ESCHATOLOGY
By Claudio R. Bollini
“...The fragile goodness, beauty and life we see in the universe
is moving towards a completion and fulfillment
which will not be over-whelmed
by the forces of dissolution and death”
John Paul II,
Letter to the Director of the Vatican Observatory (1/6/88)
Abstract
Scientific Cosmology forecasts for the far future the entropic death of the universe, with the inevitable annihilation of all forms of life. How to conceive in this dark scenario the Christian hope on the divine consummation of the cosmos?
1- Previous explanation: The interactions between science and theology
Since the topic that we will develop implies a certain overlap between science and faith, it will be convenient to present previously a brief introduction about the epistemological perspective that we will assume.
In the ascending moment of its reflection, the faith meets other systematic knowledges. It happens that in the theological task of meditating the truth from Revelation, it turns inevitably the recourse to rational human mediations. Of course, it does not concerns on using sciences instrumentally for our own purposes, but facing the enterprise of finding in them a source of inspiration for the dogmatic development[1].
Among the different possible interactions[2], we will choose the perspective of consonance: Science and theology retain their fair autonomies in their own areas, but their affirmations have to be capable of an appropriate respective reconciliation in an eventual overlapping zone. The answers to “how” and “why” should complement without tension, by admitting that science and theology have something to say each other about the realities to which their respective discourses refer[3]. Each one of them, from its own environment, should contribute with its own viewpoint in order to elaborate complementarily a coherent worldview capable to interpret without any reductionisms every human experience[4]. Obvious examples of the search of this consonance are the history of the universe, the emerging of life, the nature of the human person and the relation between mind and body.
Since originated in Creator God, the truth is one and cannot contradict itself. So then, it always turns out to be possible, conjointly and harmoniously, to elaborate a consistent conception of the universe. To assume this balanced meeting, without fusion or separation, it is imposed a careful use of some terms that are patrimony of both disciplines, like matter, nothingness, space and time. These notions, often used by the physics and the scientific cosmology, have traditionally referred to quite different meanings in the intra-theological arena. In this sense, philosophy and theology should reconsider the clear-cut distinctions between matter and energy or between space and time, in the light of the discoveries of the reciprocal dynamic equivalency in both double members. Nevertheless, in parallel, Christian faith has to preserve certain inalienable beliefs (of true diverse significance in certain highly speculative and foreign-to-faith visions). Such is the case of concepts like immortality, soul, human being and eternity.
A last clarification: It exists an undoubted component of objectivity in exact sciences, thanks to which their formulations must speak for themselves, excluding the interpreting subject. However, theories do not have the status of irrefutable truth; not even the provided data can be considered but of provisional value. Since employed at the level of sensitively registrable and intellectually producible, the conclusions turn out to be submitted to permanent reviews and modifications. In short, the paradigms of the scientific cosmology are, indeed, capable of expressing part of the objective truth of our universe, but never exhausting it in a definite vision.
Having made these remarks, we propose now inquiring about a concrete case of an overlap between science and theology: the entropy and its cosmic consequences[5].
2. Entropy and universe evolution
For believer’s view, the universe alludes by multiple ways to Creator’s fecundity: it manifests itself opened, evolutionary and plenty of developmental possibilities for life, due to its proliferation of sources of energy. Indeed, inside the observable radio of 14 billions of light-years[6], it contains some 100 billions of galaxies, each with nearly 100 billions of stars. The Milky Way, our own galaxy –an elliptical disc of about 100 billions of light-years– has a similar quantity of stars[7].
Now then, there is a physical process whose consequences would seem to contradict this universal fertility panorama.
a. The scientific concept of Entropy
The notion of entropy is quite strange to the theological task[8]. The researches dedicated to the dialogue with the modern cosmology are scarce; besides, these works generally assume the astronomic view with the explainable attitude of a pascalian amazement facing Creator’s greatness, without noticing, jointly, darker and more tortuous aspects of the universe.
As a matter of fact, the cosmologists have come across with the distressing perspective of a thermic universal death, namely, the collapse of the sustaining and generating structures of life (such as stars and galaxies), which culminates with the disintegration of the elementary units of matter itself (protons). This dark forecast arises from the insidious action of the so-called entropy[9].
From the beginning itself of the universe, along with energy and the matter and as an inner property of all the existent, the time arrow appeared. This is an irreversible direction that marks a distinction between the past and the future. Now then, in the second half of the XIXth Century the scientists discovered that this temporary evolution brings also the so-called thermodynamic arrow, which measures the entropy or disorder in a system. This fact brought notable consequences for our conception of the cosmos.
In 1865 Rudolf Clausius (†1888) formulated his famous Second Law of Thermodynamics[10]. In its simplest form, this Law asserts that the heat flows from a zone of higher temperature (or higher energetic agitation) towards one of lower temperature. However, since the caloric flow is unidirectional, the process is asymmetric in time[11]. Thus, in a most general way, it poses the irreversibility of the entropy. Since the entropy earned by the cold body is higher than the lost by the hot one (because of the thermodynamic effect), the entropy of any isolated system grows. That is why it measures the thermodynamic irreversible change. As a result, there is an increasing and inevitable tendency to the disorder in any closed environment, until it takes place at last a thermodynamic equilibrium, in which the molecules are distributed homogeneously and have a uniform temperature: It is said then that the system attained its maximum disorder, since it does not longer exist any organized structures, but an undifferentiated uniformity. Analogously, some alphabetically classified books in a library turn to be more orderly than scattered on the floor[12].
