A Theological Interpretation of the Prospect of Other Life Forms in the Universe, Part I

A fascinating article entitled "The Far, Far Future of Stars" appears in last month's issue of Scientific American.  The article, written by Donald Goldsmith, delves into what he calls "[s]cientific eschatology"¹ and explains, so far as astrophysicists can tell, what will be the future of the universe.

Goldsmith contends that the nature of the universe in the future will be hospitable to new forms of life.  The reason why the prognosis of the future universe is full of life, although the sun is projected to burn out in roughly five billion years, is that newer generations of stars have heavier elements than previous generations.  "The extraheavy elements should... favor the birth of planets, along with stars, and thus the prospects for life in the universe," states Goldsmith.  He grants that, at least initially, "the proliferation of planets does not seem promising for life" since many of the stars in the distant future will be significantly "less luminous than the sun."  However, continues Goldsmith, "A star with as little as one one-thousandth of the sun's luminosity can maintain temperatures that allow liquids to exist on close-in planets, satisfying what seems to be a requirement for living things to exist."²

NGC 7027, Planetary Nebula, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute, on Flickr

Goldsmith is optimistic that the future of the universe will be filled with life.  He explains why in the following passage:

[L]ife on earth, as well as almost all other forms of life that scientists speculate about, depends on the existence of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.  As time goes on, the increasing relative abundance of these elements should yield planets more hospitable to life.  Therefore, as star formation steadily diminishes, every newborn star should appear with a progressively greater probability of lighting one or more potential life-bearing planets.  Some of these new stars will have the low masses and tiny luminosities that allow them to last for hundreds or thousands of billions of years (not that such immense lifetimes seem necessary for the origin and evolution of life).  However full or empty of life the universe may be today, it should teem with more abundant and more varied forms of life in the future.³

Statistically, the odds are in favor of the existence of other forms of life in the universe, and the odds will only continue to increase.  There are three broad theological implications to the prospect of other life in the universe.  The first is perhaps the most obvious, and that is the munificence of God.  The second implication is soteriological in nature.  The third is eschatological.  I will devote a blog post for each of these implications.

In this blog post I will discuss the unfathomable richness of the depths of God.  Jesus called himself "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6, RSV).  So too, the Holy Spirit is called the one who "gives life" (John 6:63, RSV).  God is the author and source of life and sustains life through his loving regard, i.e. his thought.  This doctrine has its roots in Plato's philosophy.  Plato's theory of the forms is well known.  Essentially, it is the idea that everything that exists has its counterpart in another world, a pure world, of forms, and that everything that exists participates in these pure forms.  Christian theologians modified Plato's theory of the forms and reasoned to what they call the divine ideas.  Essentially, the rationale behind the concept of the divine ideas is that God has an idea of everything that exists - otherwise, they would not exist, since God's being is the source of the being of everything else.  Like Plato, theologians associated beings in this universe with another order.  Unlike Plato, however, theologians saw all things as rooted in a personal God as opposed to a world of forms.  The existence of other life forms would testify to the divine creativity.  The abundance of life on earth already testifies to God's creativity.  One has only to consider that there are approximately 8.7 million species on the earth.  With the possibility of there being literally millions of earth-like planets in the universe, with each earth having millions of species, the extent of life in the universe becomes impressive indeed.

Of course, it could also be argued that life is unique to earth and that this demonstrates the fragile nature of life on earth, the particular love of God for human beings, and his particular concern for the earth.  Perhaps life is unique to earth.  Whether or not life is unique to earth, either the superabundance of God on the one hand or a special concern and tenderness on the other is manifested by the extent of life.  God's glory and majesty are held intact either way.  My opinion is that there probably are other intelligent life forms and that if there aren't now, it is likely that they will develop in the future.  This development, however, would be a part of God's plan rather than being the result of random evolution.  It is important for Christians to insist on a divine hand in evolutionary processes - otherwise, the development of the universe and of humanity would be the product of chance and fate.  This is the ancient teaching of the Greek philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC), and many people today ascribe to sophisticated forms of both his cosmology and his emphasis on pleasure as the goal of human life.  That these two views go together is not accidental.

The variety of life on earth even now attests to God's generosity and his overflowing goodness.  The presence of life in other corners of the universe would amplify our knowledge of the scope of God's munificence.  The discovery of alien life would not add anything new to God, but it would give us a greater insight into his grandeur. 

