The Hermeneutic of Continuity

A new church has been built at the Baikonur Cosmodrome (Cf. Church at space centre ). This is a phenomenon following the collapse of the Soviet Empire and the consequent resurgence of Christianity. See the interview with cosmonaut Valeriy Korzun at this page from the Orthodox Encyclopaedia site . Around the world, everyone has heard the apocryphal declaration from Yuri Gagarin "I went up to the outer space and didn't find any God there". Korzun comments: I know another phrase, also said by Gagarin: "If you haven't met God on Earth you won't meet Him in outer space". This phrase is much closer to my heart. A lot has changed: every crew gets a priest's blessing before the launch now. Nowadays, the Russian cosmonauts receive a blessing from their priest before travelling.

Thanks to Cathy in the combox for the link to this moving account, by Thomas D Jones, of his first trip into space: Reaching the Heavens: An Astronaut's Spiritual Journey . Here is an extract: I rolled away from my crewmates, unable to stem the tears evoked by that singular sunrise. My gaze turned to the overhead windows and the Pacific Ocean, the dawn lighting its surface in a rich, limitless blue. I called out to Kevin and Sid, “Look at that ocean—what an incredible color!” They both turned and drank in hues unmatched by the palette of any human artist. After a moment, Kevin said simply, “It’s the blue of the Virgin’s veil, Tom.” He was right. There were no other words for that vision out the window. Growing up through the sixties and seventies, I always looked with awe on the idea of space travel and envied those who were able to travel into space. Nowadays it seems that we are more cynical about this and space travel is one of those "page 14" stories unless there is a...