Therefore, if the universe as a whole is considered a closed system (nothing exists outside), the 2nd Law predicts that its global entropy always grows. As an inevitable effect, the universe will be finally unprovided of its capacity of generating energy, as it would not be able to exchange work between sources of different temperatures[13]; at that moment, it would become a dead and sterile place. This state is known as the “therein death of the universe”[14].
Another issue still arises. The cosmologists have met with a paradox here: In addition to the entropic arrow, they had to admit another process of opposed direction: The road of the increasing order of the universe. Actually, right after the initial inflationary stage (commonly known as “Big Bang”), successively arose entities like quarks, atoms, molecules, galaxies, stars, and, finally, the eminent realities of life and conscience. In short, progressively organized systems have appeared.
This arrow would seem to contradict to such an extent the orientation of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, than the French physicist León Brillouin (†1969) minted the term “neg-entropy”. It denotes the capability of certain systems, specially the living ones, to develop increasingly improbable states of organization, to say, on countercurrent to the expectable course of entropy[15]. However, the paradox is only apparent: They demonstrated that the maintenance of vital structures generates entropy at the same time. So then, the entire entropy of the universe would grow even though the entropy of a particular system decreased. (Returning to the analogy of the books: whereas there are infinite ways to scattering disorderly a collection of books on the floor, there is only one scheme to get them alphabetically ordered; for that reason, it is necessary to invest in this task more effort and information). Therefore, the magnitude of entropy’s arrow grows, while the neg-entropic path, going crosscurrent, fades away to nothing.
b. Entropy and cosmos final destiny
The progressive and inexorable victory of the entropy over the neg-entropy determines the future evolution of the life-generating sources, and, with them, the fate of life itself.
Stars are nothing less than the responsible suppliers of known vital manifestations. Their duration is not eternal: the expectative of their active life range between 10 and 15 billions of years. During this stage, the stars subsist because of a subtle equilibrium between the expansion, caused by the thermonuclear force that arises from the transformation of the Hydrogen (H) into Helium (He), and the contraction, produced by the gravitational force[16]. When the H finally becomes exhausted by having totally transformed into He, the central fire of the star will lose its fuel and the stage of quiet harmony of the star will conclude[17]. Then, its surface temperature will slowly descend; meanwhile, it will start inside a new nuclear fusion, this time from the residual He of the previous stage. The internal temperature will parallelly increase. After the drain of the H, it will begin the consumption of the Carbon (C). The star will break then its internal equilibrium: Because of the increase of surface tensions, it will not be any longer able to contain the gravity. The star will considerably increase in size; while its surface temperature descends, it turns into a Red Giant. The way in which a star dies will decisively depend on its initial mass: It can end up both peacefully, in an opaque body of low radiation (called brown dwarf[18]), or violently, in an explosion as a supernova[19].
Galaxies, in whose cores are produced the stars, will also find a similar ending. Their declination will begin within 10 billons of years, when most of the stars that today we contemplate have disappeared. Although, other ones will arise to take their place, by means of the contraction of the clouds of gas accumulated in their spiral arms, this matter will finally run out[20]. As they reciprocally move away, the galaxies will deplete all their gas reserves to shape new stars, and ancient one would become extinguished and dead. Eventually, the collapse of all the stars will occur inside every galaxy, within some 1,000 trillions of years. As the universe expands, these diminishing galaxies will dissolve gradually to become extinct.
At this fatal panorama, a last energy resource will still survive: the black holes[21]. They will contribute to an already drained cosmos: The dying stars would be able to free one hundred times plus energy when falling in a black hole than they had generated in their normal stage, when they were an incandescent gas ball experiencing thermonuclear processes. Nevertheless, after the inconceivable lapse of 1065 years, these ultra-energetic objects will also finish perishing by evaporation due to the effect of the “gravitational radiation” or “Hawking radiation”[22].
In a distant future, the protons will also decay, according to some estimations in about 1037 years, but there are scientists that postulate even a limit of 10200 years[23]. The organized matter will finally disappear, degrading into the sterility of an inconceivably tenuous sea of disintegrated particles: photons, neutrines, and a decreasing number of electrons and positrons, gradually away one another[24]. This would be the last and definite act of the cosmos.
Now then, just a few years ago cosmologists supposed that, for logical consequence of gravity force (that acts like a brake for the separation speed of the galaxies), the universe suffers a constant speed reduction from the Big Bang. That is why they believed that the issue of the destiny of the universe greatly depended on the total quantity of mass. Under these assumptions, if the expansion speed of the galaxies was sufficiently rapid to equal or surpass the gravitational force of the entire existing matter, they would manage to escape each other. In this alternative, the universe would expand forever, never stopping at all. If, contrary case, the total mass of the universe exceeds the escape speed, the expansion would stop sometime and the cosmos would begin to revert, finally collapsing in a hyper-dense and hyper-hot nucleus, popularly called Big Crunch[25].
From decades, the cosmologists predominantly had already coincided that the most probable destiny was the indefinite expansion. Thanks to a new discovery[26], this scene forecast, far from turning out to be refuted, would manifest itself truer and closer than what they had initially imagined: The astronomers realized not only that the universe will expand forever, but also with ever-growing speeds[27]. This fact would mean an acceleration of the entropic process of the universe, although the incidence is still unclear.
Anyway, they confirmed the gradually and inevitably degradation for every cosmic structure, and, therefore, even the impossibility of the emergence of organization, life and conscience. The physical ending of the universe would befall in an inevitable way; that is, a milestone after which it is impossible to expect ulterior physical events. In such that panorama, where no significant event will alter anymore that arid unfruitfulness, would be qualified as eternal death.
