Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The cultural mandate and the final frontier
The cultural mandate and the final frontier
Apr 2, 2025 3:47 AM

“Space,” proclaimed the memorable opening to the original Star Trek series, is “the final frontier.”

The image of the frontier, and its historic importance to Americans especially, has been part of our national discourse since at least historian Frederick J. Turner’s famous essay, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” I reflected on the significance of Turner’s thesis for space travel, and Martian colonization in particular, in an essay a few years ago on the hit film The Martian:

It is not the frontier itself but the desire for it that is really the heart of the matter: “that restless, nervous energy,” as Turner put it. There is something universal at the bottom of this American idea. As St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord … You made us for Yourself and our heart is restless, until it rests in You.”

That restless heart in the face of the vast “final frontier” of outer space is the topic of a recent article in Convivium by Brett Graham Fawcett:

Many have noted an “overview effect” that astronauts have experienced when seeing our planet from outer space. They have a numinous moment in which they recognize parative smallness and realize how petty and small our conflicts and differences are. But a religious experience of an entirely different kind is possible: One of despair.

Fawcett notes economic motivations that make space travel more likely in our future at the start of his article, but he hones in on the need for proper pastoral care for future frontiersman (and -women), concluding,

[Karl] Rahner is right: we need to e mystics. And the space age may give rise to a new spirituality, just as the atomic age gave rise to the “nuclear mysticism” that infused many of Salvador Dali’s paintings. A pastoral mind that is prophetic, in the sense of preparing God’s people for what ing by looking at the signs of the times, should begin building that new mysticism now.

While I’m unsure how pressing this need is — despite being a techno-optimist in general — there is spiritual value in the imaginative exercise of asking how we would prepare for such a scenario, however sci-fi it may seem to us in the present.

I agree that a healthy mysticism would be an asset to any space travelers — monastics have lived in purposeful isolation while maintaining, indeed improving, their spiritual health all throughout human history. Some degree of asceticism — whether prayer, meditation, mindfulness, or bination — makes sense to me. A regular practice of fasting might even incidentally help one adjust to the quality — or lack thereof — of space food.

But there is another side to ascetic spirituality that also could aid in the “re-enchanting” of the cosmos that Fawcett calls for: the ascetic work ethic. The Benedictine Order’s famous motto, ora et labora (“pray and work”), is characteristic of the vast majority of Christian asceticism throughout Church history, even including Protestant traditions according to sociologist Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

That economic side to the question that Fawcett notes as a potential motivation for space travel but leaves behind as he focuses on pastoral and psychological concerns, has a spiritual and theological basis as well — what some theologians call the “cultural mandate” of Genesis 1:28: “Then God blessed [humanity], and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'”

Furthermore, in Genesis 2 we see that God not only made his creation “very good,” and placed humanity in Paradise, but the work of creation was far from finished: God made us “to till the ground” (Genesis 2:5).

Now, I doubt the author of Genesis had other planets in mind when this passage was originally written, but by the same reasoning, the author likely had an expansive, cosmic view of what this mandate meant. The “ground” or “earth” in question would include all the resources of the cosmos, and our “dominion” would extend as far as God has enabled us to “fill the earth.” As I wrote in the above-mentioned essay on The Martian, “We might say that mand to ‘fill the earth’ (Genesis 1:28) should not stop at the soil of this planet.”

The biblical cosmology consists of “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Notably “earth” is not here the proper name of our planet but simply another word for soil. We could also take it to mean the physical aspect of creation, as distinct from the spiritual (“the heavens”).

In any case, God made us to make something good of his good creation. As I wrote in my book Foundations of a Free & Virtuous Society, “In short, God wants us to work. He wants us to creatively make good and beautiful things, just like he did (and does).” This theological foundation of our economic lives could, indeed ought, to be extended as far as we are able, even, when possible, across that “final frontier” of outer space. Someday that mandate may mean tilling and tending the earth of other planets.

In the meantime, it should also inspire us to make good and beautiful things on this planet, both for the glory of God and the good of our neighbors.

Image credit: “Colinization of Mars” by D Mitriy, Wikimedia Commons

More from Acton

Dylan Pahman, “Would Kuyper go to Mars?” (Acton PowerBlog)

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 15:4   Read Proverbs 15:4   A good tongue is healing to wounded consciences, by comforting them to sin-sick souls, by convincing them and it reconciles parties at variance.   Proverbs 15:4 In-Context   2 The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.   3 The eyes of the Lord are...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Proverbs 22:4   Read Proverbs 22:4   Where the fear of God is, there will be humility. And much is to be enjoyed by it spiritual riches, and eternal life at last.   Proverbs 22:4 In-Context   2 Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all.   3 The prudent see danger...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 90:12-17   Read Psalm 90:12-17   Those who would learn true wisdom, must pray for Divine instruction, must beg to be taught by the Holy Spirit and for comfort and joy in the returns of God#39s favour. They pray for the mercy of God, for they pretend not to plead any merit of their own....
Verse of the Day
  1 John 4:20 In-Context   18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.   19 We love because he first loved us.   20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does...
Verse of the Day
  Isaiah 61:7 In-Context   5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.   6 And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.   7 Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,...
Verse of the Day
  Galatians 2:20 In-Context   18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.   19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.   20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I...
Verse of the Day
  1 Corinthians 3:18-20 In-Context   16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?   17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for God's temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.   18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Complete Concise   Chapter Contents   Exhortations to obedience and faith. 1-6 To piety, and to improve afflictions. 7-12 To gain wisdom. 13-20 Guidance of Wisdom. 21-26 The wicked and the upright. 27-35   Commentary on Proverbs 3:1-6   Read Proverbs 3:1-6   In the way of believing obedience to God#39s commandments health and peace may commonly be enjoyed and though...
Verse of the Day
  Hebrews 11:6 In-Context   4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.   5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: He could not be...
Verse of the Day
  Commentary on Todays Verse   Commentary on Psalm 37:1-6   Read Psalm 37:1-6   When we look abroad we see the world full of evil-doers, that flourish and live in ease. So it was seen of old, therefore let us not marvel at the matter. We are tempted to fret at this, to think them the only happy people, and so we are...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved