical. It was taught in India in the Vedantic system of philosophy, one of the six leading schools of thought, and to this day it is widely accepted, both by the instructed Brahmans and by the common people. In the latter part of the 12th century it was taught by Almaric of Chartres, a dialectician and theologian. Pope Innocent III. forced him to recant his views. By many Spinoza is considered to have revived pantheism, but his teaching in this respect has been misunderstood (see SPINOZA). In the pantheism of Schelling God is considered as the Absolute Being, revealing Himself in external nature and in human intelligence and freedom. a PANTHEON, famous temple at Rome, built by M. Agrippa, son-in-law of Augustus, about 27 B. C., and dedicated to Mars and Jupiter the Avenger, in memory of the victory obtained by PANTHER Augustus over Antony and Cleopatra.
The Pantheon is now commonly called the Rotunda, from its circular form. It was given to Boniface IV. by the Emperor Phocas, A. D. 609, and dedicated as a Christian church to the Virgin and holy martyrs, and in 830 Gregory IV. dedicated it to all the saints. It is the finest specimen of a circular building not surrounded by columns. The external diameter is 188 feet, and the height, exclusive of the flat dome surmounting the upper cornice, 102 feet, the dome being 36 feet high. The porch is octastyle, and is 103 feet wide. There is an excellent cast of the Pantheon in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Also all the deities collectively worshiped by a nation; the divinities of a nation; and a treatise or discourse upon the collective body of deities of a nation.