3. Some significant data from the faith
We have presented a very brief panorama of what the cosmological contemporary science affirms about entropy and its relation with evolution and destiny of the universe. Let us examine now the implications for the Christian faith. We will go into the theological method, and, therefore, we will procure a rational discourse from the Revealing God’s authority, by means of its double source of Holy Scriptures and Tradition, in mutual and intimate relation[28].
The fundamental question that proposes this article can be expressed as follows: Facing the law of the entropic decay of the universe, with the resulting disappearance of every form of life: is it possible to confess a hope founded in the divine promise of a final and definite consummation of the cosmos? Unless faith is reduced to a non-historical matter between the individual and God, or we adopt a skeptical attitude about any possible interactions between the promises of the cosmic eschatology and the prognostic of a physical universal ending, we cannot avoid the question about which will be the true destiny of this creation where we inhabited in.
Let us select some significant testimonies extracted from among the large scriptural and patristic tradition to illustrate how faith has perceived the action of the entropy in the creation, through vital categories like weakness, corruption and caducity, applicable to both the human existence and its earthly environment.
As a first step, we notice that the prophetic tradition in The Holy Scriptures testify God’s action in the history, frequently from the experience of incessant adversities suffered by Israelites. Yahveh himself entrusts the prophets reading in a divine key the “signs of the times”[29] into the various tragic events they had to live[30]. The sapiential literature, in a more personal way, sings the transience (and even the futility) of the path of the human being across the world. The sheol, like an image of absence and nothingness, lies beyond this distressful existential experience. The Israelite cannot find any reasonable explanation to the evil that he suffers; he can only submit himself to the inscrutable divine mystery[31]. Job complains that man, “like a flower”, “comes forth and withers”[32]; in other words, he is “like a shadow and does not remain”[33]. The psalmist, meanwhile, praises God that makes people “to turn back into dust”[34], and the author of Ecclesiastes also perceives bitterly the emptiness of man: “A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever”[35].
It is, par excellence, in the apocalyptic literature where this painful undergoing extends to the whole cosmos. In effect, rather than redemption of the world, the apocalyptic decrees its caducity and replacement by a new and better reality, namely, the “New Heavens and New Earth” (Is 65:17; 2Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1). Let us deepen in this topic:
a. The apocalyptic trend: the world caducity
The apocalyptic trend formulates the expectation of a world ending through a cosmic catastrophe[36], after which will happen a paradisiacal and eschatological salvation for every nations[37]. One of the most typical features of this kind is the announcement of a crisis in the present history, which will give place to the advent of the new eon and the subsequent general resurrection. The achievement of the God’s plans is meta-historical. In fact, the Kingdom of God is no longer awaited for this world but for the future, when the Messiah gloriously returns. Thus, there is a dualistic opposition between the present order, abandoned to the power of the evil, and the coming Apocalypse, in which the glorified universe will dissolve itself in a new heavenly reality[38]. Let us see three significant examples:
The Third Isaiah (Is 65:16s) is the first biblical prophet that apocalyptically proclaims “New Heavens and New Earth”. The verses 16 and 19 categorically announce the settle of this new stage. God will abolish every painful memory of the past and a full happiness will arise[39]. This eschatological time is alluded in Gen 3:14, when announces that the snake will feed with dust and there will be neither evil nor damage (v. 25)[40]. However, this could be possible only by excluding this suffering cosmos and creating a new one, that is to say, the new havens and earth (v. 17). Then, the Lord will bless forever the righteous men (v. 23).
In 2nd Letter of Peter (2Pet 3:13) the Sacred Writer bases his arguments on the condemnation of the old world as a figure and announcement of the imminent judgment of the present world (v. 5-7). These three verses deal with “cosmic changes”[41] as a result of the perishing of the old world in the deluge (Gen 7:21). The day of the Lord will bring the end of the world, that is, a total caducity of the present-day order: The firmament with its celestial bodies and the Earth with its works will perish, collapsing, dissolving and burning[42]. The author accurately realizes the caducity and fugacity; if this ending depends on God’s will, which can both transform or exterminate the cosmos, nobody could affirm that it is imperishable[43].
The Book of Revelations (Rev 21:1) reaches its final climax with the description of the New Creation[44]. The first creation has already disappeared (20:11), and the evil persons have been punished (20:15). John announced then new heavens, a new earth, a new Jerusalem; that is, everything new (v. 5)[45]. The description is given in a negative way, in order to contrast this unheard eschatological reality with the current afflictions: There will be nor death, mourning, crying or pain, because the Israel’s God will descend with solidarity to inhabit with his people, to wipe their tears and turning them into the community of his sons[46]. Because of the will of the Lord, the creation heads towards a universal regeneration in which the iniquity will be absent[47]. God will accomplish this radical renewal so that the world is in consonance with the redeemed humanity[48].
b. The Pauline cosmic eschatology: A transformation without cataclysm.
The Pauline doctrine rejects the conception of a cosmic redemption utterly dualistic. It roots in a tradition diverse to the apocalyptic stream: It relates with the eschatological Jewish expectation, which did not deposit its hopes in a separation between the mundane and supra-mundane order, but in the rescue and the transformation of the environment of the Israelite. Along with the human being, the material universe expects this redemption. That is why all the creation will be consummated in the Parousia[49].
Indeed, Paul assures that the visible things are transitory, while the invisible are eternal. So, if “the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” [50]. Even though Paul is referring to the human person’s frailty, in the meaning of his discourse primarily underlies the mutability of the present-day universe because of its condition of pilgrim[51].
