Page 340 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

O r t h o d o x y
self-sustaining immortality; naturally, therefore, creation is
mortal. Modern science reaches a similar conclusion when it
foresees the universe moving toward an all-enveloping death,
whether by freezing or by burning out. What science describes
through cosmology and thermodynamics corresponds to the
theological claim that created being cannot secure its own
future. If creation is to endure, it cannot be because nature has
within itself the capacity to survive forever, but only because
its being is sustained as grace and fulfilled in an eschatological
future beyond its own natural limits. Thus science, far from
refuting theology, confirms that creation without the eschata
remains “being-unto-death,” while its true permanence de-
pends not on its origin alone, but on the future given by God.
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