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Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation
If we have learned anything from recent advances in cosmology and astronomy, it is that we have only barely begun to comprehend the vastness of our universe and all that it contains. For Christians, this raises some fascinating Respectful of the sciences that disclose the reality of the universe, Thomas O'Meara wonders about good and evil, intelligence and freedom, revelation and life as they might exist in other galaxies. In this book, one possible aspect of the universe we live in meets the perspective of Christian revelation.
118 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2023
One point O’Meara consistently returns to which I can appreciate is that God has set the whole of creation in His sights as the object of His gracious affection.
O’Meara comes at the topic of ETs and Christian Revelation with such different presuppositions leading to different questions and which together produces wildly different conclusions with different implications than the ways I have thought through these issues or have read in Wilkinson. Much of this comes down to his Catholic convictions. The one place that I take deep issue with is his suggestion not only that there may be multiple incarnations (which I almost absolutely disagree with) but further that all three persons may have incarnated on (potentially many) different planets. The proliferation of incarnations of the Son is borne out from his apparent view that Jesus is fully identified with the Son but the Son is not fully identified with Jesus. This seems patently unbiblical to me (“in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”), but I am not trained in dogmatics. The second, however, being the view that all three of the persons of the Godhead can be (and indeed have been) incarnated seems to amount to a trinitarian heresy to me; a sort of modalism of the economic Trinity, though not exactly. I realize that these are big claims from a Protestant layman, but I don’t know, a few of O’Meara’s primary claims or suppositions seem just entirely unfounded and wrong.
O’Meara seems primarily concerned with how ETs might deepen our natural theology through their forms of existence and religion. Again, I fail see to this as a concern that would be shared by the Biblical authors, but rather an interest in the cosmic Gospel of Jesus Christ going forth.
The book offers a rich bibliography for further study, especially of catholic scholars I would have little chance of discovering otherwise.
O’Meara comes at the topic of ETs and Christian Revelation with such different presuppositions leading to different questions and which together produces wildly different conclusions with different implications than the ways I have thought through these issues or have read in Wilkinson. Much of this comes down to his Catholic convictions. The one place that I take deep issue with is his suggestion not only that there may be multiple incarnations (which I almost absolutely disagree with) but further that all three persons may have incarnated on (potentially many) different planets. The proliferation of incarnations of the Son is borne out from his apparent view that Jesus is fully identified with the Son but the Son is not fully identified with Jesus. This seems patently unbiblical to me (“in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”), but I am not trained in dogmatics. The second, however, being the view that all three of the persons of the Godhead can be (and indeed have been) incarnated seems to amount to a trinitarian heresy to me; a sort of modalism of the economic Trinity, though not exactly. I realize that these are big claims from a Protestant layman, but I don’t know, a few of O’Meara’s primary claims or suppositions seem just entirely unfounded and wrong.
O’Meara seems primarily concerned with how ETs might deepen our natural theology through their forms of existence and religion. Again, I fail see to this as a concern that would be shared by the Biblical authors, but rather an interest in the cosmic Gospel of Jesus Christ going forth.
The book offers a rich bibliography for further study, especially of catholic scholars I would have little chance of discovering otherwise.
January 8, 2013
O'Meara, a Catholic theologian, starts with the following presuppositions that will jar some Christian readers when first reading this book. They are:
1. Evolution is true, and God-guided.
2. The incarnation of Jesus is unique to earth. However, this doesn't mean that an incarnation cannot take place on other planets. Beauty/love is the starting point for the Incarnation on earth. And is also the starting point for incarnations on other planets.
3. God has given us imaginations, which are not necessarily bad, and we should use our imaginative faculties to engage how to deal with other life forms on other planets. Alot of this book is speculation, but that is okay, because we haven't encountered alien species. This book deals with the, what if?
4. Aliens haven't been proven as fact, however there is alot of evidence that if God in His expansiveness created humanity, why would he only create humanity and no other evolved species/life on other planets?
Once the reader can follow along the evolutionary ideas of time/space and intelligent life, then it will be much easier to appreciate this book.
O'Meara does a great job of pointing to theologians/Christians through the centuries who have wrestled with the idea of other life forms on other planets and how it affects Christian belief. He also shows how some have agreed and some have disagreed that alien life could exists, the alien life is good/hostile, and how alien life is not a threat to the Incarnation here on earth and the Gospel. (People like Origen, Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas Aquinas, Ellen White, Paul Tillich, etc.)
I appreciated O'Meara's view that extraterrestrials may NOT be hostile life forms. I think we are ingrained by Hollywood that they may be bad (only a few movies portray them as otherwise, such as ET, Alien Nation or District 9). He points to C.S. Lewis' trilogy about aliens (Out of the Silent Planet, etc.) and shows how Lewis' starting assumption is that humanity is the only species with evil and all other species start with innocence/grace.
Think of the art, grace, intelligence we can learn from a species that has not been corrupted by the fall!
