Heaven in Evolutionary Perspective

Abstract

The traditional view of heaven as a pre-existing space reserved for the righteous is inadequate and in need of reformulation, particularly, when Christology is understood from an evolutionary view of the cosmos. From the standpoint of the Risen One who is the ‘new emergent whole’ in the process of evolving nature, heaven (where Christ ‘is’ with his risen body) is a heaven that arises out of this world. This cosmic heaven, as a higher and different universe within this universe, is a ‘new creation,’ and this new creation is in process since it is continually transforming this cosmic world into itself. This process will be completed when cosmic time enters into Christ’s time and God becomes ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28).