Definitions of the Divine

Paganism as defined by modern Wiccans as well as the ancient Neoplatonists tend to acknowledge both dimensions of the divine as transcendent and immanent, according to Gus Dizerega. The whole world is divine to the pantheist, whereas to the panentheist the divine is more like the soul within the body, both transcendent and immanent.

The transcendental vision of Christianity sees God outside the material world, like Newton's clock maker God, and the world as the clock he made, but Christians can contact God by way of the Inward Path to the Father Within, so God is also immanent in the world.

The Goddess giving birth to the world brings the divine into the world in an intimate way, which seems to relate better to the material view of creation than a transcendent God outside the world.  But we evolve to Godhood from the Primal Material, from the simple to the complex, from the lower to the higher, and the Goddess view of creation doesn't fit as well with this more naturalistic view, since from the lower to the higher doesn't fit the higher Goddess source, although the Primal Material could be considered a "Goddess" in another sense.

Theological materialism of the Evolutionary Christian Church sees the material world evolving to Godhood in the material world, Godhood is at the zenith of material evolution, which is not a God outside the world. The Spirit-Will activates within material life, and life is shaped by outside evolution. The Soul is at the zenith of the mind, and one can experience the Soul or the Father Within if one rids the body of all physical desires. The Soul is a reminder, a symbolic experience, of the goal of the Spirit-Will, which is supermaterial Godhood evolved to in the cosmos.

Evolution being central in theological materialism the cosmos is seen as linear and historical, as the Christians see the world, but also cyclical and mythical, as Paganism suggests, although no cycle is exactly the same in our continual evolution toward Godhood.