Cosmology and Theology

104 Pages·1983·2.33 MB·English

by  Tracy, David, Lash, Nicholas (eds.)

CONCILIUM
Editorial Directors
Giuseppe Alberigo Bologna Italy
Gregory Baum Toronto Canada
Leonardo Boff Petr6polis Brazil
Antoine van den Boogaard Nijmegen The Netherlands
Paul Brand Ankeveen The Netherlands
Marie-Dominique Chenu OP Paris France
John Coleman SJ Berkeley, Ca. USA
Mary Collins OSB Washington USA
Yves Congar OP Paris France
Mariasusai Dhavamony SJ Rome Italy
Christian Duquoc OP Lyon France
Virgil Elizondo San Antonio, Texas USA
Casiano Floristan Madrid Spain
Claude Geffre OP Paris France
Norbert Greinacher Tübingen West Germany
Gustavo Gutierrez Lima Peru
Peter Huizing SJ Nijmegen The Netherlands
Bas van Iersel SMM Nijmegen The Netherlands
Jean-Pierre Jossua OP Paris France
Hans Küng Tübingen West Germany
Nicholas Lash Cambridge Great Britain
Rene Laurentin Paris France
Johannes-Baptist Metz Münster West Germany
Dietmar Mieth Düdingen Switzerland
Jürgen Moltmann Tübingen West Germany
Roland Murphy OCarm Durham, NC USA
Jacques Pohier OP Paris France
David Power OMI Washington, DC USA
Karl Rahner SJ Munich West Germany
Luigi Sartori Padua Italy
Edward Schillebeeckx OP Nijmegen The Netherlands
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Hyattsville, Ind. USA
David Tracy Chicago USA
Knut Walf Nijmegen The Netherlands
Anton Weiler Nijmegen The Netherlands
John Zizioulas Glasgow Great Britain
Lay Specialist Advisers
Jose Luis Aranguren Madrid/Santa Barbara, Ca. Spain/USA
Luciano Caglioti Rome Italy
August Wilhelm von Eiff Bonn West Germany
Paulo Freire Perdizes, Säo Paulo Brazil
Harald Weinrich Munich West Germany
Concilium 166 (611983): Project 'X'
COSMOLOGY
AND
THEOLOGY
Edited by
David Tracy
and
Nicholas Lash
English Language Editor
Marcus Lefäbure
T. & T. CLARK LTD THE SEABURY PRESS
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June 1983
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CONTENTS
Editorial
DAVID TRACY vii
NICHOLAS LASH
Part I
Historical
New Testament Cosmology
JOHN COLLINS 3
Freedom and Necessity in Early Christian Thought About God
HENRY CHADWICK 8
The God of Space and Time
OLAF PEDERSEN 14
The Evolutionary Shift
GÜNTER ALTNER 21
Eschatology and Cosmology
TSHIBANGU TSHISHIKU 27
Part II
Topical
Creation and Cosmos: The Symbolics of Proclamation and
Participation
JAMES BUCHANAN 37
Astrophysical Cosmology
HERMANN BRÜCK 44
Cosmology as Myth
MARY HESSE 49
vi CONTENTS
The Creationist Issue: A Theologian's View
LANGDON GILKEY 55
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: The Case Reopened
WILLIAM WARTHLING 70
Modem Cosmology and Eastern Thought, Especially Hinduism
URSULA KING 76
Part III
Concluding Editorial Reflections
Editorial Reflections
DAVID TRACY 87
NICHOLAS LASH
Contributors 93
Editorial
THE 'POSITIVISM' which supposed that only the physical sciences (and disciplines
which conform to their procedures) could furnish us with knowledge of the world is on
the wane, although it remains influential in the popular imagination. What is taking its
place, and what are the implications for theology of the recognition that scientific
understanding is, as are all forms of human understanding, shaped by need, hope, time
and circumstance?
Since the eighteenth century theologians have tended, partly as a result of the
'anthropologising' and 'individualising' of theological · concern, to concentrate on
doctrines of redemption to the neglect of doctrines of creation. But what should be the
relationship between these two aspects of Christian belief? In preparing this issue, it
became clear to us that questions of 'cosmology' concern not only the origin and 'natural
structure' of the world but also its destiny. When 'creation' and 'redemption' are too
sharply separated, reflection on the latter neglects the implications of the fact that the
destiny of human beings, of 'animals who hope', is inextricably bound up with the
destiny of a cosmos for which we share responsibility.
A further difficulty: scientific and theological understanding may not be necessarily
conflictual, but neither may they be conflated into the grammar of a single discourse.
Attempts to do so usually seek to 'fit' religious symbols into some !arger pattern of
scientific discourse. The result has often been to understate the tragic. Especially in the
nineteenth century, religious world views derived from the supposedly 'value free'
descriptions of science tended to be unwarrantedly 'optimistic' in character.
'Cosmology' may mean many things. The term can refer to theological accounts of
the world as God's creation; or to philosophical reflection on the categories of space and
time; or to observational and theoretical study of the structure and evolution of the
physical universe; or, finally, to 'world views': unified imaginative perceptions of how
the world seems and where we stand in it.
We therefore decided to place the initial emphasis on the history ofthe relationships
between theological and cosmological doctrines. Without an attempt to 'retrieve' the
history, the current state of the problem cannot be appropriately indicated.
J. Collins, in the first of a group of articles which concentrates on the historical
issues, emphasises the enduring validity of the insight that the question of human
salvation cannot be divorced from our understanding of and relationship to the world
around us. A similar consideration emerges from H. Chadwick's discussion of the
relationships between freedom and necessity in early Christian thought about God.
0. Pedersen highlights the role played by theology in helping to liberate human beings
from the fixed confines of the ancient cosmos only to release them into those infinite
spaces in which God was not found. Once the connections between God and space had
been severed the category of the temporal came increasingly to dominate scientific and
theological discussion (see G. Altner). To raise the question of time is to raise the
question of 'end-time'. Bp Tshishiku, therefore, discusses some developments in
eschatology.
J. Buchanan, in the first of a group of articles dealing with particular topics, argues
for the indispensability of the symbol of 'creation' for holding in tension our sense of
participation in and distinctness from the natural order of the world. H. Brück
summarises developments in scientific cosmology, and insists that scientific exploration
viii EDITORIAL
of the 'beginning' of the universe is not tobe confused with consideration of its 'creation'
by God. When cosmology and theology conflict, suggests M. Hesse, they do so because
neither discourse has sufficiently acknowledged its status as symbolic construction of
reality. This thesis is illustrated by L. Gilkey's reflections on disputes between
'creationism' and 'evolution'. The length of his article is due to the fact that, when
another contributor had been unable to accept our invitation, Gilkey kindly agreed to
locate these disputes in the broader context of the relationship between scientific and
religious 'world views'. There follows an assessment of Teilhard de Chardin's
contribution to our theme (s ee W. Warthling). Finally, because some Western scientists,
in becoming conscious of the need to attend to the 'spiritual', have begun to look to the
East rather than to Western religion, U. King has provided a Bulletin on 'Modem
Cosmology and Eastern Thought'.
How is the universal ( cosmic?) significance of the Incarnation to be understood in a
world for which no single, all-embracing, 'scientific' cosmological narrative can be
constructed? What forms of hope in God the Creator are appropriate in a world in which
ideologies of 'progress' have perished? These are just two of the questions which we had
originally hoped to cover, and on some of which we have touched in our 'Concluding
Editorial Reflections'.
DAVID TRACY
NICHOLAS LASH
PARTI
Historical