Cosmology

Cosmology (Gk., kosmos + logos). Reflection on, and account of the world/universe as a meaningful whole, as embodying or expressing an order or underlying structure that makes sense: cosmogony is concerned with the coming into being of the cosmos, and cosmography with the description of its extent.

It is rare for religions to give a single cosmology or cosmogony purporting to be a description of the origin of the universe, in the way in which a scientific cosmology might aim to give a critically realistic account of the origin and nature of the universe. Religious cosmologies give accounts of origin and nature, but principally in order to display the cosmos as an arena of opportunity; and for that reason, a religion may offer, or make use of, many cosmogonies without making much attempt to reconcile the contradictions between them. It is this aesthetic and spiritual relaxation which allows religions to address cosmological issues from the point of view of accountability and responsibility (as at the present time over issues of ecology), not as competitors with a scientific account: thus the Vancouver Assembly of the World Council of Churches (see ECUMENISM) decided ‘to engage member churches in a conciliar process of mutual commitment (covenant) to justice, peace and the integrity of creation (subsequently known as JPIC)’; while this (especially the word ‘covenant’) depends on a particular understanding of creation, and thus of cosmogony, it has moved far beyond concerns about identifying the ‘correct’ account of the cosmos and its origins.

Judaism

Tanach (Jewish scripture) contains at least six different types of creation narrative, all of which are integrated to the overriding cult of Yahweh. The controlling accounts are those in Genesis: God created everything that exists in six days and rested on the seventh (1–2. 4). A second, more anthropocentric account (Genesis 2. 4–24), although differing in detail, also emphasizes that God is the origin of everything. The world is created solely in obedience to the divine will.

Christianity

Christians inherited the Jewish cosmology, but virtually from the outset (as early as Paul's letters) they associated Christ with the activity of the Father in creation. Furthermore, creation now has its end and purpose in him. Not surprisingly, therefore, Christian interest in cosmology and creation has seen them as a matter, not of technique, but of relationship—i.e. the relation of dependence which the created order has on its creator, not just for its origin, but for its sustenance. Thus God is the cause, not simply of things coming to be, but also of their being. The prevailing cosmography for millennia was one of a ‘three-decker’ universe (heaven above, earth in the middle, and hell below), but its ‘correction’ by modern cosmologies has not affected the more fundamental point of the earlier (or of any) religious cosmology which mapped the universe as an arena of opportunity. For that reason, a three-decker universe may well persist indefinitely in liturgy.

Islam

The Qurʾān strongly affirms God as creator and disposer of all that is. By a simple word, kun (‘Be’), he commands and it is (2. 117, 6. 73). God is al-Khāliq (the Creator, from khalaqa, ‘he created’), and has the power and authority to bring about all things as he disposes (qadar, Allāh). Everything that he has created is a sign (ayā), not only of God for those who have eyes to see, but also that God has power to continue his creative act in relation to humans by bringing them from the grave for judgement (e.g. 50. 6–11). The creation of a first man and first woman, and of the earth and seven heavens in two days, and of the cosmos in six, is described in such a way that, given the nature of the Qurʾān, any apparent conflict with other accounts (e.g. in the natural sciences) would have to be resolved in favour of the Qurʾān.

Hinduism

Vedic religion displays a clear sense of an ordered universe in which ṛta prevails. There are many different accounts of how the universe came into being, some implying agency, others emanation from a pre-existing state in which there is neither beginning nor end. Thus Śaṅkara understood the emanation as a progress from the subtle to the gross constituents of the world. But earlier than that, there had developed a sense of an unending process like a wave, with elements rising up into organized appearance, but then lapsing into a corresponding trough during ‘the sleep of Brahmā’, a period of dissolution (pralaya). It was thus possible that the cosmos arose from infinite space and consciousness, a belief expressed through Aditi. In truth, Indian religion accepted that the origin of the cosmos could not be known, but that the conditions of ordered life could be extremely well known. Cosmology lays out the terms for achieving that understanding—cosmology, again, as the arena of opportunity—while remaining agnostic about detail.

There was a greater confidence in cosmography. Vertically, the world was understood to be made up of seven continents (dvipas), ranged in circles with intervening oceans around the central point of Mount Meru. Vertically, if one takes a cross-section of the Brahmāṇḍa, one finds a series of layers. At the top are the lokas of the gods and high attainers; next are the planets, sky, and earth; then the underworlds, and finally the twenty-eight narakas or hells. See also CARDINAL DIRECTIONS.

Jainism and Buddhism

The Indian scepticism about the work of the gods or God in creating this cosmos was taken to a further extreme in both Jainism and Buddhism. The Jains inherited the triloka (see LOKA), and envisaged it as something like an hour-glass, squeezed in at the middle. Above (Urdhvaloka) are a series of heavens of increasing brightness, at the top of which is ‘the slightly curved place’ (Iśatpragbhara) where dwell the liberated and disembodied souls. In the middle is the Madhyaloka, which includes the continent inhabited by humans. Below is the Adholoka, a series of increasingly terrible hells—from which release is eventually certain, though the intervening time may be unimaginably long.

Buddhism inherited the same basic cosmography, but adapted it greatly. It envisages a series of levels, all of which are open to the process of reappearance: at the summit are the four realms of purely mental rebirth, (arūpaavacara); below them are the realms of pure form (rūpa-avacara), where the gods dwell in sixteen heavens, five of which are known as ‘pure abodes’ (suddhāvāsa), the remaining eleven of which arise out of the jhānas (meditational states). Lower still are the sense-desire heavens, including those of the Tāvatiṃsa gods (the thirty-three Vedic gods, the chief of whom, Indra, known as Sakka, has become a protector of Buddhism) and of the Tusita gods (where bodhisattvas spend their penultimate birth, and in which Maitreya now dwells). The world is simply a process, passing through cycles (kappa) of immense length.