In search of a timeless God
Abstract
In contemporary discussions it is often assumed that God cannot be timeless
if presentism is true, but that God can be timeless if four-dimensional eternalism is
true. I argue that the Christian God cannot be timeless on either ontology of time.
Contemporary atemporalists have not fully grasped the details of eternalism, nor
fleshed out the implications of eternalism for understanding the Christian doctrines of
creation, conservation, and incarnation. Once the details are developed, it can be
shown that eternalism is not compatible with divine timelessness. Instead, the
Christian God would be temporal as understood on eternalism. In order to
demonstrate this, I shall do the following in this thesis. In chapter 1 I shall lay out the
relevant desiderata and methods for assessing the doctrine of divine timelessness.
Chapter 2 will give an up-to-date discussion of the philosophy of time, and lay out the
theories that are needed to understand the doctrine of divine timelessness. Chapter 3
will articulate the traditional doctrine of divine timelessness and develop its
systematic connections to the doctrines of divine immutability and simplicity. Chapter
4 shall argue that the classical Christian theologians were committed to presentism. It
shall also argue that their commitment to presentism conflicts with their commitment
to divine timelessness and omniscience. In chapter 5 I shall argue that classical
Christian theology cannot reconcile divine timelessness with their doctrines of
creation and conservation. In chapter 6, it will be shown how four-dimensional
eternalism can help Christian theology solve some of these problems for divine
timelessness. However, it will also be argued that four-dimensional eternalism
conflicts with Christian theology, and that four-dimensional eternalism is not
compatible with divine timelessness. Chapter 7 offers a thorough examination of the
doctrine of the incarnation. It is argued that divine timelessness is not compatible with the incarnation.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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