Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 1-1-2017 The Salvation of the Cosmos: Benedict XVI's Eschatology and its Relevance for the Current Ecological Crisis Jeremiah Vallery Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.edu/etd Part of the Catholic Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Vallery, J. The Salvation of the Cosmos: Benedict XVI's Eschatology and its Relevance for the Current Ecological Crisis (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.edu/etd/205 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection.
For more information, please contact phillipsg@duq. THE SALVATION OF THE COSMOS: BENEDICT XVI’S ESCHATOLOGY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THE CURRENT ECOLOGICAL CRISIS A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Jeremiah Vallery December 2017 Copyright by Jeremiah Vallery 2017 THE SALVATION OF THE COSMOS: BENEDICT XVI’S ESCHATOLOGY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THE CURRENT ECOLOGICAL CRISIS By Jeremiah Vallery Approved October 30, 2017 ________________________________ Radu Bordeianu, Ph. Associate Professor of Theology (Committee Chair) ________________________________ ________________________________ Daniel Scheid, Ph. William Wright, Ph.
Associate Professor of Theology Associate Professor of Theology (Committee Member) (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal, Ph. Marinus Iwuchukwu, Ph. Dean, McAnulty College Chair, Theology Department Professor of Philosophy Assistant Professor of Theology iii ABSTRACT THE SALVATION OF THE COSMOS: BENEDICT XVI’S ESCHATOLOGY AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THE CURRENT ECOLOGICAL CRISIS By Jeremiah Vallery December 2017 Dissertation supervised by Radu Bordeianu, Ph. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has elements of a cosmic eschatology embedded in his theological oeuvre that have not heretofore been extensively systematized.
This dissertation fills this gap by contextualizing Benedict’s cosmic eschatology in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, examining his Logos theology and his view on the fate of the cosmos, exploring his cosmic liturgy, and evaluating his concept of human ecology and pneumatology. Benedict insufficiently links his cosmic eschatology to his papal teachings on the environment; however, his cosmic eschatology can be developed in fruitful ways. After providing a thorough articulation of Benedict’s cosmic eschatology, I offer my own ideas on how it might develop. I suggest modifying the exitus-reditus schema to accommodate the uniqueness of individuals and, building on the foundation of Benedict’s cosmic eschatology, I lay the groundwork for a pneumatological cosmic eschatology using the insights of various eastern theologians.
iv DEDICATION To the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I could not have written this dissertation without God’s providence. There are so many people and institutions that contribute to the writing of a dissertation. In the first place, I would like to thank my wife, Michelle, and our daughters, Cecilia Anastasia, Lucy Agnes, and Genevieve Margaret, for their patience as I labored many hours to complete this project.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to my parents, Ted and Karin, and to my grandfather, Ted Israel, for instilling within me a love for the Faith without which I would not have pursued a terminal degree in theology. Special thanks to Fr. Radu Bordeianu for directing my dissertation and for his expert guidance, invaluable insights, and constant encouragement, to Daniel Scheid for introducing me to the topic of ecological ethics through a course I took with him at Duquesne University, and to William Wright for directing an excellent doctoral seminar on Sacred Scripture. Thank you, readers, for supporting me in this journey.
I would also like to thank the many teachers and professors I have had throughout my life. I thank the staff members of Gumberg Library of Duquesne University, Doherty Library of the University of St. Thomas (Houston), Cardinal Beran Library of St. Mary’s Seminary, and Lanier Theological Library for allowing me to use their resources to assist me in writing this dissertation.
Last of all, I would like to thank Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI for his theological contributions over the years and service to the Church. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract. 2 A Concise Biography of Benedict XVI. 10 Purpose and Method.
16 CHAPTER 1: MODERN COSMIC ESCHATOLOGY .22 Pre- and Post-Schweitzerian Eschatology. 22 Pre-Schweitzerian Eschatology. 23 Weiss and Schweitzer. 25 The Revival of Cosmic Eschatology.
30 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. 30 Teilhard’s Vision of the Evolving Cosmos. 32 Teilhard and Benedict. 37 Assessment of Teilhard.
46 Moltmann’s Cosmic Eschatology. 46 The Widening of Personal Eschatology. 47 Time, Space, and the Cosmic Shekinah. 50 vii Moltmann and Benedict.
60 Haught’s Cosmic Eschatology. 61 The Restructuring of Metaphysics. 61 The Universe as a Drama. 64 Rethinking Original Sin and Suffering.
66 Haught and Benedict. 70 Original Sin, Expiation, and Cosmic Redemption. 74 Preparing the Cosmos for the Future. 81 CHAPTER 2: LOGOS AND COSMOS .84 Benedict’s Cosmic Eschatology/Soteriology: An Overview.
85 The Sacramental Vision of Benedict XVI. 93 “Sacramentality” and “Sacrament”. 95 Levels of Sacramentality. 101 Cosmos as Sacrament or Church?.
104 Cosmos as Sacrament/Church and Ecology. 108 Cosmos as Sacrament. 109 Subjective Effect: Renewal of Sacramental Vision. 109 viii Objective Effect: Cosmic Apotheosis.
111 Cosmos as Church. 111 Logos: Benedict’s Theology of the Word. 115 The Eternal Word. 116 The Written Word of God.
117 Logoi in Creation. 122 Logoi in the Theology of St. Maximus the Confessor. 123 Logos and Logoi in Benedict’s Theology.
130 Cosmos: Resurrection and the Destiny of the Universe. 137 Resurrection in Death?. 138 The Salvation of Matter. 140 Pancosmicity of the Soul.
147 CHAPTER 3: COSMIC LITURGY .150 Origins and Features. 152 Exterior Origins: Scriptural Roots and Sources. 152 Interior Origin and Perennial Nature. 158 ix Cosmos as Context of Worship (and as a Church).