Now then, this contingent and fragile world will also take part in the final glorification. In the Letter to the Romans (Rom 8:18-22), the Apostle announces that the sufferings the Christians endure in the present history (v. 18)[52], also affect the entire creation. That is why it expects too “the revealing of sons of God” (v. 19), for it “will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (v. 21). In sum: as well as the creation has been affected by the judgment of God[53], it will also be included in the Parousia when righteous people are glorified[54].
This is the sense behind the Pauline emphatic assertion: “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (v. 22). Paul refers here to a cosmos “giving birth”. For this reason, the suffering is not a signal of agony but of birth[55]. Thus, the whole creation is oriented in tense waiting for this universal Parousia.
The Apostle of Nations included an ancient Hymn at the beginning of his Letter to the Colossians (Col 1:15-20), taking into account that the faith of local Church were haunted by ideologies that exacerbated the power of cosmic forces[56] (v. 16): Here, Christ is introduced as that one that has made “peace through the blood of His cross” and thus rescued the entire cosmos (v. 20). He will not lead only to human being to his consummation, but also will totality and definitively pacify the entire creation[57]. This canticle, then, recognizes the deep hostility that seems to reign in the universe, to announce subsequently the universal redemption by the Lord through his Resurrection[58].
c. A paradigmatic case: Saint Augustine
Many Church writers, perceiving the signs of declination of the creation, meditate about the needing of a total and definitive renewal when Jesus Christ returns in Glory. Documents of the Apostolic Era as the Didaché or Pastor of Hermas, Fathers as St. Ignatius of Antioch (†107) or St. John Chrysostom (†407), or Doctors as St. Bonaventure (†1274) or St. Thomas (†1274), to mention only a few relevant cases, expressed with diverse degree of emphasis both the certainty of the present declination and the hope of future plenitude of the cosmos.
Among them, we chose Saint Augustine (†430) as a paradigmatic example. The Bishop of Hippo possessed the sharpest perception about caducity and decadence of the temporary and mundane scheme. He has persistently expressed his sorrow for the fugacity of the beautiful things: Even faster than the growth in being of earthly realities is its race toward not being. The entities that rise and die belong to the universe in which we live. The reason for this mutability is analogous to the succession of the words that shape a discourse: If each word did not disappear to cede its place to another one, it could not be obtained the complete phrase[59].
Things own a being that contrasts with the real being of God: If we consider the genuine sense of the term, we cannot affirm that any entity is, despite of its degree of excellence, since it first exists and next it does not. There is a mix of a certain life in what it is and a certain death in what it is not. The same movement of the creatures is submitted to the temporality: We only perceive the past and the future; the present can never be found, likewise what has been said now no longer is, and what will be said then, it is not yet. Thus, we live in a mutable temporary, where the past already passed and the future has not been reached yet[60].
However, “we have to think about the eternal years: Those years that stay firm, and do not flow while the days come and go”. As the Psalmist says: “You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end” (Ps 102:27)[61]. In fact, if we examined the becoming of events, we will only find the “was” and the “will be”, but if we raise our thought to God we will discover that only He Is. If we want to be, we should transcend time. However, our own forces cannot achieve this rescue, only God[62].
The Doctor of Grace recognized like nobody the need of man to be finally delivered by Christ from the entropy, in the way in which he perceived it, namely, the incessant flow toward the twilight of mundane realities. In the general resurrection, men will no longer be submitted to threaten of time and the renewed world will turn into a mirror of God. In effect, Christ incarnated precisely in order to save human being from that temporary flow of corruptible and ephemeral realities, and to return to the original similarity regarding the eternal truth; he has liberated us from “the slavery of time”. Although we age in this world (because it does not exist any fixed edge in flowing time), we will at last arrive “to that eternity where the time does not exist”. “We will not ask more ‘when will the minute come?’ since the day will be eternal, and neither preceded by yesterday nor followed by tomorrow[63].
From this perspective, Jesus Christ belongs to time like a compassionate visitor of a prison[64]. The Christian should imitate this model of temporary pilgrimage, moving from the “vanity” to the “truth”. However, this passage from time to eternity is not still perfect for the man, because of his fallen nature. The human soul will remain anguished until it is freed from time through the transformation of the body in the final resurrection[65]. Then it will take place the perfect passage of time to eternity, as the man will not own anymore an earthy body (obstacle to the happiness) but a “heavenly” one[66].
d. Some interventions of the Magisterium
The scarce interventions of the Magisterium of Church on the topic of cosmic eschatology[67] were primarily guided to attenuate those extreme positions that postulated the total destruction of the perceptible cosmos: Constantinople’s Synod on 543 against the origenists[68] (approved by Pope Virgil on 555) affirmed: “if anyone shall say that the future judgment signifies the destruction of the body and that the end of the history will be an immaterial physis, and that thereafter there will no longer be any matter, but only spirit nous): let him be anathema”[69]. A little while later, the 2nd Constantinople’s Council (553) indirectly affirmed the permanence of the cosmos in the Second Coming, when rejecting that the matter of the cosmos would disappear jointly to the corporal matter of the resurrected persons[70]. At the beginning of the Renaissance, Pius II (†1464) condemned in the Letter Cum sicut the following proposition from Zanini of Solcia: “The world should be naturally destroyed and ended by the heat of the sun consuming the humidity of the land and the air in such a way that the elements are set on fire”[71].
