Vast Universe: Extraterrestrials and Christian Revelation, by Thomas F. O'Meara OP.  Liturgical Press, 2012.

"My God, how great thou art!"  These are the words that best sum up the focus of this book by O'Meara.

These are some  of the questions that the author aims to answer in this small book:

a)  Are there other worlds?

b) If there are , are there humans dwelling on them?

c) Is it against the faith to believe that God made other worlds and inhabited them with humans?

d)  Did the Holy Trinity stretch out in ages past and set to redeem other worlds after they had sinned?  Each person of the Trinity taking a different world? Or did those planets remain sinless?

e) Would it bother you if there were humans on other planets?

f) Why couldn't God incarnate Himself on another planet?

At the end of one chapter, O'Meara says: "The idea that there are intelligent persons on distant planets is not completely new. A few philosophers and theologians have presumed that such creatures exist. Extraterrestrials are not rivals to people on Earth but expressions of divine power. Sin, person, and grace do not necessarily have the same forms in different worlds, and Jesus, a central figure in Earth' s religious history, is not repeatedly incarnate. Time and distance separate one planet from another, and they also separate faiths from religions."

Intelligent life in the universe, not just on earth, has long been a topic that Christian thinkers have studied.  Here are some thoughts of Protestants: A Lutheran theologian said that Christ's incarnation could have happened many times in many areas in the universe. Another said that Christ could only have died and been resurrected once. Thomas Paine thought that a Supreme Being populates planets, each of which had an Adam and Eve plus an apple, and needed a redeemer. Jesus did that from place to place. One writer contended that the Word of God went about from planet to planet, found sin, and became incarnate to save the human race. Paul Tillich maintained that man cannot claim he occupies the only possible place for incarnation.

Some Catholic theologians  maintained in the 19th century that extraterrestrials do exist and that does not demean or limit Christ. Whether they sinned or not is uncertain. There are analogies between  Earth and the planets and stars, and that array of stars and their ability to change, argues for other populated worlds. Some studied Mars and argued that it is capable of sustaining human life. One said that other planets have life in a natural state of happiness, and even if the inhabitants sinned, they could be redeemed. Karl Rahner writes: "God is free to fashion other worlds, worlds of different types. From this point of view, there is no veto against a history of free intelligence on another planet."

In conclusion, here is the wisdom that comes from a theologian  who had been active in Vatican Council II. Yves Congar  states: "Revelation being silent on the matter, Christian doctrine leaves us quite free to think there are or there are not other inhabited worlds. Earth should not limit divine power. There may well  be other incarnations of the divine persons of the Trinity in finite persons."

(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this review.)



Registration is now open for the 2013-14 session of SpiritLife, which is sponsored by Heartland Center for Spirituality in Great Bend, KS. Friday night accommodations are available for those who would like to come in a day early.

See http://heartlandspirituality.org/spiritlife for more information about the program and registration.

SpiritLife  presentations are also available online, but for personal enrichment only.

- http://shalomplace.com/inetmin/spiritlife/

St. Cajetan (1480-57): August 7

Like most of us, Cajetan seemed headed for an "ordinary" life-first as a lawyer, then as a priest engaged in the work of the Roman Curia.

His life took a characteristic turn when he joined the Oratory of Divine Love in Rome, a group devoted to piety and charity, shortly after his ordination at 36. When he was 42 he founded a hospital for incurables at Venice. At Vicenza, he joined a "disreputable" religious community that consisted only of men of the lowest stations of life--and was roundly censured by his friends, who thought his action was a reflection on his family. He sought out the sick and poor of the town and served them.

The greatest need of the time was the reformation of a Church that was "sick in head and members." Cajetan and three friends decided that the best road to reformation lay in reviving the spirit and zeal of the clergy. (One of them later became Paul IV.) Together they founded a congregation known as the Theatines (from Teate [Chieti] where their first superior-bishop had his see). They managed to escape to Venice after their house in Rome was wrecked when Emperor Charles V's troops sacked Rome in 1527. The Theatines were outstanding among the Catholic reform movements that took shape before the Protestant Reformation. He founded a monte de pieta  ("mountain [or fund] of piety") in Naples--one of many charitable, nonprofit credit organizations that lent money on the security of pawned objects. The purpose was to help the poor and protect them against usurers. Cajetan's little organization ultimately became the Bank of Naples, with great changes in policy.