158 Liturgy as Given by God. 160 Liturgical Representation and Anticipation. 162 Time and the Liturgy: Representation. 162 Eucharist: Anticipation of the World’s Transformation.
163 Paschal Mystery: Foundation of Cosmic Liturgy and Catalyst of Apotheosis. 167 Cross and Eucharist. 169 Resurrection and Cosmic Apotheosis. 180 Benedict’s Theology in General.
188 Benedict’s Cosmic Liturgy. 202 Openness to Social Justice. 208 A Serrian Theological Model of Exitus-Reditus. 217 x CHAPTER 4: HUMAN ECOLOGY AND PNEUMATOLOGY.
225 Benedict’s Human Ecology. 238 Sherrard and Benedict. 245 Bartholomew and Benedict. 246 Science and Theology.
247 Cosmic Liturgy and Human Ecology. 253 Benedict’s Pneumatology vis-à-vis Christology and Ecclesiology. 255 Assessments of Benedict’s Pneumatology. 257 The Subsistit Formula.
261 Zizioulas and Benedict. 265 Benedict’s Pneumatology in his Theology of Religions. 270 The Issue of Truth. 271 The Economy of the Holy Spirit.
275 Synthesis: Towards a Pneumatological Eschatology. 278 A Dynamic Pneumatological Paradigm. 279 Anthropogenesis and Ecclesiogenesis. 280 Cosmic Extension the SubsistiT Formula.
283 xi The Death of Humanity and of the Cosmos. 286 The Salvation of Nature and Human Culture. 288 Cosmic Apotheosis and the Kenosis of the Holy Spirit .298 Catalogue of Conclusions .327 xii Introduction Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger)1 is one of the most influential theologians of his generation2 and his works are widely available in the English language. Not many realize, however, that Benedict has a cosmic eschatology in his oeuvre, although he has not treated the subject at length in any one work and it has yet to be fully explicated.3 Up to this point, the descriptions of Benedict’s cosmic eschatology have been insufficient.
For instance, in Resurrection Realism: Ratzinger the Augustinian, a recent work by Peter J. Fletcher, there is a brief section on “The Salvation of the World,” but Fletcher does not explore this topic in depth.4 While Resurrection Realism is a fine work by Fletcher that clearly and impressively delineates the similarities between the trajectories in St. Augustine and Benedict XVI’s eschatological thought, there is one glaring lacuna, i. the lack of attention to Benedict’s Einführung in den Geist der Liturgie (The Spirit of the Liturgy), which is essential to Benedict’s understanding of the salvation of the cosmos.5 A year before Resurrection Realism was published, I outlined the 1 Throughout the dissertation, I use the name Benedict rather than Ratzinger, unless I refer to biographical details or quote a passage that mentions the name Ratzinger.
Occasionally, I use both names in the same sentence to emphasize a distinction between Ratzinger’s doctrine as it existed before he was elected pope and the same doctrine (or another doctrine) after he had taken the name Benedict. 2 In a recent anthology, marked by its vast ecumenical scope since it includes Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox theologians, Benedict is listed as one of the most important theologians of the modern era. See Staale Johannes Kristiansen and Svein Rise, eds., Key Theological Thinkers: From Modern to Postmodern (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2013). 3 Most of Benedict’s works have been published in English by Ignatius Press.
Some comprehensive studies on Benedict’s theology include Aidan Nichols, The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI: New Edition: An Introduction to the Theology of Joseph Ratzinger (New York: Burns and Oates, 2007), Tracey Rowland, Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), and Tracey Rowland, Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed (New York: T&T Clark, 2010). Fletcher, Resurrection Realism: Ratzinger the Augustinian (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014), 215–16. 5 This lack of attention is made evident by the conspicuous absence of a bibliographic entry for this work. See Fletcher, Resurrection Realism, 266–67.
1 pillars of Benedict’s cosmic soteriology (which for the later Benedict is obviously connected to the liturgy) with references to Spirit of the Liturgy, but there is much that I left unexplored.6 Because of space requirements, I did not place Benedict’s thought in the context of other theologians’ eschatologies. In this work, I intend to offer the most in-depth analysis of Benedict XVI’s cosmic eschatology to date. My introduction consists of an overture in which I describe several different eschatological models predicted by some contemporary cosmologists and compare these views to a Christian eschatological perspective. The overture sets the stage for the rest of the dissertation.
Benedict XVI enters the stage in the subsequent section, which is a brief biography of the former pontiff. I then state the purpose of my dissertation and my methodology. Finally, I provide an outline of the four chapters in the dissertation. Overture Apocalyptic visions, whether inspired by religious or scientific sources, continue to have a profound influence on humanity in the twenty-first century.
For the past several decades, scientists have been warning the world about rising average global temperatures and the negative effects of human-caused climate change. This prospect has led theologians to reevaluate the relationship between Christianity and the environment. While there is a general consensus among scientists and theologians alike that human-caused climate change is endangering the sustainability of life on Earth, theologians do not simply appeal to humanistic values, for they perceive the problem from a perspective that is informed by a transcendent horizon. This is 6 Jeremiah Vallery, “Pope Benedict XVI’s Cosmic Soteriology and the Advancement of Catechesis on the Environment,” in Environmental Justice and Climate Change: Assessing Pope Benedict’s Ecological Vision for the Catholic Church in the United States, ed.
Jame Schaefer and Tobias Winright (New York: Lexington Books, 2013), 173–93. 2 imperative since modern science has presented humanity with a narrative that indicates that the universe is destined to destruction in one of several possible scenarios. In the face of the destruction of not only life on Earth but of the entire universe itself, it is essential that theologians develop a cosmic eschatology/soteriology that explains how the universe itself can be saved from destruction.