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1. Donald Goldsmith, "The Far, Far Future of Stars," Scientific American (March 2012), 34.^↩

2. Ibid., 36.^↩

3. Ibid., 38.^↩

Benedict XVI's Cosmic Soteriology and Environmentalism

Pope Benedict XVI is beyond doubt a world class theologian.  His theology (thanks in large part to Ignatius Press) is highly accessible to the English-speaking world and has had a profound impact on society.  He has been described as the "greenest pope in history" thanks to his advocacy of environmentalism and his emphasis on respect for creation.¹  In his encyclical letter Caritas in Veritate, the pontiff writes, "The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere."²

Crater Lake, Oregon
CC image courtesy of Stuart Seeger on Flickr

The underpinnings of the pontiff's environmentalism are highly theological.  For Benedict, the entire cosmos shares in the salvation brought about by Christ.  He describes the cosmic scope of salvation in the final paragraph of Eschatology:

Heaven will only be complete when all the members of the Lord’s body are gathered in.  Such completion on the part of the body of Christ includes, as we have seen, the ‘resurrection of the flesh.’  It is called the ‘Parousia’ inasmuch as then the presence of Christ, so far only inaugurated among us, will reach its fulness and encompass all those who are to be saved and the whole cosmos with them.  And so heaven comes in two historical stages.  The Lord’s exaltation gives rise to the new unity of God with man, and hence to heaven.  The perfecting of the Lord’s body in the pleroma of the ‘whole Christ’ brings heaven to its true cosmic completion.  Let us say it once more before we end: the individual’s salvation is whole and entire only when the salvation of the cosmos and all the elect has come to full fruition.  For the redeemed are not simply adjacent to each other in heaven.  Rather, in their being together as the one Christ, they are heaven.  In that moment, the whole creation will become song.  It will be a single act in which, forgetful of self, the individual will break through the limits of being into the whole, and the whole take up its dwelling in the individual.  It will be joy in which all questioning is resolved and satisfied.³

The basis for Benedict's insistence that human beings respect creation is that both humanity and the rest of creation share the same destiny, a destiny designed by God and fulfilled in Christ.

In addition to his ecological moral injunctions, Benedict explicitly associates environmental issues with life issues and argues that the two are inseparable:

The deterioration of nature is in fact closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when “human ecology” is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits. Just as human virtues are interrelated, such that the weakening of one places others at risk, so the ecological system is based on respect for a plan that affects both the health of society and its good relationship with nature . . . If there is a lack of respect for the right to life and to a natural death, if human conception, gestation and birth are made artificial, if human embryos are sacrificed to research, the conscience of society ends up losing the concept of human ecology and, along with it, that of environmental ecology. It is contradictory to insist that future generations respect the natural environment when our educational systems and laws do not help them to respect themselves. The book of nature is one and indivisible: it takes in not only the environment but also life, sexuality, marriage, the family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society.⁴

Human beings need to respect the environment but they cannot respect it unless they respect their own humanity.  Abortion, euthanasia, and the exploitation of human beings for the sake of technological development cannot be ignored at the expense of the exploitation of the earth - these two tasks are mutually interrelated.  One cannot truly care about the environment if one is unconcerned that there are millions of abortions occurring in our own country, and one cannot truly care about human beings if one is unconcerned about the way companies and individuals harm the environment through the dumping of chemical wastes and other ecological disasters that occur throughout the world.  Benedict is right to see that these two concerns are connected.  We must, as a Church destined for salvation in Christ with the rest of creation, care for creation too, and fulfill our Adamic role as stewards of creation.

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1. Benedict XVI and Woodeene Koenig-Bricker, Ten Commandments for the Environment: Pope Benedict XVI Speaks Out for Creation and Justice (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria, 2009), 8.^↩

2. Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2009), 51. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html.^↩

3. Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, trans. Michael Waldstein, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1988), 237-238.^↩

4. Caritas in Veritate, 51.^↩

Children of God

Lucy Agnes, b. 1/21/12

My wife gave birth to our daughter, Lucy Agnes, exactly one week ago.  It's really wonderful being so close to new life!  Reflecting on her makes me think of what it means to be a child of God.  It means completely trusting in God, depending on him for everything, and recognizing that compared to God, we are like infants: small, helpless, weak, but full of potential.  We are to become children of God by believing in Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel of John relates, "But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12-13, RSV).

I think that it is sometimes difficult for theologians to capture the essence of being a child of God in their lives.  Psalm 131 brings out the challenges involved in simultaneously striving to be a child of God while being a theologian:

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,

my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a child quieted at its mother's breast;

like a child that is quieted is my soul.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and for evermore.

                        - Psalm 131, RSV

The Psalmist emphasizes peace and calmness of soul as opposed to seeking "great" things.  It is never specified what type of things the Psalmist is referring to.  Are these things material possessions?  A kingdom and everything that comes with it?  Ideas that cannot be grasped by the intellect?

