Sunday Word: Immanent

[sallymn]

immanent [im-uh-nuhnt]

adjective:
1 remaining within; indwelling; inherent
2 (philosophy) (of a mental act) taking place within the mind of the subject and having no effect outside of it
3 (theology) (of the Deity) indwelling the universe, time, etc

Examples:

What follows is a tour of how various spiritual traditions conceive of nature, with a focus on a common thread: an understanding of the natural world as a unified whole shot through by 'an immanent sacred force.' (The Best Books of 2022 So Far, The New Yorker, October 2022)

But then, joy for him is not a one-dimensional emotion of exultation, rather melancholy is an integral part of it. Thus, those who see only vitality and robustness in his works or attribute the joie de vivre immanent in his landscapes to his Punjabi genes are missing the point. (Nonika Singh, A painter of light and wind, The Tribune, October 2022)

Double binds result from tensions immanent in everyday contradictions and are the source of the majority of relational problems. (Kenneth Silvestri, In Pursuit of a 'Harmonizing' Relationship , Psychology Today, November 2022)

But his feeling goes beyond the mere physical and emotional delight of Chaucer and the Elizabethans; for him Nature is a direct manifestation of the Divine Power, which seems to him to be everywhere immanent in her; and communion with her, the communion into which he enters as he walks and meditates among the mountains and moors, is to him communion with God. (Robert Huntington Fletcher, A History of English Literature)

The dreadful mutilations are then seen as shadows, only, of an immanent, imperishable eternity; time yields to glory; and the world sings with the prodigious, angelic, but perhaps finally monotonous, siren music of the spheres. (Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

Origin:

'indwelling, remaining within, inherent,' 1530s, via French immanent (14c) or directly from Late Latin immanens, present participle of immanere 'to dwell in, remain in,' from assimilated form of in- 'into, in, on, upon' (from PIE root en 'in') + Latin manere 'to dwell' (from PIE root men- (3) 'to remain'). In medieval philosophy contrasted with transitive; later with transcendent. (Online Etymology Dictionary)