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| Review of John Polkinghorne's "The God of Hope and the End of the World"
Review of John Polkinghorne, John, 2002. The God of Hope and the End of the World. New Haven and London, Yale University Press. 154 pp. $19.95.
Eschatology, anyone?
Not a question with a ready answer in the 21st Century.
Of course, several years ago when the millennium dawned, the popular press treated us to many and various musings about time, 'the last things', and the clash of cultures -- at Armageddon and elsewhere.
Few people with a modern spirit took any of these speculations seriously, and now the postulations are long forgotten, with no great intellectual loss.
The work of one group, however, was quite different. For three years, an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including natural scientists, social scientists, biblical researchers, and theologians, met for occasional colloquia under the auspices of the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton.
Their assumed task was to consider, in light of modern knowledge, the expression of Christian eschatological hope concerning the end of the world, including the question concerning the fulfillment of the divine purpose for Creation.
The overriding question for them concerned how best to articulate today the true message of Christian hope, and in what form one might credibly formulate (and rationally defend) the eschatological expectations embedded in the message about God's goal for history.
Fascinating.
Those interactions at Princeton resulted in a volume of essays entitled The Ends of the World and the Ends of God, edited by John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker (Trinity Press International, 2000).
Since those essays, however, were specialized and focused on fairly narrow questions, and 'make significant intellectual demands on their readers,' the group of scholars, according to Canon Polkinghorne, 'decided that there would also be merit in there being a smaller book, drawing inspiration from Ends of God but having the unity that would come from a single author.'
Canon Polkinghorne volunteered to write such a book, and we have, as a result, the present volume, God of Hope, no less serious but shorter in scope and 'less full' of scholarly detail and references.
God of Hope, therefore, draws its themes and focus from the earlier dialogue but is clearly Polkinghorne's own take on the subject. Readers familiar with Polkinghorne's considerable corpus of constructive theology will recognize consistent positions and claims throughout this work.
But this is new thinking -- not rehash -- and an important contribution in its own right to the continuing dialogue. It is weighty stuff: the fulfillment of the history of the universe and the history of humanity. Topics hard to get a handle on in ordinary discourse.
As Polkinghorne points out, it is ultimately a question 'whether we live in a world that makes sense, not just now, but totally and forever.'
Polkinghorne's position is that the Christian message provides 'the central discourse for answering that fundamental question.'
The book is divided into three almost equal sections. The first, 'Scientific and Cultural Prologue,' provides the broad context for an intelligent discourse about Eschatology in the modern world. Polkinghorne addresses aspects such as cosmic process, natural science insights, cultural memory and intuitions of reality. The section serves to get the reader and the author on the same page.
The middle portion of the book reviews the Biblical resources, both Old and New Testaments. (We tend to forget that the Old Testament contains just as much eschatological speculation as does the New.) But this section is not scholarly exegesis -- apparently there is a heavy dose of same in Ends of God, to which Polkinghorne makes reference. But his purpose is only to survey certain eschatological themes derived from the scriptural authors. This provides a grounding for his subsequent constructive statement.
Central to his treatment here, as he has alerted us previously, is the resurrection accounts and the role resurrection comes to play in the Christian's eschatological thinking. In particular, Polkinghorne addresses the significant question about 'continuity / discontinuity' in the 'New Creation.' It puzzled Paul in I Corinthians 15, and it puzzles us still. Of course, without evidence one way or the other, we have to settle for a coherent argument that is grounded in the early church witness but is not self-contradictory. The puzzle remains.
The final, theological section of the book returns to the theme of hope, which has as its foundation the conviction about God's steadfast love. Here Polkinghorne discusses (among other things) the debate between 'realized eschatology' and 'futurist eschatology' (transformation within history or at the end of history). Without a consensus from the Biblical testimony, Polkinghorne feels that hope, in its ontological status, provides 'an important mediating concept' in this unresolved debate.
Others issues get solid and thoughtful consideration: personhood and the soul, forgiveness and judgment, heaven and hell, life post-mortem. Answers may be elusive, but after all, sound theology most often concerns itself with getting the questions right. If that isn't accomplished, the answers don't matter much.
The contribution that comes from Polkinghorne's treatment stems from his position as a 'scientific theologian' rather than a systematic theologian, a distinction he will not let us forget. The contrast between the approaches lies in the manner in which the former seeks to test proposed concepts against self-motivated suppositions, these tests being derived from present experience even if extrapolated beyond it.
As Polkinghorne points out, all theologians, of whatever persuasion, on these questions must proceed with some considerable measure of conjecture. 'However jejune such attempts must inevitably be in advance of any experience of redeemed reality, they give a modest degree of substance to eschatological thinking, in a way that seems necessary to explicate the hope to which it refers.' (p. 144)
Okay. Granted.
You try it.
As a 21st century modern day theologian, you try your hand at writing twelve coherent, compelling chapters on eschatological hope.
If you can do nearly as well as Polkinghorne has done, I'd like to read it.
E. Maynard Moore, Ph.D, is an ordained United Methodist minister (retired) who now spends his time and effort consulting with religious and other nonprofit organizations on matters of resource development and strategic planning. He lives in the Washington DC area and is a regular participant in the ongoing dialogue in science and religion.
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Published 2002.09.27
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