There are many things a theologian cannot grasp completely, things which are too high for the theologian since theology is the study of God and things related to God.  Theology deals with supra-rational realities. The mind is not able to grasp these realities except through a humble act of faith in what is passed on by tradition.  But the theologian is also called to press beyond the present theological understanding of a doctrine since this is the way theology works.  Truth itself, though passed on in its fullness to the Church, is still in the process of being fully understood.  Although the Church possesses the fullness of the truth, it does not yet know the fullness of the truth since it is continually being better understood.  According to Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council's dogmatic constitution on divine revelation, "as the centuries go by, the church is always advancing towards the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in it" (Dei Verbum, ¶8).

Theologians have a dual vocation of being theologians as well as being children of God.  They are stretched in two different but compatible directions.  While endeavoring to acquire a profounder understanding of mysteries too great for human beings, they are also to approach their work with a profound humility, recognizing that they are nothing whereas God is everything.  Looking at Lucy reminds me of my call to be a child of God even as I strive to comprehend the profound truths revealed in and through Jesus Christ.

Theology and Holiness

Theology is an academic endeavor whose subject matter is God.  This does not mean, however, that a theologian is automatically going to be a holy or pious person.  In chapter 5 of The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis presents a portrait of a theologian who was consigned to Hell.  At one point in the course of this theologian's career, theology became a means of exercising his intellect rather than a subject that contains truth.  For him, theology was merely a cerebral game and had ceased to be the search for answers to his deepest questions.

Even the best theologians often struggle with their learning and the quest for holiness through humble faith.  Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) expresses the tension St. Paul experienced as a theologian in the following passage:

How does Paul reconcile his scorn for the wisdom of the Greeks with his own spiritual struggle to comprehend the content of faith - a struggle that would have been unthinkable without the legacy of Hebrew and Greek learning?  How are the two combined in the history of faith - the constant reference to the unlearned and the steady development of scholarly theological knowledge?  The question is of prime importance because it reflects the debate that is still in progress, despite the lapse of time, about the foundation, the possibility and the direction of a coexistence of faith and learning.¹

An extremely erudite Jew, Paul had the Jewish Scriptures echoing in his mind.  He knew of the praise it heaped on the wise man who sought to know and follow the Law.  Yet, Paul was also aware of the sayings of Jesus, who extolled simplicity over learning when he declared in prayer, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Luke 10:21, RSV).  Paul himself was aware of the dangers of learning when he wrote to the Corinthians, "'Knowledge' puffs up, but love builds up.  If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.  But if one loves God, one is known by him" (1 Cor. 8:1-3).  Although Paul is divided between learning and a simple faith, one thing is clear for him: knowledge is nothing compared to charity, which is at the heart of Christianity.

At the same time however, Paul understood that charity includes sharing with others the saving truth of Jesus Christ, a truth which theology seeks to understand as fully as possible (cf. 1 Tim. 2:4).  Ratzinger expresses the same idea when he explains, "The love that is required by faith and that belongs to its innermost nature does not exclude the other's need for truth . . . faith that reaches out to the other reaches out of necessity to his questioning as well."²

Fast-forwarding to today, the academic discipline of theology has multiplied extensively. There are many theology graduate students throughout the world who are or will be vying for the top faculty positions at various institutions of higher education.  Theologians should keep in mind that theology is intrinsically related to holiness since the subject of theology is God.  The same tension that existed in Paul nearly two-thousand years ago also exists in many theologians today.

Cologne Cathedral, image courtesy of Connie on Pixdaus

In the 20th century, the theologian whose theology was perhaps the most explicitly related to the quest for holiness is Hans Urs von Balthasar.  Von Balthasar described his theology as a "kneeling theology."³  Edward T. Oakes compares von Balthasar's theology to a Gothic cathedral which can function as a sort of museum for secular visitors, but which was intended to be a place of worship for the Faithful.⁴  Von Balthasar insists that theology should not merely be an academic exercise but should be something edifying and sanctifying.

Von Balthasar's example should lead theologians to reflect on the reasons why he or she does theology.  Is it just to acquire or keep a job?  Is it to occupy one's mind with intellectually scintillating information?  Is it to be able to boast to others about one's advanced degrees?  Is it just to do something rather than nothing so as to ward off boredom?  Or is it for reasons that are altogether on a higher plane of nobility?

Is it to constantly remind oneself of God?  Is it to consider the universe from the divine perspective? Is it to come into contact with edifying information so as to build up oneself and others?  Is it to mold, shape and carefully develop students who will in turn become teachers of other students?  Is it to serve the people of God, utilize one's God given talents and, in so doing, to fulfill one's vocation?⁵

A Dominican once imparted to me the following words of wisdom: "My desk has been my cross. Although it has been hard work, my life as a Dominican has been very rewarding."  The cross is indeed the image of every theologian's vocation.  Just as Christ gave himself up for the Church, so too should theologians give up themselves so as to serve the Church.