We have to wait until the XXth Century to see a significant contribution from the official doctrine of Church. We find since the sixties some declarations of pro-positive nature about the cosmic eschatology, which did not just attempt to condemn a heretical formula. With this change of nuance, they also provided a concrete basis to the theological reflection on Christian hope facing the entropy.
The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium[72] —from the Vatican Council II— considers fundamental the eschatological aspect in order to regard the Church as “People of God”, including the cosmic dimension; moreover, the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes[73] presents the eschatological doctrine with the dynamism of the human work, as it somehow prepares God’s Kingdom arrival.
Nevertheless, we are especially interested in highlighting John Paul II (†2005) essential reflections, in the occasion of his famous letter to the Director of the Vatican Observatory, George Coyne, in June 1988: An unit of everything in Christ, insures this Pontiff, brings “a hope and assurance that the fragile goodness, beauty and life we see in the universe is moving towards a completion and fulfillment which will not be over-whelmed by the forces of dissolution and death”[74]. Just as the ancient cosmologies of the Near East could be purified and incorporated to the first chapters of the Genesis book, “might not contemporary cosmology have something to offer to our reflections upon creation? Does an evolutionary perspective bring any light to bear upon theological anthropology […] What, if any, are the eschatological implications of contemporary cosmology, especially in light of the vast future of our universe?”[75].
The Church had never so explicitly pronounced on this subject, nor had come so closer to the issue of the hope for the divine rescue of a cosmos that leads to the entropic death.
4. The impact in Theology
We have firstly indicated the gloomy forecast for the universe as a whole that scientific cosmology alerts, in view of the action of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Afterwards, we presented a succinct selection of relevant testimonies that light up Christian faith in front of the frailty of both human existence and human world. Now then, a crucial question arises: How do we can consider the hope of universal recreation regarding the action of the increasing entropy, which brings the degradation of the energetic sources of the cosmos, and the resulting extreme improbability of an intelligent survival for the distant future?
The theology, as intelligence of the faith, should pick this fundamental challenge. The American physicist and theologian Robert Russell[76] boldly assures that “if the predictions of contemporary scientific cosmology come to pass, then the Parousia will not be just delayed, it will never happen” and, hence, nor will there be a universal resurrection, and, like Paul affirmed, our faith would be vain[77].
The present Pope Benedict XVI, in his epoch of theology professor, referred the perplexity that experiments the believer when confronting his hope on universe consummation with the scientific announcement of an entropic degradation: “On one hand, there is a world that is exhausting itself according to the entropy principle, that is to say, that is unstoppably walking toward a deadly equilibrium of heat and energy; but, on the other hand, it is also a world that seems to be in a complex process of becoming units of increasing complexity and, consequently, in an ascending motion. […] The Christian message expects both things at the same time: The crumbling as last stage of the own road of the cosmos, and the plenitude thanks to the new force that comes from outside called Christ”[78]. We already have referred John Paul II’s words, expressing in similar terms the confidence that “the forces of dilution and death will not ever flood” this ephemeral universe in its peregrination toward the eschatological plenitude[79].
We arrive now to the decisive question: Beyond this confident confession about the final divine intervention, can we delineate a specific road for intelligence enlighten by faith to face the apparent contradiction between the scientific forecast of death and the Christian hope of the plenitude both posed for the same universe?
As Father Juan José Sanguineti asserts, the creation is a divine gift that “contains potentialities and is also fragile”, and therefore keeps itself “in a waiting state for a definite fulfillment”[80], as insures the Pauline passage of the Letter to the Romans that we have quoted. Indeed: the scientific cosmology shows us a contingent and perishable universe; however, this discipline also tells us that this is not an amorphous and “a-nomic” mass, but a cosmos. As such, it has manifested during its history a neg-entropic potential to evolve toward more rich and complex situations, generating structures that give birth life in their cores, such as galaxies and stars.
The English physicist and theologian John Polkinghorne[81] ensures that “the matter of this universe is perfectly adapted for its role of sustaining the evolutionary exploration of potentiality, which is theologically to be understood as the old creation being allowed to “make itself”, in a generation “at the edge of the chaos”. The entities rising in this way, on one hand, “are sufficiently structured to endure for a while and sufficiently flexible to develop and grow, but they only can sustain their dynamic patterns for limited periods”. In the end, “the cost of the evolution of novelty is the certainty of its impermanence”[82].
Assuming these ideas, we suggest that apparent paradox between this creative capacity of the universe and the cosmological forecast of caducity could be solved considering that if the creation is abandoned to the sole action of its own natural laws, it would be eventually incapable of staying in a status of indefinite production of generating structures of life.
It turns evident that both the sacred redactors of the apocalyptic and sapiential traditions, as well as Fathers like St. Augustine (†430) or St. John Chrysostom (†404) have realized with great perspicacity the precarious condition of the creation; thus, they tended to favor the dimensions of novelty and gratuitousness of the eschatological consummation. However, if this perception is clear, so it is the subsequent proclamation of the promise of a future consummation. Even in a vision so strongly substitutive like the petrine, the destruction of the ancient cosmos is not equivalent to a total annihilation; the fire of the cosmic conflagration manifests the glory of the Day of God, in a similar way in which for the Gospels the devastation of the world is the scenario for the powerful and salvific manifestation of the Son of Man[83]. The Pauline cosmic eschatology, on the other side, puts its emphasis in the fact that the eschatological renewal proclaimed by the various apocalypses will happen to this same cosmos, without a cataclysm marginalizing it. In like manner, there is an about unanimous consensus in ecclesiastical tradition that the Parousia will have a cosmic magnitude[84].