At the same point, the cynic in me does ask, well what if these alien species that exist are actually hostile? O'Meara fails to answer this in the book, as his view is that they will be our "star mentors" and "star friends". Sometimes this view seemed to simplistic for me, however I commend the author for taking the not common view on this.
The author's understanding of THE Incarnation on earth, and what other incarnations on other planets are quite fascinating and can cause alot of controversy. However, I think the author does a great job of handling this topic.
There was one huge point for me that I was wrestling with as I read this book. The author gives a lot of generosity to alien religions and how we can reconcile their religions with ours. The author shows that alien religions and earthly religious understandings can come to have a great view of God. I felt the author was so generous to alien religion, and yet I kept thinking to myself, what of other "alien" religion here on earth, the ones that don't look like ours? Why don't we offer that same generosity to other non-Christian religions and their followers here on earth as O'Meara does with other worlds? It made me think that sometimes its easier to deal with questions of imaginative theology than practical theology. But maybe, just maybe, that is part of the reason the book exists? For us to dialogue with the "alien" in our midst and understand them here on earth? Imagine what we as a human species could accomplish if we were able to cooperate with one another?
So although there were definitely some points in the book I didn't agree with, I give this book a 4 out of 5 for starting a dialogue on a subject that I don't think I have really heard many Christian theologians dealing with. I also appreciated heavily O'Meara's digging through history to find theologians who talked about this issue. And appreciated O'Meara's imaginative faculties being used differently to wrestle with what life on other planets could mean for faith and for our lives in relation to them.
1. Evolution is true, and God-guided.
2. The incarnation of Jesus is unique to earth. However, this doesn't mean that an incarnation cannot take place on other planets. Beauty/love is the starting point for the Incarnation on earth. And is also the starting point for incarnations on other planets.
3. God has given us imaginations, which are not necessarily bad, and we should use our imaginative faculties to engage how to deal with other life forms on other planets. Alot of this book is speculation, but that is okay, because we haven't encountered alien species. This book deals with the, what if?
4. Aliens haven't been proven as fact, however there is alot of evidence that if God in His expansiveness created humanity, why would he only create humanity and no other evolved species/life on other planets?
Once the reader can follow along the evolutionary ideas of time/space and intelligent life, then it will be much easier to appreciate this book.
O'Meara does a great job of pointing to theologians/Christians through the centuries who have wrestled with the idea of other life forms on other planets and how it affects Christian belief. He also shows how some have agreed and some have disagreed that alien life could exists, the alien life is good/hostile, and how alien life is not a threat to the Incarnation here on earth and the Gospel. (People like Origen, Nicholas of Cusa, Thomas Aquinas, Ellen White, Paul Tillich, etc.)
I appreciated O'Meara's view that extraterrestrials may NOT be hostile life forms. I think we are ingrained by Hollywood that they may be bad (only a few movies portray them as otherwise, such as ET, Alien Nation or District 9). He points to C.S. Lewis' trilogy about aliens (Out of the Silent Planet, etc.) and shows how Lewis' starting assumption is that humanity is the only species with evil and all other species start with innocence/grace.
Think of the art, grace, intelligence we can learn from a species that has not been corrupted by the fall!
At the same point, the cynic in me does ask, well what if these alien species that exist are actually hostile? O'Meara fails to answer this in the book, as his view is that they will be our "star mentors" and "star friends". Sometimes this view seemed to simplistic for me, however I commend the author for taking the not common view on this.
The author's understanding of THE Incarnation on earth, and what other incarnations on other planets are quite fascinating and can cause alot of controversy. However, I think the author does a great job of handling this topic.
There was one huge point for me that I was wrestling with as I read this book. The author gives a lot of generosity to alien religions and how we can reconcile their religions with ours. The author shows that alien religions and earthly religious understandings can come to have a great view of God. I felt the author was so generous to alien religion, and yet I kept thinking to myself, what of other "alien" religion here on earth, the ones that don't look like ours? Why don't we offer that same generosity to other non-Christian religions and their followers here on earth as O'Meara does with other worlds? It made me think that sometimes its easier to deal with questions of imaginative theology than practical theology. But maybe, just maybe, that is part of the reason the book exists? For us to dialogue with the "alien" in our midst and understand them here on earth? Imagine what we as a human species could accomplish if we were able to cooperate with one another?
So although there were definitely some points in the book I didn't agree with, I give this book a 4 out of 5 for starting a dialogue on a subject that I don't think I have really heard many Christian theologians dealing with. I also appreciated heavily O'Meara's digging through history to find theologians who talked about this issue. And appreciated O'Meara's imaginative faculties being used differently to wrestle with what life on other planets could mean for faith and for our lives in relation to them.
December 25, 2023
One gets the impression that Christianity/theology is simply an intellectual exercise in this book and the handmaiden to the Astro-sciences.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews