Chapter 11 – The four last things

This chapter focuses on the four main themes of eschatology Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell.
Polkinghorne does a great job if simplifying the arguments in each of these massive topics. In terms of Death he looks at the way in which Christian thinking has always faced unflinchingly the reality of death and seen it as Gods will for us and acceptance of it can make death the final act in the world that expresses a trust to commitment to trust in the faithfulness of God.
Polkinghorne states that for the Christian the darkness of death is accepted in the light of the hope of the resurrection thereafter.
He deals with the dilemma regarding death for those who have never heard of Jesus and the possibility that all will be given a chance to accept Christ as their lord and saviour and while this universalist theme is one that I admit I struggle with it is clearly based on a God that is loving and compassionate and want to see all of his creation saved.
The way Polkinghorne deals with the idea of judgement is particularly good in my opinion. I particularly related to his explanation of the parable of the sheep and goats, in which he suggests that perhaps we are not wholly sheep or wholly goat but that judgement reveals to us the prospective offer of what we can become rather than a retrospective assessment of what we have been.
He suggests that perhaps judgement is a process rather than a verdict. Perhaps its fire is the cleansing fire that burns away the dross of our lives; its sufferings the consequences of the knife wielded by the divine surgeon who wounds only to heal. Perhaps judgement builds up the sheep and diminishes the goat in each one of us.
Augustine in his book the city of God suggests that a kind of divine power will ensure that all the actions good and bad of every individual will be recalled to mind and presented to the minds view with miraculous speed, so that each person’s knowledge will accuse or excuse his conscience,
Polkinghorne suggests that the concept of judgement as the painful encounter with reality in which all masks of illusion are swept away is powerful and convincing and is a hopeful image bringing the hope of salvation.
Polkinghornes work in this chapter on heaven puts at rest my worries over the previous chapter here he talks about the expectation of an everlasting unfolding of salvific encounter with God. We will attain such a clear understanding of what is good that there will be no evil. we will explore the nature of God indefinitely in a state of pure joy in which all the discords, enmities and injuries of the old creation find their harmonious reconciliation and healing
If Polkinghornes image of Heaven fits with my understanding an puts at rest the idea of living for eternity his images of Hell serve to give hope to all believers.
Polkinghorne rejects the idea of hell as a place of punishment as portrayed in Dantes inferno and instead opts for an image of Hell fitting the model of C.S. Lewis ‘s Great divorce, where hell is a dreary town lost down a crack in heavens floorboards with its inhabitants being taken from time to time on a bus trip to the celestial realm to see if they would like to transfer there, sadly most return to hell, unable to endure the bright reality of heaven.
Polkinghorne suggests that no-one will be taken into the heaven against their will and that Gods offer of mercy and forgiveness is not withdrawn at death but rather divine love is everlasting. Those who make an enduring decision against God have condemned themselves to hell. They are not there because they have been hurled there by an angry God.
I like this idea because it offers hope for all eternity, yet does not deny the fact that there are people stubborn enough never to accept Christ even when faced with the harsh reality of seeing him face to face.

Chapter 10 – The new creation

This chapter focuses on what I the new creation going to look like, there is much talk from Polkinghorne regarding the destiny for the whole universe not just for the humankind.
Polkinghorne suggests that the seminal event leading to the growth of Gods new creation is the resurrection of Jesus and indeed this new creation is not something that we need to wait to begin but is something that is already upon us beginning with this resurrection.
I agree with Polkinghorne when he suggests that when looking at new creation ;
“much has to be taken on trust, for it is clearly beyond our feeble powers to conceive exactly how a redeemed universe will function.”
He suggests that the new creation does not arise from a radically novel creation but that our old creation will be transformed into a creation that is perfect in the eyes of God through a redemptive act.
I do struggle with Polkinghorne suggestion that the new creation is a temporal world whose character is everlasting rather than a timeless world of “eternity” and did not see the point of his comment that it will contain music – perhaps I am missing the point ? I fail to see the need for humanity to be intrinsically temporal beings. Why if so much of the eschatology of the new testament speaks of spending eternity with God should we settle for a temporal existence with inevitable end. Are we limiting the nature and desire of God.
In closing the chapter Polkinghorne speaks of dimensionality of space-time and the possibility of the old and new creation running on different dimensions is a welcome solution to the problem and as Polkinghorne proposes offers a partial insight into the nature of the appearances of Christ as arising from limited intersections between these two worlds. However I disagree with the idea that if new creation follows on from old then God will have a very long wait if our universe is going to expand forever and refer back to the possibility that omega may be a transient value that God can make equal to 1 causing the universe to neither expand nor collapse. Resulting in a perfectly balanced universe in which new creation could dwell having been make perfect through the redemptive nature of God. In fact this could be what the new creation is referring to, a perfectly balanced universe balanced universe.
I liked the concept of using the idea of dimensions could replace a sence of pergatory or a waiting room for the soul. Providing a mapping of the soul between the two dimensions so that we would all arrive in the new creation dimension at the same time.
The idea of all creation having an eschatological future sat uneasily with me and although I can see that a God of love would love all his creation we have already established through the earlier chapters of this book that humans alone have a sence of knowing God therefore I fail to see the need for an eschatological future for organisms that do not know God. However if we accept that omega may be equal to 1 then there is no reason why organisms present on that day could not share in the new creation with humans.

