11
From Scripture to Theology: Polkinghorne's Hermeneutic
for Understanding Eschatology
The joining together of Polkinghornes physical scientific perspectives with theology allow him a second
hermeneutical trajectory when reading Scripture. Polkinghornes scientifically based view of the origin of the
cosmos "presents us with the picture of a universe that, despite its present fruitfulness, will eventually end in the
futility of cosmic collapse or decay."
44
In order to avoid this ultimate cosmic end in which nothing survives,
Polkinghorne revisions traditional concepts of creation so that they will be faithful to his scientific methodology and
yet retain elements of God-directedness. First, as discussed above, he expands the traditional notion of creatio ex
nihilo to include creatio continua.
For Polkinghorne, the traditional concept of creatio ex nihilo refers to "the preservation of creation from
ontological collapse, . . . the work of the Creator in the mode of divine transcendence."
45
What Polkinghorne means is that
"the universe is at all times held in being, rescued from the abyss of nothingness, by the divine will alone."
46
Polkinghorne
justifies his position by stating:
When quantum cosmologists gaily characterize their notion of the universe as an inflated vacuum
fluctuation as being the scientific equivalent of creatio ex nihilo, they entirely miss the point. A
quantum vacuum is not nihil, for it is structured by the laws of quantum mechanics and the
equations of the quantum fields involved, all of which the theist will see as existing solely because
God decrees that this should be so.
47
Because the world did not come into being "ready-made," but rather evolved over long ages, Polkinghorne has
added the notion of creatio continua, "continuing creation unfolding throughout cosmic history."
48
The role of God in this
unfolding, evolutionary process is to be present, "not as its [the worlds] sole determinant, for an evolving world is a
creation allowed by its Creator to some degree to ,,make itself through the shuffling explorations of contingency--but as
44
John Polkinghorne, The God of Hope and the End of the World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002,
xviii.
45
Science and Theology, 81.
46
Ibid., 80.
47
Ibid.
48
Ibid.