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1. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology: Building Stones for a Fundamental Theology, trans. Sister Mary Frances McCarthy, S.N.D. (San Francisco: Ignatius, 1987), 336.^↩

2. Ibid., 337.^↩

3. Edward T. Oakes, Pattern of Redemption: The Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar (New York: Continuum, 1994), 7.^↩

4. Ibid., 7-8.^↩

5. For more information on what the Catholic Church teaches about the vocation of theologians, see Donum Veritatis: On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian.^↩

The Theological Method of St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is one of the theological giants in the history of Christian theology.  Assimilating much of what came before him and providing insights to generations of theologians after him, Thomas's work is truly enduring.  His magnum opus, the Summa Theologica, is one of the greatest theological achievements of all time.

Thomas Aquinas in Stained Glass
CC image by Thomas Gun on Flickr via Wikipedia

Thomas is viewed differently by different theologians.  Some view him as insightful in his day but as not touching on any topics that are presently relevant.  Others see him as giving the answers to practically everything related to theology.  Thomists and neo-Thomists uphold Thomas as the ultimate theologian.  Indeed, he provides a model for theologians that remains unparalleled.  However, the method of Thomas and the methods of Thomists and neo-Thomists are often separated by a chasm.

The method of the Angelic Doctor was to read widely and to assimilate everything which was good and useful into his theology.  Not only did his research lead him to draw extensively from the Fathers of the Church (Eastern and Western alike) as well as contemporary theologians, but he also made use of the writings of thinkers from other religions.  The most famous non-Christian source in Thomas's work is Aristotle, whom Thomas called the Philosopher.  In addition to engaging with Greek philosophy, Thomas also made use of the writings of Jews and Muslims.  The radical nature of his utilization of other sources is illustrated by the ire it drew from Stephen Tempier, the bishop of Paris, who seemingly aimed some of his condemnations of 1277 at Thomas's writings.

By contrast, Thomists and neo-Thomists often restrict their study to the writings of Thomas and commentators on Thomas.  When they do go outside of their purview, it is usually to critique other theologians in light of Thomas's theology.  Even when their interaction with other theologians is favorable, they most certainly do not engage with Jewish and Muslim thinkers as Thomas did.  To be fair, Thomism has produced great fruit in the Church.  I am merely suggesting that Thomists ought to imitate Thomas more closely in his method.

St. Thomas is indeed a theological master to be emulated, but theologians must be willing to follow the essence of his theological method.  Of course, the scholastic method would be out of place in today's theological literature - scholasticism is accidental to the essence of his method, which was to analyze many theological sources and synthesize a multitude of insights into one coherent system.

For Thomas, no one was the master except for Jesus Christ.  For us too, no one should be the master except for Jesus Christ.  What this means is that even though we recognize Thomas as a master, we should not hold his theology to be the insurmountable peak of theology.  This would be an unhealthy disposition leading to theological stultification.  Authentic Thomism is characterized by adherence to the method of Thomas, a method constituted by moving beyond what has come before and engaging in dialogue with secular philosophers and with those of other religious tenets while remaining uncompromising regarding the truths of the Faith and the saving message of God's love to the world in Jesus Christ.

The Divine Origin of Newness

At the end of the book of Revelation, Jesus proclaims, "Behold, I make all things new" (Rev. 21:5).  Newness is a theme that is closely associated with divine action.  The power to bestow newness belongs only to the One who is eternal, the One who has no beginning.  But just because God has no beginning does not mean he lacks newness.  St. Augustine writes in the Confessions, "Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved Thee!"¹  Although God is the ancient One, he is also the One who is eternally new.

St. Augustine of Hippo
Source: www.turnbacktogod.com/st-augustine-of-hippo/

The beginning of the year is an opportunity for reflection.  It is a time for looking back at the past year and for looking ahead at what the new year holds in store.  Above all, it is a time of renewal.  Such renewal cannot take place apart from God since he is the source of newness.  He is the origin of time itself.  He set the earth revolving around the sun, causing each New Year to occur.

This New Year, I pray that all of us will be renewed in faith and love, rejoicing in the newness God offers to each of us through the mercy, grace and forgiveness of sins brought about by the gift of his Son to the world.  Although many challenges will face us this year, we can rest assured that God will guide our steps so long as we trust in him.  May we all be rejuvenated as we dedicate this year to God.  Happy New Year and God bless!

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1. Augustine, Confessions, trans. F. J. Sheed, ed. Michael P. Foley, 2^nd ed., (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2006), 210 [X.27.38].^↩