When the Eternal One comes to "dwell" on the earth, the earth will become God's cosmic temple, and the restless God of hope and history will come to his rest. That is the great biblical -- Jewish and Christian -- vision for this earth. It is the final promise: "Behold, the dwelling of God is with [human beings]. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people" (Rev 21:3 RSV, following Ezek. 37:27). The ultimate Shekinah, this cosmic incarnation of God, is the divine future of the earth. In this expectation we shall already treat the earth as "God's temple" here and now, and cherish its creatures as sacred. We men and women are not "the masters and possessors" of the earth, but perhaps we shall one day become its priests and priestesses, representing God to the earth, and bringing the earth before God, so that we see and taste God in all things, and perceive all things in the radiance of his love. That would be a sacramental view of the world which would be able to take up and absorb into itself the worldview held at present in science and technology.Jürgen Moltmann, "Progress and Abyss: Remembrances of the Future of the Modern World," p. 26 in The Future of Hope: Christian Tradition amid Modernity and Postmodernity, Miroslav Volf and William Katerberg, eds. Grand Rapids and Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2004.
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