In short, whether they announce the caducity and conclusion of this history or observe the groans of the entire creation sighing for the final childbirth; whether they proclaim the arrival of new heavens and new earth or give notice about the future renewal of this same creation; in each one of these cases the Sacred Authors and the Church’s Fathers have inspiringly understood that, just like the human being was not abandoned to his own fate, fenced-in by the dead-end streets of his limitations and miseries, either will be relegated to total oblivion that dimension which is co-extensive to him: his home, his infrastructure, the space of his development and humanization.
In one form or another, whether they emphasize the identity or the novelty, it underlies a generalized intuition: This magnitude will also have to be, somehow, jointly freed in the Parousia.
In consonance with these arguments, we can regard the present state of the cosmos as a germinal phase for a new eschatological condition (as stated in Rom 8:19s and LG 48), which only God can give birth with a pure supernatural gift. Otherwise, (just as science tells us) it would culminate in the universal physical sterility.
For the final consummation will be necessary a quite particular intervention of the Lord and, therefore, we should not reduce it to a mere natural process of secondary causes. Trine God, internal communion of superabundant vitality, will prevent its creation to fall into an extinction of its physical laws and an irreversible annihilation of its cosmic energy sources, with the subsequent impossibility of survival of any form of life. Rather, the cosmos will be transfigured to become the perfect home of the resurrected humanity in the image of Glorified Christ.
As for the future historical situation of man, immediately previous to this cosmic consummation, there is not room for categorical affirmations either, but for a hope founded in the same divine fidelity.
Certain magisterial texts dissuade us from visualizing the Parousia like a timeless and individual event, which only befalls to each particular person in death, without any relation with this present history[85]. As declares the International Theological Commission, the Coming in Glory —while meta-historic— is also a “concrete conclusive event of history”[86]. For his part, John Paul II assures that with the Coming of Jesus Christ “starts the time of the Church that will last up to the Parousia”[87]. The Christian faith ponders the temporality of this cosmos; together with the man, it will be a true participant of eschatological consummation[88].
Therefore, it seems consistent with such hope to conclude that some configuration of this humanity, peregrinating across the development of divine salvation, will still persevere when the cosmic consummation becomes.
Considered from this confidence on a universal divine rescue, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics loses its connotation of feared disintegration force, transfiguring itself into a cosmological manifestation of the ontological contingency of created beings. While neg-entropy shows us the relative autonomy and the deep potential of the cosmos, entropy refers to its impossibility to be self-sufficient.
In the Parousia the Lord will assumed and rescued the universe in its entire duration; thus, finally, the time will not measure anymore the entropic time degradation, but the inexhaustible plenitude of the divine presence in its creation.
[1] Tanzella-Nitti, G., “Scienze naturali, utilizzo in teologia” in www.disf.org/Voci/107.asp, I.
[2] Polkinghorne, J., Science and Theology, an Introduction, Minneapolis, 1998, p.20s. Cf. Baurbour, I., “Tipos de relación entre ciencia y teología” en Russell, R., Stoeger, S., Coyne, G. (comp), Física, Filosofía y Teología. Una búsqueda en común, México, 2002; García Rodríguez, M., ¿Teología de la Ciencia?, in www.ideasapiens.com/filosofia.sxx/fciencia/teologia_%20cienciaI.htm; Tanzella-Nitti, G., “Scienze naturali, utilizzo in teologia” in www.disf.org/Voci/107.asp.
[3] Polkinghorne, J., Op. Cit., p.22
[4] Artigas, M., Filosofía de la ciencia, Pamplona, 1999, p. 266s
[5] This article is a summary from some aspects of the doctoral thesis of the author, and we refer to it to deepen its various concepts: Bollini, C., Fe Cristiana y Final del Universo: La escatología cósmica a la luz de los modelos actuales de la cosmología científica, Buenos Aires, 2007.
[6] The year-light is a measure of distance: is the distance cover by the light (whose speed is 299,792 km/sec) in a year. It is roughly 10,000,000,000,000 of kilometres.
[7] The adjectives that characterize these future cosmic stages lost in a point any significance to human intellect. Living in an everyday environment where we handle magnitudes of years, at most, of two or three digits, it is already extremely difficult to conceive a universe whose age is represented with 11 digits. What to say when, referring to the distant future, we have to deal with time periods of 30, 100, and up to 1,000 digits?
[8] For example, the term does not rank either as the title or as a keyword in the extensive catalogue of the Library of the Faculty of Theology of the Argentine Catholic University.
[9] From the Greek ????????, “transformation”.
[10] Together with R. Clausius it should also be considered the development of the concept of entropy in the work of two other scientists of the Nineteenth Century: H. von Helmholtz and Lord Kelvin.
[11] Bollini, C. (padre) and Giambiagi, J.J., “Mecánica, Ondas, Acústica, y Termodinámica”, Buenos aires, 1975, p. 423.
[12] Livio, M., The accelerating universe, New York, 2000, p. 75.
[13] A good example is to consider the heat discharged by the Sun, which is dispersed without ever recovering again (Davies, P., Los últimos tres minutos, Buenos Aires, 2001, p. 23s).
[14] Although we have found this perspective in most of the books we consulted, it is necessary to emphasize that not all the physicists accept this generalized implementation of the entropy. Some authors argue that it is not appropriate to extrapolate this physical measurement to the whole universe, because it is a statistical measure. We should need a bunch of universes, and not only a singular one, to know –comparing them– if cosmic entropy grows (Cf. explanation of the relationship between Entropy and statistical mechanics in BOLLINI, C. (father) and GIAMBIAGI, J. J. , op. cit. , p. 435s. For detailed grounds: Diu B., Guthmann, C., Lederer D. and Roulet B., Physique Statistique, Paris, 1989.
