Autor: Ormerod, Neil

Buch: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Titel: Creation, Grace, and Redemption

Stichwort: Eschatologie - modernes Weltbild (Hubble, Einstein); Ende: Geschichte - Kosmos;

Kurzinhalt: It would seem, then, that the notion that the end of human history would be identical to the end of the cosmos may be simply incoherent.

Textausschnitt: TRADITIONAL ESCHATOLOGY

196b "We believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." We affirm these words each time we profess our common faith in the Nicene Creed. Yet few would seek to examine the meaning of this profession beyond a very general sense of "life after death." As we saw in an earlier chapter, questions of life after death are very complex, particularly if one is seeking to eliminate any residual dualism from one's intellectual perspective. However, the closer one holds to the unity of human existence as body and soul, and the more one upholds the fundamental orientation of the human spirit to materiality, the more complex become the questions one needs to address about the cosmos as a whole. This is the case particularly in light of modern conceptions of the age and size of the universe together with recent analyses of the final state of the universe. (Fs)

196c These are not problems Christian faith has ever had to face in the past. Within a biblical imagination the whole of creation consisted of a vast tent (firmament) stretched over the land to separate the waters above from the waters below and so create dry land (Gen 1:1-4). The biblical conception of the world was relatively limited in scope, so that the idea of the "end of the world" was simple to accept. God could literally "pull the plug" on creation, as occurred in the "great flood" at the time of Noah (Gen 5-8). The later apocalyptic writings of the Old and New Testaments replaced a watery end with more vivid imaginings, with the end of the world bringing fiery judgment to sinners and blessed peace to the righteous.1 These writings present images of a new heaven and a new earth which arise out of the ashes of the present world. There the dead shall see God face to face, and in their resurrected bodies live in the heavenly city, in communion with God and with one another.

197a This same basic imagination can be found throughout the history of Christian thought. For example, Thomas Aquinas taught that the resurrection of the dead would not come about until all the heavenly spheres had ceased their motion:

Hence it would be contrary to the order established in things by Divine providence if the matter of lower bodies were brought to the state of incorruption, so long as there remains movement in the higher bodies. And since, according to the teaching of faith, the resurrection will bring men to immortal life conformably to Christ Who "rising again from the dead dieth now no more" (Rm. 6:9), the resurrection of human bodies will be delayed until the end of the world when the heavenly movement will cease. (ST III Suppl.q.77,a.l)

197b The problem is that this imagination is so tied to an outmoded cosmology as to be scarcely credible to a modern scientific worldview. The fact that we repeat such imaginings, particularly those drawn from the Bible, in our Christian worldview is indicative of the huge split we maintain between our faith and the resources of contemporary culture. There is an assumption within our classical Christian imaginations that can no longer be allowed to pass uncritically. It is the assumption that the end of human history marks the end of cosmos, an assumption buried in the neat phrase "the end of the world." But which "world" are we talking about?

END OF HISTORY, END OF COSMOS?

198a It is often noted that biblical thinking is more historically oriented than cosmologically oriented. It rejects the cyclical view of the world (often a feature of more cosmologically oriented cultures, as referred to in chapter 3), which it tends to identify with paganism, to embrace a more linear view, one with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning is evident in the material of Genesis 1-11, which moves from paradisal origins to a period of increasing violence and despair over human activities. The middle is the history of God's chosen people beginning with the story of Abraham (Gen 12), chosen as God's instrument to turn around human history, moving through the gift of the Torah, the prophetic critique of Israel's failures, and a messianic longing for God to fulfill the divine promises and bring the redemptive process initiated in Abraham to its completion. From a Christian perspective this history is proleptically completed in the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus and continued in the history of the church (particularly in Acts). Increasingly this history is viewed biblically in conflictual apocalyptic terms, a conflict between powerful forces of evil (in Christian literature captured in the symbol of the Antichrist [1 John 2:18,22; 4:3]) and God's faithful remnant, who suffer persecution at the hands of these evil forces. In the apocalyptic imagination this conflict takes on a cosmic dimension, a conflict between the angels and demons battling over the fate of the entire creation (Daniel; Book of Revelation). History is not just "secular history" but ultimately has theological significance.1 In the end victory is gained not through human achievement, which proves inadequate to the task, but through divine intervention, which snatches victory or at least vindication from the jaws of defeat. God's enemies are punished in the fires of hell, while the righteous enjoy the rewards of new life. History as we know it is brought to an end, with the coming of the Son of Man as judge of all humanity. God's kingdom will come; peace and justice will reign; every tear will be wiped away; and every sadness will be removed. Not only has human history come to an end, but the whole cosmos is implicated, leading to a "new heaven and a new earth," a new Jerusalem, where God is the temple in which we worship (Rev 21:22). (Fs)