Chapter 9 – Personhood and the Soul

This chapter looks at the role that the idea of a soul plays in eschatology this chapter was a difficult one although I could see the point behind discussing what survives to live on with God there are perhaps something’s that we will never know until they occur. The chase for what the soul is has been carried out for as long as there has been science. With some very dangerous results. One novel that deals with this issue is “The Lucifer Code – Michael Cody”.
Polkinghorne postulates all sorts of Mathematical and Physiological thoughts on this topic none of which really grasp the mystery of what the Soul is.
One section that I did find useful in this chapter though was the idea of praying for the dead and the reason churchs do or do not prayer for the deceased. Coming from a Methodist background we do not pray for the dead and it was interesting to read Polkinghornes thoughts on prayer :-
“We are not involved in an instrumental manipulation on their behalf (the deceased),…..Prayer is always mutual participation in grace and never the exercise of a quasi-magical power.”

Chapter 8 – The God of Hope

This chapter although shorter than many of the others, is for me the central message of the whole book, the idea the eschatological hope has to be focused on a God that cares for all his creation in instrumental in the whole Christian message.
Karl Barth said :-
“ Christianity that is not entirely and altogether eschatology has entirely and altogether nothing to do with Christ “
I agree with this statement fully eschatology is Christianity the resurrection of Christ points towards the hope of our own resurrection.
This chapter was the best I have read so far in Polkinghorne’s work it points towards Gods love for each individual of his creation, a powerful and active God that doesn’t simply hold creation in order but interacts with it’s history.
Polkinghorne goes on to examine Forgiveness and joy and the role that these involve in the idea of Hope. He suggests that Hope must involve the redemption of the past as well as a promised fulfilment in the future.
Forgiveness is a complex and difficult subject and Polkinghorne does a good job of simplifying it to fit in with eschatological hope and suggesting that without forgiveness there can be no redemption of the past. God’s forgiveness comes to us through the cross of Christ. This forgiveness Polkinghorne suggests, frees us from the shackles with which we have enslaved ourselves. He suggests that equally important to our liberation is the forgiveness that we give to others.
When referring to Joy Polkinghorne uses the words of MiroSlav Volf
“Joy lives from the movement in time qualified by the unperturbed peace between past and future in all presents”
These thoughts Polkinghorne suggests are summed up in the prayer of John Donne :-
“Bring us, O Lord, at our last awakening into the house and gate of Heaven, to enter that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears or hopes, but one equal possession; no ends or beginnings, but one equal eternity; in the habitation of the glory and dominion, world without end.”
Polkinghorne then shifts his attentions to the realisation of eschatology questioning whether there is a need for a ”last awakening”. Kathryn Tanner suggests that realised eschatology exists in the present moment and that its ultimate quality lies in its character of being this life lived in relationship with God. She suggests eschatology parallels Gods unfolding creative purposes through evolution of the universe. She suggests that attaining a life lived with God now not in some future state of blessedness beyond death is what is important.
Although I agree with this to a certain degree believing that from our initial acceptance of God our new life begins there is still place I think for eschatological hope and this view is shared by Polkinghorne.
The chapter ends by looking at the sacramental life of the church and how this reflects eschatological hope through sacraments such as Holy Communion and baptism.
Polkinghornes closing words on this topic state “ Eschatological hope is that nothing of good will ever be lost to the lord. That thought in itself is enough to rebut a kind of other worldly piety that neglects the ethical demands of the present. It assures us that our strivings for the attainment of good within the course of present history are never wasted but will bear everlasting fruit.

