Vast Universe: Extraterrestials and Christian Revelation

by Thomas F O'Meara

Overview

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 questions:

• If there are intelligent beings out there, what would be their relationship to what Christianity claims is a special history on Earth of life with God?
• Would the fact of persons on other planets banish or modify our understanding of God? Would it reduce the importance of Jesus?
• What role might goodness and evil play in extraterrestrial civilizations?
• Might God have incarnated himself among other races of creatures, as he became incarnate as Jesus among us?

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814680476
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	05/01/2012
Pages:	118
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.20(d)

About the Author

Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P., Warren Professor Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, is the author of Erich Przywara, S.J.: His Theology and His World (2009) and God in the World: A Guide to Karl Rahner's Theology (Liturgical Press, 2007).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Intelligent Beings on Distant Planets 1

Vast Universe 3

Discoveries 5

Probabilities 9

Gulfs 10

New Realities 12

Chapter 2 Extraterrestrials amid Nature, Grace, and Sin 19

The Triad of Religion 20

Variety in Intelligent Life 20

Modes of Divine Presence 23

Forms of Evil and Sin 25

Star-Friends 27

Chapter 3 From a Violent Planet to the Universe of a Loving God 29

A Generous Artist 29

Goodness of Existence or Presumption of Evil? 33

Communities in the Universe 36

Chapter 4 Jesus of Nazareth and the Galaxies 41

The Word of God as a Person on Earth: Jesus of Nazareth 42

Jesus of Nazareth and the Cosmos 44

Other Incarnations? 47

Salvation Histories amid Galactic Evolution 49

Chapter 5 Time and the Futures of Life 53

Time 53

Other Times 56

Space, Matter, and the Future 57

Chapter 6 Intelligent Life in the Universe: Perspectives from Christian Thinkers in Past Centuries 63

Origen (Third Century) 64

Thomas Aquinas (Thirteenth Century) 68

Guiilaume de Vaurouillon (Fifteenth Century) 73

Renaissance Thinkers (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries) 76

Chapter 7 Intelligent Life in the Universe: Perspectives from Christian Thinkers in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 81

Protestant Thinkers (Reformation to Twentieth Century) 81

Catholic Theologians (Early Twentieth Century) 85

Catholic Theologians (Late Twentieth Century) 87

Chapter 8 Star-Mentors and Star-Friends 97

Index of Names 101

Editorial Reviews

Thomas O’Meara is a Catholic theologian of international reputation and exceptional breadth of vision. In Vast Universe, he has produced a study of singular significance on what could at any time emerge as possibly the most important issue that the Catholic Church has ever faced. His volume provides readers with faithful analyses of the views of prominent thinkers from many cultures and many centuries.
Michael J. Crowe, Cavanaugh Professor Emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and author of The Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915: A Source Book


Vast Universe is written in the clear, concise, and accessible style that characterizes all of O'Meara's work. Here it is suitable for upper-division undergraduates.

Susie Paulik Babka, University of San Diego, Horizons

From the Publisher