Vast Universe

Thomas F. O'Meara, O.P., Warren Professor Emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, is the author of Erich Przywara, S.J.: His Theology and His World (2009) and God in the World: A Guide to Karl Rahner's Theology (Liturgical Press, 2007).

If we have learned anything from recent advances in cosmology andastronomy, it is that we have only barely begun to comprehend thevastness of our universe and all that it contains. For Christians, this raisessome fascinating questions:¿ If there are intelligent beings out there, what would be theirrelationship to what Christianity claims is a special history onEarth of life with God?¿ Would the fact of persons on other planets banish or modify ourunderstanding of God? Would it reduce the importance of Jesus?¿ What role might goodness and evil play in extraterrestrialcivilizations?¿ Might God have incarnated himself among other races of creaturesas he became incarnate as Jesus among us?Respectful of the sciences that disclose the reality of the universeThomas O'Meara wonders about good and evil, intelligence andfreedom, revelation and life as they might exist in other galaxies. Inthis book, one possible aspect of the universe we live in meets theperspective of Christian revelation.