[15] Cf. the following electronic documents: Arnold, M., and Osorio, F., term “negentropía” in rehue.csociales.uchile.cl/publicaciones/moebio/03/frprinci.htm#negentropia, at Departamento de Antropología, Universidad de Chile; Juaristi Linacero, J., “Teoría de la información en geografía” in www.ingeba.org/lurralde/lurranet/lur07/07jua/jua07.htm (Universidad del País Vasco); Rodríguez, S., “Introducción a la informática” in www.virtual.unlar.edu.ar/catedras-virtuales/info_dato/informatica/ 2000/apunte/htm/apu02.htm (Universidad de La Rioja).
[16] Luminet, J-P., Black holes, Cambridge, 1992, p. 63.
[17] Ibid., p. 66.
[18] It is the fate of our Sun, as a result of its relatively small mass.
[19] Adams F. and Laughlin, G., A dying Universe: the Long-term fate and evolution of astrophysical objects en Review of Modern Physics 69 (1997), p. 338s.
[20] Davies, P., Op. Cit., p. 63s.
[21] The black holes start from the gravitational collapse and the consequent contraction of stars eight times bigger than the Sun mass. The fabulous density of such objects generates a so strong gravitation field that it seizes the light and does not allow it to escape (in fact, nothing can overcome its attraction force); hence, its name.
[22] This is similar to the electromagnetic radiation, but turns out to be the weakest force of the entire nature. Gravitational radiation is produced whenever a mass is disturbed, by means of a quantum process discovered by Stephen Hawking. Bodies as massive as the black holes produce an intense gravitational radiation.
[23] Cf. Livio, M, Op. Cit., p. 173; Adams F. and Laughlin, G., Op. Cit, p. 368s.
[24] Ibid., p. 108.
[25] Davies, P., Op. Cit., p. 136.
[26] Mario Livio, the Director of Hubble Space Telescope project, qualifies the finding of the cosmic acceleration as “the most important since the discovery of the background radiation” (Livio, M, Op. Cit., p. 160) and points out that it is not surprising at all that the magazine Science presented the universe in acceleration as the “discovery of the year “ (Ibid., p. 166).
[27] Neither the known matter nor the radiation could explain this acceleration. It would be generated, surprisingly enough, from a so-called “vacuum energy”. The vacuum can never be considered “sterile”: if a field did not contain any particle, its energy, in the quantum level, is never null (Reeves, H., El primer sugundo, Santiago of Chile, 1998, p. 121). This incessant activity is, therefore, what is known as “vacuum energy” or “dark energy”. While the universe expands, the matter becomes less dense and the gravitation decreases; thus, the cosmic repulsion force eventually dominates, causing, instead of the awaited slowing down, an acceleration in the speed of the expansion (Livio, M, Op. Cit., p. 161). Seemingly, the incidence of this acceleration (coefficient “ ?”) in the destination of the universe would be as follows: if we take the cosmos as a whole compound by matter and energy (“total ?”), there would be only 4 % of ordinary matter, 23 % would be composed of dark or invisible matter, and the rest, 73 %, would be constituted by the dark energy (Seife, C., “ Illuminating the dark universe “, in Science 302 (2003), p. 2038).
[28] Vatican Council II, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum n. 9.
[29] Cf. Ecclus 42:18; Mt 16:3.
[30] Cf. Lam 1:17s; Hos 2:8s; etc.
[31] Cf. Murphy, R., “Wisdom in the OT” in Anchor Bible Dictionary, CD-Rom Edition, New York, 1997.
[32] Job 14:2; Cf. Ps 90:6.
[33] Job 14:2.
[34] Ps 90:3; Cf. Gen 3:19.
[35] Eccl 1:4.
[36] Cf. Dan 7:11; 2Bar 20:8; 4Esd 5:4s, etc.
[37] Díez Macho, A., Introducción general a los apócrifos del Antiguo Testamento, Tome I, Madrid, 1984, p. 46s.
[38] Grelot, P., “Apocalíptica”, in Sacramentum Mundi, Tome I, Barcelona, 1976, p. 327. Such the case of Dan 12:1s and Wis 4:20s.
[39] Alonso Schökel, L., “Isaías III” in Comentarios a Profetas, Tome I, Madrid, 1984, p. 388
[40] Pelletier, A-M., “Isaías” in Comentario Bíblico Internacional, Navarra, 1999, p. 909.
[41] Stöger, A., “Carta de San Judas y Segunda carta de San Pedro”, Barcelona, 1977, p. 115s.
[42] Ibid., p. 120. This idea comes from the apocryphal book of Henoc, which describes the skies falling over the earth that is annihilated (Cf. Hen 83:3s).
[43] Ibid., p. 116.
[44] Vanni, U, Apocalipsis. Una Asamblea litúrgica interpreta la historia, Navarra, 1982, p. 588.
[45] 2Cor 5:17.
[46] Arens Kucherlkorn, E., Díaz Mateos, M. and Kraft T., “Apocalipsis” in Comentario Bíblico Internacional, Navarra, 1999, p. 1702
[47] Vanni, U, Apocalipsis. Una Asamblea litúrgica interpreta la historia, Navarra, 1982, p. 178.
[48] Ibid., p. 588. Cf. Is 65:17; 66:22.
