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.
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