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Cosmology in Theological Perspective: Understanding Our Place in the Universe
Olli-Pekka Vainio
Baker Academic (2018). 224 pp.
In Cosmology in Theological Perspective, Olli-Pekka Vaninio—lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Helsinki—has provided an invaluable introductory resource for those interested in the current issues being discussed among the world’s scientific community. From a discussion of the ancient cosmogonies of Aristotle and Plato to the consideration of whether or not the theory of the multiverse could be incorporated into a traditional Christian cosmology (he argues that, in theory, it can), Vainio deftly leads us through a complicated landscape with an obvious love for the subject combined with a desire to help equip people—there are numerous helpful footnotes and an extensive bibliography—to think through these great questions without fear. As he explains, “In this book, I will not try to offer an account of how scientific and religious views should be related . . . The aim of this book is to examine the interface between philosophical and scientific convictions about our universe as we know it” (p. 4). Indeed, those looking for a scientific apologetic for theistic claims will be disappointed; however, what Vainio has offered is perhaps more valuable, because what he shows is how in each era a comprehensive theistic worldview can (and has!) incorporated findings from the best of the scientific consensus while helpfully pointing out how the scientific worldview, like that of the theological, in many ways develop together. Using C. S. Lewis as his guide, Vainio’s methodology is a real strength of this book, because whereas the technicalities of much scientific discussion are outside the realm of expertise for your average pastor theologian, he shows how the two disciplines have and can maintain a symbiotic dialogue, one that is necessary for a compelling argument for the veracity of the Christian claims in every generation.
For example, in a chapter entitled “Infinite Space, Infinite Terror,” (the chapter titles, it should be noted, are all taken from various sci-fi movies and television shows), he quotes seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal from his Pensées stating, “The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frighten me” (p. 109). Now, as Vainio points out, Pascal’s scientific appreciation of the size of the universe was greatly inferior to our own, yet the immensity produces a similar awe as that of both the psalmist— “who is man that you are mindful of him” (Ps 8:4)—and Richard Dawkins, “We should not think there’s anything special about us. We used to think we were the center of the Universe and now we know we’re not” (p. 109). This juxtaposition gets to the heart of Vainio’s methodological argumentation, because his point is that just as science continues to progress, the questions that speak to the theological realities of the human person remain and, in some cases, even become more acute. The distances that the ancient philosophers operating within a Ptolemaic, i.e., geocentric, cosmology between the earth and the stars, while vast, were inconceivable to those which we now observe through the far reaches of the Hubble telescope. Indeed, drawing from Eric Przywara’s work in his Analogia Entis, he observes a sort of “natural theology,” that undergirds his project in this book, namely, “[that] their structure of human existence and the way they posit ourselves intellectually in this world inevitably points toward a dilemma that can in principle be acknowledged by everyone, but which can be resolved only from a theological perspective” (p. 137). In the end, this is the greatest strength of the book: namely, that he highlights how the fundamental questions of human existence in the cosmos, while scientific, are not merely so and, as such, require the conversation of philosophers, scientists, and, yes, theologians.
I remember being cowed as a budding theologian in a class on “faith and science” back in my junior year in college. Almost silenced, not because I thought that the theological claims of the church on ultimate reality were indefensible, but because I did not have the necessary tools available to me, I thought, to wade adequately into the scientific discussion. Thankfully, during that very year John Paul II’s Fides et Ratio was published, which then (and now) provides a faithful guide for those looking for a way to traverse the increasingly acrimonious divide between “faith and reason.” Like that encyclical, Cosmology in Theological Perspective, displays great learning combined with a deep desire for a continued conversation between faith and science, one marked by symbiosis, not antagonism. Quoting that encyclical in his chapter, “Resistance is Futile,” we read, “Complex systems of thought have thus been built, yielding results in the different fields of knowledge and fostering the development of culture and history . . . Yet the positive results achieved must not obscure the fact that reason, in its one-sided concern to investigate human subjectivity, seems to have forgotten that men and women are always called to direct their steps towards a truth that transcend[s] them” (p. 55). With Cosmology in Theological Perspective, Olli-Pekka Vainio has given us a wide-ranging, informative, and timely reminder of this insight, because these “steps towards a truth that transcend[s] them,” is no abstract call towards a mysteriously transcendent truth, but rather a call towards that transcendent truth found in the redemptive work of God on the cross in Christ for the sake of his beloved world (or worlds, as the case might be!).
John D. Koch (PhD University of Humboldt) is the Associate Rector at Christ Church Anglican in Mount Pleasant, SC. In addition to various articles and lectures, he is the author of The Distinction Between Law and Gospel as the Basis and Boundary of Theological Reflection (Mohr/Siebeck, 2016) which explores the interrelationship between the doctrine of justification by faith alone and the preaching and teaching ministry of the church. He is a member of the St. Augustine Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