[49] This doctrine of an eschatological renewal of the universe was probably a part of the primitive creed of the Church: As well as Paul in the Letter to Romans, Colossians and Ephesians, Peter also mentions in his first speech a “universal restoration” (Act 3:21) (Cf. Lyonnet S., “La Rédemption de l’univers”, en Lumière et Vie (1960), p. 57).
[50] 2Cor 4:18s; Cf. 1Cor 7:31.
[51] Barnet, P., The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Michigan, 2005, p. 370s.
[52] Cf. Rom 5:3.
[53] Gen 3:17, Is 13:9s, Jer 4:23s, Ez 32:6s, etc.
[54] Is 11:6; 43:19s; 65:17; 66:22; Ez 47:12s.
[55] Certain apocalyptic tradition translates the proximity of this time into previous signs of catastrophic nature, which can be described as pains of childbearing that precede to the birth of the new world (Cf. Is 26:7; Mic 4:9s; Jer 12:4; Jn 16:21; Mk 13:8; Mt 24:8). In a similar way, some Greek philosophers usually compared the nature reborn with the pains of childbearing in a woman, in contrast with doctrines like the stoical about a universal destruction.
[56] Cf. Grassi, J., “Carta a los Colosenses” in Comentario Bíblico San Jerónimo (Tome IV), Madrid, 1972, p. 215. Mora Paz, C., “Colosenses” in Comentario Bíblico Internacional, Navarra, 1999, p. 1549.
[57] Philo of Alexandria conceives the blare of the trumpet in the New Year as a sign of the beginning of an age of pacification for a universe in permanent struggle, which have to be renewed every year. Taking Stoical and Pythagorean ideas –which expect the definitive unity after the conflagration of the world– Paul assures that there is not anymore necessary to create the peace year after year, because Christ has already definitively restored it (Cf. Schweizer, E., La Carta a los Colosenses, Salamanca, 1987, p. 76).
[58] Ibid., p. 75.
[59] Saint Augustine, Confessions, 4,10.
[60] Saint Augustine, Commentary to John Gospel, 38,10.
[61] Saint Augustine, Expositions on Psalms, 76,8.
[62] Saint Augustine, Commentary to John Gospel, 38,10.
[63] Ibid., 31,5
[64] Clarke, T., “Saint Augustine and the cosmic redemption” in Theological Studies, 19 (1958), p. 156; Cf. Saint Augustine, In epistolam Joanis ad Parthos 2,10.
[65] Cf. Saint Augustine, Quest 67,6; Expositio 53.
[66] Cf. Saint Augustine, Letter 148,5,16; Sermo, 242,8,11; etc.
[67] Ozaeta, J., “El «más allá» en la doctrina católica” in www.mercaba.org/FICHAS/ESCATO/651-6.htm; Ruiz de la Peña, J. L., La Pascua de la Creación, Madrid, 1996, p. 131.
[68] Known as “Endemousa”, that is, “permanent”.
[69] Constantinople Synod (543), canon 11.
[70] Constantinople Council II (553), “Anatems vs Orígenes”, n. XIV.
[71] Pius II, Letter “Cum sicut”, September 1459, nun. 1.
[72] Cf. LG 48.
[73] Cf. GS 39.
[74] John Paul II, Letter to Reverend George V. Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, n. 10. The italics are ours.
[75] Ibid., n. 24. The italics are ours.
[76] Russell is a Minister of the “United Church of Christ” and founder of “Center for Theology and the Natural Science de Berkeley”, an important referent for science-faith dialog.
[77] Russell, R., “Eschatology and Scientific Cosmology: from conflict to interaction”, in www.ctinquiry.org/publications/reflections_volume_8/russell.htm.
[78] Ratzinger, J., Escatología, Barcelona, 1992, p.181. The italics are ours.
[79] Juan Pablo II, Op. Cit., n 10. The italics are ours.
[80] Sanguineti, J. J., “El último destino del universo, física, filosofía y teología” in Florio, L. (comp.), Ciencias, filosofía y teología: en búsqueda de una cosmovisión, La Plata, 2003., p.223.
[81] Polkinghorne is the President of Cambridge Queens’ College, and member of the Royal Society, as well as a Priest of the Anglican Church. He coined the term “scientist-theologian” in order to designate a new and original theological stream that Polkinghorne shares with authors like Ian Barbour, Arthur Peacocke and Robert Russell. These thinkers took on the task of thinking the divine Revelation (with different grade of success and not without possible objections) with methods and models taken from the scientific environment.
[82] Polkinghorne, J., “Eschatology” in The end of the world and the ends of God: Science and Theology on Eschatology, New York, 2000, p. 39. The italics are ours.
[83] Stöger, A., Op. Cit., p. 122. Cf. Mt 24,29s.
[84] Cf. Moltmann, J., La venida de Dios, Salamanca, 2005, p. 343; Pozo, C., Teología del más allá, Madrid, 1992, p. 149, n. 193 and 194.
[85] Cf. the doctrine of R. Bultmann or the initial reflexions (later rectified) of G. Greshake.
[86] International Theological Commission, “On Certain Current Issues in Eschatology” (1992), n. 2.1; Cf. 2.2; GS 39.1.3; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter on certain questions regarding Eschatology” (17-V-1979), n. 5.
[87] John Paul II, Apostolic Letter “Tertio Millennio Adveniente” (1994), II, n.10. The italics are ours.
[88] In the opposite case, it would be postulated a platonic dissociation between man and World. (Cf. International Theological Commission, Op. Cit., n. 2.1; Fernández, V., “Inmortalidad, cuerpo y materia, una esperanza para mi carne” en Angelicum 78 (2001), n. 4.4).