Chapter 7 - Further new testament insights

Chapter 7 – Further New Testament insights
I struggled with this chapter, it didn’t grasp me like the previous few have and it was not as clear and ordered in my opinion as the others. Polkinghorne tries to establish a new testament basis for eschatological hope through a series of bible passages and this is achieved.
He examines a variety of themes in this chapter all linked around the concept of hope as expressed in the new testament beginning with the ideas expressed concerning eschatological thinking. He looks at the thoughts of Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer who believe that Jesus deliberately sought his own immolation in an attempt to force Gods hand. C.H.Dodd by contrast developed a point of view that of realised eschatology sees the kingdom as already being in the words and deeds of Jesus’ ministry. Polkinghorne however suggests that the truth s a mixture of the two in that the kingdom is present and is yet to come and that is very much the way I see it. God reveals his kingdom to us through he words and actions of Christ and expects us to make a heaven on earth through our own words and actions that mirror those of Jesus. However at the same time there is a hope that God has a plan outside of our understanding of time and space and that eventually we will know him fully and live with him totally in some Heavenly experience.
Polkinghorne picks up this theme in a section on new creation expressing that through the death and resurrection of Christ we have been made a new creation, it follows therefore that if we are a new creation we should live in the world as if we were living in the kingdom of God, this links in well with liberation theology although Polkinghorne does not make the connection. I would really have liked to have seen him expand on this further rather than just quoting the passages that allude to our re-creation actually make a comment on what the cost to the individual is and how this brings hope to others who have not experienced the new creation.
Polkinghorne ends this chapter with the idea that runs throughout his book that of hope, he uses the words of Hans Weder to point out that the new testament is essentially a gospel of the purification of hope, turning a meticulous desire for marvels or a desire for a purely political deliverance into the new hope that arises from the death and resurrection of Christ.

Chaper 6 - The resurrection of Jesus

Chapter 6 – The resurrection of Jesus
The chapter deals with the whole idea behind the central message of Christianity the resurrection of Christ and the hope behind it. Rather than deal directly with the open of resurrection based on a resurrection of Jesus though Polkinghorne first deals with the idea that if Christianity is to be credible then first we need to examine whether the resurrection of Jesus itself is credible in light of 21st Century thinking.
On the whole this chapter puts forward an excellent case for the authenticity of a Christian resurrection using the inconsistencies of the accounts in favour of the possibility of resurrection. He explains that the one consistent feature of the resurrection accounts are that individuals found it difficult to recognise Jesus. There is also a degree of intimacy about the accounts and such a personal reflection would be one Polkinghorne suggests that people would be reluctant to share, I can empathise with this position and feel that it is a valid reason for any lack of detail in the appearance accounts.
The idea of an empty tombs is one which Polkinghorne suggests is fundamental in our faith and suggests that it was not an issue whether there was or was not an empty tomb that caused much debate in the early church, but how such a tomb had come to be.
I especially liked the way in which Polkinghorne uses the experience of an individual at the sacrament of Holy Communion to illustrate our own personal meeting with a living resurrected God.
John Wesley was convinced that the Communion table was a place where people could meet God and experience his forgiving nature. I feel that no where more so than during this sacrament do we offer God the opportunity to touch our hearts and minds to open the doors of our own tombs and walk into his light. This is for me one of the strongest examples of a resurrected Jesus that he meets with us and communes with us and although I appreciate that this may not be the experience for all Christians for me it is the truth I feel.

