The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. "The\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. "The\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cultivare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unsystematictheology\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-25T05:17:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-25T06:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/files\/2013\/01\/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse21-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kyle Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kyle Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/\",\"name\":\"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-25T05:17:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-25T06:00:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/381598fc4c96625e5d1bc4e231480457\"},\"description\":\"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. \\\"The\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/\",\"name\":\"Cultivare\",\"description\":\"Reflections on the True, the Good and the Beautiful\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/381598fc4c96625e5d1bc4e231480457\",\"name\":\"Kyle Roberts\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63e213f19e739b70f12a722abb63786d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63e213f19e739b70f12a722abb63786d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kyle Roberts\"},\"description\":\"(PhD) is Academic Dean and Schilling Professor of Public Theology and Church and Economic Life at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Roberts has published A Complicated Pregnancy: Whether Mary Was a Virgin and Why it Matters (Fortress Press, 2017); Emerging Prophet: Kierkegaard and the Postmodern People of God (Cascade, 2013); and co-authored Matthew: The Two Horizons Commentary (Eerdmans, 2018).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.unitedseminary.edu\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unsystematictheology\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/author\/kyleroberts\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth","description":"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. \"The","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth","og_description":"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. \"The","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/","og_site_name":"Cultivare","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unsystematictheology\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel","article_published_time":"2013-01-25T05:17:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-25T06:00:39+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/files\/2013\/01\/the-four-horsemen-of-the-apocalypse21-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Kyle Roberts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kyle Roberts","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/","name":"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-25T05:17:59+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-25T06:00:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/381598fc4c96625e5d1bc4e231480457"},"description":"On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki's\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. \"The","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/","name":"Cultivare","description":"Reflections on the True, the Good and the Beautiful","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/381598fc4c96625e5d1bc4e231480457","name":"Kyle Roberts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63e213f19e739b70f12a722abb63786d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/63e213f19e739b70f12a722abb63786d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kyle Roberts"},"description":"(PhD) is Academic Dean and Schilling Professor of Public Theology and Church and Economic Life at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Roberts has published A Complicated Pregnancy: Whether Mary Was a Virgin and Why it Matters (Fortress Press, 2017); Emerging Prophet: Kierkegaard and the Postmodern People of God (Cascade, 2013); and co-authored Matthew: The Two Horizons Commentary (Eerdmans, 2018).","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.unitedseminary.edu\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unsystematictheology\/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/author\/kyleroberts\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2078,"date":"2013-01-25T01:17:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T05:17:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/?p=2078"},"modified":"2013-01-25T02:00:39","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T06:00:39","slug":"the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/cultivare\/2013\/01\/the-end-of-evil-and-escape-from-planet-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of Evil and Escape from Planet Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

On the plane today I was reading Marjorie Suchocki\u2019s\u00a0The End of Evil.\u00a0<\/em>A friendly flight attendant, while pouring my coffee, noticed the book title. \u201cThe end of evil?\u201d she said. Do you think there\u2019s going to be an end to evil? \u201cWell\u2026yes\u2026I believe that. I certainly hope for it,\u201d I responded (probably with a measured academic tone that came from just having worked through Suchocki\u2019s comparison of Augustine and Leibniz on finitude and freedom). \u201cWell I know there\u2019s going to be an end to evil,\u201d she said. \u201cOnly, it\u2019s not going to happen on this planet. It will be somewhere else. I\u2019ve read the book of Revelation\u2026and I know about the millennium!\u201d<\/p>\n

She had already moved on to the next row, before I could suggest that the end of evil just might happen on\u00a0this planet\u00a0<\/em>after all (and I thought about suggesting she read N.T. Wright\u2019s\u00a0 $\"\"$ <\/a>Surprised by Hope\u00a0<\/em>for a thoughtful consideration of that possibility). But that quick interaction was another reminder of the popular assumption that this world is pretty much headed for disaster. It\u2019s all going to pot. The economy may be in the tank, resources are growing thin, social problems seem to mount, and our ultimate hope is in\u00a0escape\u00a0<\/em>from this planet we call earth.<\/p>\n

Of course, I don\u2019t want to get too dramatic about this. She seems like a delightful, life-affirming, warm person who is enjoying and making the most of the life she has (from what I can tell from my few, tiny interactions). Her eschatological escapism doesn\u2019t seem to emerge from a hatred of life or a distaste for the human race. And yet, I can\u2019t help but wonder about the cumulative, negative impact this pessimistic view of the future role of our planet in the history of God\u2019s salvation plan must have in the way Christians and the church think about some very pressing issues: ecology, economics, social ethics (i.e. gun control), etc. The more we de-link (is that a word?) human beings from our planetary home, the less we may feel a responsibility for what happens not only to the earth, but for what happens to the human race while we\u2019re on it. Perhaps it\u2019s time to imagine our future as if God will actually make his home here with us, as he promised (Rev. 21:1-4).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"