Time&Eternity

Aspects of a Theology of Time 203
breakthrough does something of significance with time. Precisely because of
this interactive aspect, however, it is also subject to a certain lack of clarity
and risks overextending the term eschatology to the point of total inexplicability.
A New Creation or a Hibernating Universe?
Eschatology and Science
Despite the much described eschatological revival during the twentieth
century and its accompanying flood of books, articles, and essays, it appears
that the relationship of eschatology and science has hardly been a topic of
discussion until now. Bibliographies at the end of encyclopedia articles or in
monographs allow us to conclude that, whenever eschatology has sought dialogue
partners outside of its traditional field, it has generally turned to philosophy,
occasionally to social ethics, and in some cases even to ecology, but
hardly ever to the traditional natural sciences. 97 It seems curious how, in one
book after another, theologians can speak rather objectively of the end or
consummation of the world without ever seriously asking what the future
of the universe is likely to look like from the scientific perspective. 98 The
book edited by John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker entitled The End of
the World and the Ends of God—Science and Theology on Eschatology 99 sparks
the hope, however, that this will change in the future.
It is certainly true that eschatology “does not examine the general future
possibilities of history,” 100 but it also cannot completely circumvent this
topic. A strict division between the Christian future and the future of the
world would make things far too simple for theology. An eschatology without
cosmology becomes “a Gnostic myth of redemption,” 101 Moltmann
says—and subsequently outlines a cosmic eschatology that then no longer
takes seriously the issue of cosmology itself. For him, at some points, cosmos
seems to be synonymous with nature as we encounter it on our planet.
Even if the inclusion of nature and his attempt at “synchronization of
historical time and natural time” 102 already represent a correction to onesidedly
anthropocentric approaches, Moltmann’s eschatology remains nevertheless
earth-centered. A clear terminological distinction among earth,
world, cosmos, and universe is absent in Moltmann, though he is not alone
in this regard. It appears to be taken for granted that the end of human history
is the end of the world. This creates the impression that there is not the
slightest possibility for the existence of extraterrestrial forms of life and civilization.
Eschatology and scientific questions show points of contact first and
foremost in the area of cosmology. In this regard, it is not only modern cosmological
theories that have significance for the understanding of theologi-