Part II Chapter 5 - Old Testament insights

Chapter 5 sees the beginning of the second part of the book and looks at the way the bible views the end days. Polkinghorne suggests that that the credibility of eschatological hope rests ultimately on the faithfulness of God and goes on to illustrate how biblical insights point to a god who is indeed faithful.
He goes on to talk about the way in which life and death are portrayed and spoken of in the Old Testament. He explains the lack of concern about the afterlife in Israelite history and talks about how the people of Israel centred their hopes on justice, prosperity and honoured old age, attained in the course of the life of this world. Polkinghorne uses references from a host of Old Testament prophets to illustrate his point as well as referring to Psalms such as Psalm 88.
This is not to say however that the Hebrew bible does not mention the possibility of an afterlife and Polkinghorne expresses this clearly in reference to excerpts from the book of Daniel and the Prophet Isaiah.
“Your deeds shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy ! For your dew is a radiant dew and the earth will give birth to those long dead “(Isaiah 26 : 19)
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the Earth shall awake, some to everlasting light, and some to shame and contempt” (Daniel 12 :2)
Polkinghorne suggests that rather than the influence of Persian beliefs influencing the Israelites in their shift away from an absence of afterlife solely, it is more likely the uncertainties of the fate of the martyrs from the Maccabaen revolt played an influential role also.
There is then a shift away from the old testament and Polkinghorne enters a transition phase linking the Old Testament to the New, explaining through the use of the thoughts of Walter Brueggemann how the Jewish experience in the hope of adversity, of promise held onto at the centre of contradiction, to the Christian experience of Easter.
There is a brief explanation as to the position apocalyptic writing play in eschatological thinking before moving into the way in which the Christian church has utilised old testament thinking in their validation of Jesus as the messianic hope for the world and his use of the title “Son of man”
On the whole this chapter spoke strongly to me of the historical evolution of the way in which God reveals himself to his people allowing sufficient knowledge of what is to come to enable there to be hope within his people, whether that hope be based on ideas of prosperity and justice in this life or in the some future existence in a heavenly realm.

Chapter 4 - Cultural Context

This chapter grasped me for the first time since beginning this work. Polkinghorne deals here with a number of different situations grouped by the way in which we view our world around us. He talks abou the way society currently views time from a "present" point of view not thinking of consequences or future requirements. It would have been a good oportunity at this point to illustrate this point by the responce of many individuals to the concept of globel warming as an issue that is not important as people see it affecting other generations not their own. Polkinghorne focuses on the way in which tradition has in the past played an important role in determining the way we act in the present and how in our "carpe diem" society distances us from thinking about tradition and any time other than the present.
Once again he quotes Moltmann when talking about the way in which our attitudes have been affected by our experiences in the twentieth century and the horrors witnessed in that century he quotes:-

"Consciously or unconsciously, the eschatological thinking of the present day is determined by the messianic visions of the nineteenth century and the apocalypictic terrors of the twentieth century. What hope can be justified, once we wake up to the messianic dreams and resist the apocalyptic anxieties"

Polkinghorne talks about our inability to live inside a vaccum uncouncious of the cultural effects on our thinking and he talks about hot and cold memory, cold memories being focused on the present and hot on the past and he talks of the way in which hot memory isn't always a good thing recalling the effects of tradition on secterian violence in Northern Ireland
I especially like the way Polkinghorne uses the example of literature to emphesis his point on the state of eschatological thought linking the prevelence of happy endings in films and books with an insight of eschatological hopefulness that in the end all shall be well.

Polkinghorne comments on the inadequacies of Science at expressing the depth of human nature and the uniqueness of human personality and this is the crux of the situation for me. God loves our individuality and our uniqueness and as Polkinghorne points out the tiny difference in DNA between himself and Mozart is part of the highly significant difference between an off-key whistler and a musical genius. (although her doesn't say which is which lol)

chapter 3 - Human intuition and experience

I think in this chapter Polkinghorne aims to bridge the divide between essentially a scientific theory of the end times and the theological ideas and thought on what awaits us in the future.
The main theme for linking these is the theme of hope and Polkinghorne suggests that hope is an intrinsic part of humanities make up. Certainly the ability to hope is an immense gift enabling us to see a "light ant the end of the tunnel" to offer the possibility that salvation of what eer discription is close at hand. John Polkinghorne describes hope as being more than optimism or wishful thinking and fo the first time in this book uses biblical references to illustrate his point Romans 8 :24 "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen. And he uses theological thinkers to expalin how hope results in action to bring about that which is hoped for. (Jurgan Moltmann - theology of hope is a theology of combatants and not of onlookers). He goes on to say that it is his

"belief that the intuition of hope is a significant and essential aspect of what it is to be human. It is not just a urvival technique for whistling in the dark to keep our spirits up, but is an encounter with the reality within which we live"

This chapter is much more promising than the first two and it is appropriate that after two relatively dark and imposing chapters dealing with the futility of existance and the apparent inevitability of our universes demise we focus our attentions on hope.

I did find strange the idea of refering to mediums and telepathy to evidence the hope of life after death somewhat strange and infact disturbing and even though Polkinghorne suggests that there is an element of fraud involved in these activities his mention of them adds credence to their claims. This was a disappointing way to end a positive chapter of the book.

