Review Pannenberg Systematic Theology vol 2:
Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991)
Especially pertinent is pages 136-74
Due to the present tension between concealment and the future consummation of God’s kingdom, notes Pannenberg, the question arises whether and in what way the divine world government has a direction, a final structure of action (55). He notes that all of God’s preceding rule in the world is oriented toward this future, the only place at which God’s rule will be fully actuated. Pannenberg affirms the Aristotelian conception of creation and providence, which characterizes God himself as the goal of his action (cf. Aquinas, SCG 3.17f-3.18; Aquinas uses, largely, Proverbs 16:4 as justification for his view, note).
In his section on Creation and Eschatology, Pannenberg notes the following:
- notes that the goal of all of creation, not just humanity, is to share in the life of God (136). The creative Spirit, P. notes, is vitally at work throughout all of creation.
Using Wilckens (Romer, II, 152ff), P. approvingly notes that – at least with reference to Paul – faith sees God to be present in all of creation as its creator; even though the present creation groans with pain (Rom. 819-26), God will in time set aside this contradiction of pain and perfection (from origin). The creative presence of God (i.e. the Spirit) is oriented toward the future eschatological consummation, and forms the basis of the sacramental view of nature (cf. W. Temple, Nature, Man, and God, pp. 482ff; Peacocke, Science and the Christian Experiment, pp. 178-88; and S. M. Daecke, “Profane and Sacramental Views of Nature,” in The Sciences and Theology in the Twentieth Century, ed. A.R. Peacocke [Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981], pp. 127-40, esp. 134ff); the material universe is alike unto the sacaraments in the church, and as such the material universe is not merely an outward sign of grace, but also a means to communicate it (cf. Temple, Nature, Man, and God, pp. 482ff; Peacocke, Creation and the World of Science, pp. 290, who expressly mentions this sacramental view of the material world).
Creation and eschatology belong together because it is only at the eschatological consummation of that the destiny of all things will come to fulfillment (139). Creatures, however, its origin is in the past, from which it has the roots of its existence (139).
The creation, preservation, and rule of the world are related aspects of the one divine act by which the Trinity brings forth the created – yet autonomous – world (139). The divine rule aim s at the future consummation; as such, creation ends only with the eschatological consummation (139).
If the eschatological future is the standpoint from which we are to understand the world as a whole, the view of its ‘beginning’ loses its function as an unalterably valid basis of unity in the whole process; it is now merely seen to be merely the beginning of that which will achieve its full form only at the end (146). Due to this assertion, P. contends that only in light of the eschatological consummation can humans understand the meaning of its beginning (146).
- asserts that even in view of the now-standard expanding universe model of the beginning of the universe, the assumption of a temporal beginning is not so inescapable as it might appear at first glance; even if it did have a temporal beginning, we cannot immediately use it as a basis for the proof of God’s existence (154-55). Rather, it is possible that although the individual parts of the universe had a temporal beginning, the world in toto is not a finite process altogether (156); however, this does not necessarily affirm the cyclical model of the universe either, P. notes. A temporal end of the universe parallel to its beginning is at least feasible in view of contemporary cosmological theories (160).