- Article
- 6000 words
- Level: high school and above
This 2022 article by Christopher Baglow, published in Church Life Journal, was originally a lecture given at the Society of Catholic Scientists Annual Conference on 4 June 2021. Baglow is Director of the Science & Religion Initiative of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Faith, Science and Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge and is the co-recipient of the 2018 Expanded Reason Award in the Teaching category.
In this article, which Baglow takes pains to make clear is of an entirely speculative nature, Baglow argues that any extraterrestrial rational species (ETRS) in the universe would be expected to have a relationship with God that is highly analogous to the relationship that human beings have with God. He writes:
An important axiom of Christian soteriology, or theology of redemption, is that the personal history of Jesus Christ is the triune life of God reenacted in time and space within our human history. God descends to take us up into that life, to make us partakers of the divine life, because God is love, and solidarity is the hallmark of perfect love. And so, in the case of any fallen ETRS, we should expect that the Lord would make their lot his own—that he would go the distance…. Because God is love, any ETRS Incarnation would be no mere show, be it a joyous Incarnation with no suffering and death, or one which, like in the human case, is horrifying and sad although ultimately triumphant.
Click here to access the article from Church Life Journal.
The talk Baglow gave at the 2021 Society of Catholic Scientists Annual Conference is below.