Chapter 2 - Insights from Natural Science

This chapter focuses on the way Science currently views the end of the universe indispensability looks at the limitations science has in it's understanding of the point of the whole universe. There seems little point to this chapter other than to point out the futility of holding an atheistic viewpoint to the possible collapse of the universe due to gravitational attractions. In linking in the world of quantum physics Polkinghorne brings the possibility of unknown forces into the picture. Little is understood about the world of quantum physics and I feel that this demonstrates the scientific communities difficulties in postulating about future times. Science is an overcame field, each day new theories put paid to old ones and every couple of decades an old law of physics is challenged and often found wanting. As mentioned in my previous post the concept of such unknown elements as dark matter, skew our thoughts and figures and calculations and although the findings currently fit our mathematical calculations who is to say that this will always be the case. The mystical term omega which determines the fate of the universe may not be a constant and may fluctuate, the universe may not expand and accelerate uniformly.
This chapter ends on a positive note for theologians, the acceptance that by itself science offers us only futility and pointlessness to our existence threatening to deny us of the concept of past, present and future as man made concepts that hold no sway in the big scheme of things, the possibility that our lives on earth are merely a transient phase of insignificance which will invariably have no lasting significance or value. Only a belief in a higher order, a purposeful life and a future that offers hope and salvation can provide us with the means to accept the need to live in a community with our neighbours throughout the world and I hope that this is a theme that Polkinghorne goes on to examine in the subsequent chapters.

Chapter 1 - Cosmic Process : Past and Future

This chapter was quite a depressing one, dealing with the possibility that the universe will end either with the dispersal out of the energy available (based on the concept that energy cannot be created or destroyed only converted from one form to another) or the gravitational forces of attraction between the bodies in space will lead to the universe collapsing back on itself in a sort of "Big Crunch" culminating in the production of a massive black hole.

On the whole the underlining themes of the chapter do little to deal with a god that creates in whatever way he chooses to. But deals with the idea that if there is a God his eventual plan must be to destroy the universe that he created.

While I am sure that this book is going to lead on to look at where God fits into the whole end of the universe concept Polkinghorne misses what I consider to be one key possibility, one that is addressed by as basic a source as the BBC website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/origins/theend/index.shtml

Here the following is stated :-

"There are three alternative scenarios for the future fate of the Universe. If the expansion continues forever then the Universe is destined for the Big Freeze, gradually pulled apart into a cold desolate wasteland of dying stars and black holes. If space stops stretching and springs back on itself, it will shrink until galaxies start colliding in the Big Crunch - terminating in the mother of all black holes. However, there is a more peaceful option. The final scenario involves the Universe gradually slowing down to a halt. With the whole Universe balanced precisely, cosmic catastrophe would be averted and space would be saved. At least for a while. Eventually the Universe would succumb to the Big Freeze, it would just take a lot longer."
(italics my own)

there is a distinct possibility that as the universe becomes more spread out a state of equilibrium will be reached and the gravitational attraction will be perfectly balanced to ensure an end to expansion and insufficient force to pull the universe back on itself.
This would sit perfectly with the idea of a creator God who is in control and has a plan for the universe he made.

One of the other things that comes across in this chapter that I find difficult to deal with as a scientist is the way Polkinghorne provides the impression that the answers and theories provided by cosmologists are set in stone and have been tested. Although the scientific model seems to fit the universe as we see it there are still many things that we do not know 90% of the universe is thought to consist of dark matter of which we have no understanding at all.
As with all Scientific thought, great care needs to be taken to ensure that we do not give the impression that we have all the answers specifically in light of previous scientists who's ideas have been quashed by subsequent generations.

At the moment I feel that this book has possibly been written with an agenda to link science and religion with many more concessions being given by the theologians than the Scientists.
I hope that subsequent chapters go on to deal with the concepts of trust, hope and love and are not simply grounded in scientific premise.

Jon Polkingthorne - Book Review.

I have started this blog to try and put some semblance of thought behind my reading of "A God who cares and the end of the World" By jon Polkinthorne (apologies if I have spelt this wrong).

I am currently undertaking the foundation training in the Methodist Church and study with a small group of NEOC students in the North East. For my Doctrine I book review I have decided to read the above named book although I come to it with an expectation that it will contain some outdated information. I must stress that I am a Biologist and not a physicist and so will have to do a great deal of reading around the ideas of Big bang and Big Crunch etc.

If you do take time to read this (although I am expecting that it wil be read only by myself) please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think (especially if you have read the book yourself) I would appreciate your comments.

Take care and God Bless

Gareth