Cosmotheism is a term for several political or religious concepts. One conception refers to the idea that the entire

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...

( ''kosmos'') is

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

(

theos THEOS, which translates from Greek as "God", is an operating system which started out as OASIS, a microcomputer operating system for small computers that use the Zilog Z80, Z80 processor. When the operating system was launched for the IBM Per ...

).Assmann, Jan (2009). ''Moses the Egyptian'', p. 142. Harvard University Press. It is thus similar to

pantheism Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...

and the idea of the

anima mundi The concept of the (Latin), world soul (, ), or soul of the world (, ) posits an intrinsic connection between all living beings, suggesting that the world is animated by a soul much like the human body. Rooted in ancient Greek and Roman philo ...

(world-soul). The term was coined by Lamoignon de Malesherbes (1721–1794) in 1782 to refer to the Stoic worship of the cosmos or mundus as a Supreme Being.

Jan Assmann Johann Christoph "Jan" Assmann (7 July 1938 – 19 February 2024) was a German Egyptologist, cultural historian, and religion scholar. Life and works Assmann studied Egyptology and classical archaeology in Munich, Heidelberg, Paris, and Göt ...

ascribed the doctrine to ancient Egyptian theology as well as various Greek philosophies. According to Assmann, " Malesherbes could not have found a better term for what seems to be the common denominator of Egyptian religion, Alexandrinian (

Neoplatonic Neoplatonism is a version of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a series of thinkers. Among the common id ...

, Stoic, Hermetic) philosophy, and Spinozism, including the medieval traditions such as alchemy and the cabala that have served as intermediaries." Assmann also sees cosmotheistic ideas in the

German Romanticism German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...

of figures like

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

and

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

. The term is separately associated with

William Luther Pierce William Luther Pierce III (September 11, 1933 – July 23, 2002) was an American Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi Activism, political activist. For more than 30 years, he was one of the highest-profile individuals of the white nationalist movement. A physic ...

, an American

white nationalist White nationalism is a type of racial nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that white people are a Race (human categorization), raceHeidi Beirich and Kevin Hicks. "Chapter 7: White nationalism in America". In Perry, Barbara ...

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

who founded the National Alliance. His cosmotheist ideology espoused that evolution was on an upward path to oneness with God; Pierce said that whites had a "divine spark" that set them on the best path for this.

References

Pantheism National Alliance (United States) {{religion-stub