199a It was relatively easy to maintain this linkage between the end of human history and the end of cosmos while our cosmos remained relatively small. Indeed, this was the case even up until the end of the nineteenth century.2 The biblical world consisted of the earth, the waters above and below, and lights in the sky to mark the seasons and time of day. The Ptolemaic universe was a bit bigger, placing the earth at the center with the sun, the moon, and a few planets circling around within the heavenly spheres. Copernicus may have placed the sun at the center, but still the cosmos remained a small affair. Newton's universe was marginally bigger, as people discovered more planets within our solar system and realized that the stars were much farther away than previously recognized. Growing observation displaced the sun from the center to take its place in the outer reaches of the galaxy we call the Milky Way. All this time, it remained at least partially plausible that the end of human history might be linked in some way to the end of the cosmos. However, it was only at the turn of the twentieth century, thanks to the work of Edwin Hubble, that science began to reveal just how big, and how old, the universe really is.3 Our galaxy, with its 100 billion stars, is just one of another 100 billion galaxies that we can presently observe. The size of the universe is staggering, in comparison with the very limited imaginations of the early biblical writers. It becomes increasingly unlikely that the end of human history would be of any consequence to the rest of the cosmos, which would continue on its merry path with barely a hiccup to note our passing. (Fs)

199b The problem is made more difficult if we attempt to absorb the insights of Einstein's theory of relativity. Einstein's theory of special relativity argues that certain features of space and time are relative to observers. Distance and time shift as observers move relative to one another. The truth of Einstein's theory has been verified to remarkable accuracy in experiments with subatomic particles, whose rate of decay varies precisely as predicted with their motion relative to laboratory observer. One of the many consequences of Einstein's theory is that the simultaneity of spatially removed events is also relative to observers. Two observers moving relative to each other will not be able to agree that spatially removed events are simultaneous with one another. There is no universal measure of time on which all observers will agree.4

200a This observation is important when we ask questions about the relationship between the end of the cosmos and the end of history. The end of human history, when it does come either through our own stupidity (ecological disaster) or violence (nuclear weapons), or through cosmic events (asteroids impacting, or the sun going supernova), will be a relatively distinct temporal event. The end of the cosmos, on the other hand, cannot be a distinct temporal event in the same way. The universe cannot "blink out of existence" because this would imply a common, nonrelative measure of simultaneity, in violation of special relativity. The effect of any temporal event can spread out only at the speed of light. It would seem, then, that the notion that the end of human history would be identical to the end of the cosmos may be simply incoherent. (Fs)

200b It is fair to say that our Christian imaginations have simply not caught up with these scientific perspectives. Most of us, theologians included, still live imaginatively in a three-dimensional Newtonian universe rather than the four-dimensional space-time universe uncovered by Einstein.5 In general the differences this might make to our theology are minimal; however, there is one question that does need exploration where the distinction between the end of human history and the end of cosmos makes a big difference. The question is, When do we think of the resurrection of the dead as occurring? When we speak of resurrection at the end of the world, what exactly is our reference point? Finally we have to realize how completely new this question is. It can only seriously arise in the modern era when we realize the real distinction between the end of human history and the end of the cosmos. (Fs)