A Physicist Examines Hope in the Resurrection

Examination of the Significance of the Work of John C. Polkinghorne for the Mission of the Church

Wilson

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781532605154
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

John Polkinghorne, ordained member of the Royal Society, past President of Queen's College Cambridge, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 2002 Templeton Prize winner, theoretical physicist, and theologian writes in breathless style to unfold core Christian doctrine in dialogue with science. His work deftly addresses how one would interpret and commend Christian faith in the contemporary world as he elucidates the key topics in the dialogue of religion with science. Polkinghorne's work addresses the hope Christians have--present and future--in the faithfulness of a loving God who stands alongside them today and for all eternity. Eschatological hope enables and empowers Christian life and emerges in God's resurrection of Jesus from the horrific crucifixion.Polkinghorne ably supports his thesis with a strong argument for the resurrection built on the kenotic acts of God. His thesis sees Christian eschatology as the advent of hope--the heart of faith. In Christian eschatology, as argued by Polkinhorne and supported in the work of Jurgen Moltmann and Nicholas T. Wright, Christ's presence is not some far off event, but present reality.

1

Evangelism in the Contemporary World

Introduction

Noting the importance of the need for evangelism to reach people in contemporary times, Arthur R. Peacocke comments on Leslie Newbigin’s Foolishness to the Greeks (1986): “No-one concerned with the future of the Christian, or indeed any other religion, can avoid facing up to the impact of science on faith. This encounter is identified by Newbigin as the crucial point at which the gospel is failing to have any impact on ‘Western’ men and women.”1 Generally, the church in some areas did not respond to scientific discovery when it conflicted with doctrine. In the worst scenarios, it stood resolutely intolerant of science as when it refuted Galileo Galilei’s heliocentric view of the universe2 and Charles Darwin’s publication of the Origin of Species (1859). In doing so, the church missed the opportunity to examine the possibility that such discovery enriches the church’s understanding of how God might act in creation. The work of Polkinghorne offers a credible singular response to the problem that Newbigin identifies and assists the evangelistic spread of the gospel message as well as catechesis.3

Evangelism has not only the crucial task to spread the message, but it also has the task to assure that those making a new or renewed commitment are linked into the church through discipleship and catechesis. At the forefront, evangelism not only announces the message of the kingdom, but evangelism spreads the message of expectancy and eschatological hope, both present and future, and invites everyone to meet the risen Lord.

Evangelism in too many instances presents the good news of the gospel in a negative framework, often rejects reason, and appears anti-intellectual. Rather than inviting people into the kingdom it threatens them with judgment which demeans those outside the church, and people treated in that fashion do not respond positively to the church. Moreover, commitment made in response to fear or intimidation does not come from the heart of the individual, and such commitment may not result in conversion. Response to the gospel from the heart results in conversion and a transformed life as Paul notes: “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Cor 5:17).4

In addition, some evangelists oversimplify the message and present inadequate content. In doing so, the evangelist turns good news into bad news and provides no element of hope. The work of Polkinghorne offers the evangelist the positive framework of hope whereby an informed evangelist can invite those outside to the kingdom as does Jesus when he announces the kingdom in Matthew and says: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt 4:17). Repent, μετανοέω, metanoeo, here calls one to turn from the world to the kingdom and away from one’s past sins.

Unfortunately, misguided approaches lead people to make decisions for Christ that are not well-reasoned and do not emerge from a change of heart. Such decisions often do not stand the test of time, and the new Christian does not continue in the faith. Instead, evangelism presents the gospel, invites people to the kingdom, and grounds them in Christian faith through appropriate catechesis. In doing so, the evangelist does not need to back away from statement of Christian faith. Instead the evangelist can offer the eschatological hope for both present and future.

Protestantism in the 16th–20th Centuries

Rationalism of René Descartes and Empiricism of John Locke

The change in philosophy that began with René Descartes subtly impacted the church. Before the Enlightenment,5 theologians such as Augustine (354–430) and Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) wrestled with important theological questions. Now thought moved from theology in the church to philosophy and science in the culture, and science gained ever greater prominence. These changes set the stage for continued decline for the authority of the church and its questioned importance in Western culture and also resulted in disunity.

Lack of unity across various segments of Christendom worsened the circumstances. Following the Reformation,6 a variety of Protestant sects emerged with varying interpretation and emphasis. In England, the Anglicans lost control as clergy dissented, numerous sects emerged, and many new groups moved to the United States for religious freedom. Today, the United States contains a plethora of Christian groups, and one is hard put at times to know exactly for what the Christian religion stands. Change also began in science.

The circumstances of philosophical change, tremendous growth of science, and often Christian disunity fosters the rise of secularity in the culture. The church must repair disharmony and address concerns of the culture in order to retain any sense of relevance in the contemporary world and retain strong evangelism.7 The church can address disharmony through the emphasis of its core doctrines, primarily of the need for salvation and restoration of relationship with God and community. These core doctrines—expressed in the creeds—should bind all Christians together, and their emphasis on the core doctrines can offset disunity over peripheral concerns.

Emergence of Science in the 16th–20th Centuries

The sixteenth through seventeenth centuries mark major change in the West with the heliocentric worldview of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler’s observational description of planetary motion, and Isaac Newton’s publication of his Principia (1687).8 Newton’s deterministic worldview held until the early twentieth century and the work of Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg in quantum physics.9 Intermediately, Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) set the stage to understand origination of life on earth.10 In the early twentieth century, Albert Einstein proposed the theories of special and general relativity which completely upset the notion of time, and soon astronomers realized the universe was much older than anyone thought.11 In the later twentieth century, astronomers, following Edwin Hubble’s work, proposed an age for the universe of billions of years. This discovery conflicted with the 6,000 or so years for the age of creation from Bishop James Ussher’s work.12

Change from the reformation to the present day confronts humanity with great benefit and with great challenge. Science in particular is slowly gaining increased acceptance and authority in society. Such change benefits humanity and challenges the church and evangelism. Nonetheless, existential benefits such as those provided by increased technology do not provide answers for ultimate concerns. Instead, eschatological hope responds to individual ultimate concern and should resonate in the evangelistic message.

Statement of the Problem

The changes in philosophical and scientific epistemology in the Western world resulted in a significant worldview shift. Before the Protestant Reformation and emergence of nationalism, the Roman Catholic Church held sway over the minds of people. People looked to their religion in times of difficulty and respected the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Slowly new authority emerged, particularly in the Western world. Authority moved from the church to the government, locally and nationally.

In the twentieth century technology began to master the material world from nuclear energy to biomedicine and genetics. Some refer to this period as post-Christian and to Christianity as secular Christianity. Participation in o...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Evangelism in the Contemporary World
• Chapter 2: Enquiry in Religion and Science
• Chapter 3: Kenosis
• Chapter 4: Christology
• Chapter 5: Eschatology
• Chapter 6: Announcement of the Kingdom
• Chapter 7: Resurrection
• Chapter 8: Foundation for Christian Hope
• Chapter 9: Meaning
• Chapter 10: Hope
• Chapter 11: Theodicy, Divine Action, and the Trinity
• Chapter 12: In Conclusion
• Bibliography