Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In contemporary discussions it is often assumed that God cannot be timeless \nif presentism is true, but that God can be timeless if four-dimensional eternalism is \ntrue. I argue that the Christian God cannot be timeless on either ontology of time. \nContemporary atemporalists have not fully grasped the details of eternalism, nor \nfleshed out the implications of eternalism for understanding the Christian doctrines of \ncreation, conservation, and incarnation. Once the details are developed, it can be \nshown that eternalism is not compatible with divine timelessness. Instead, the \nChristian God would be temporal as understood on eternalism. In order to \ndemonstrate this, I shall do the following in this thesis. In chapter 1 I shall lay out the \nrelevant desiderata and methods for assessing the doctrine of divine timelessness. \nChapter 2 will give an up-to-date discussion of the philosophy of time, and lay out the \ntheories that are needed to understand the doctrine of divine timelessness. Chapter 3 \nwill articulate the traditional doctrine of divine timelessness and develop its \nsystematic connections to the doctrines of divine immutability and simplicity. Chapter \n4 shall argue that the classical Christian theologians were committed to presentism. It \nshall also argue that their commitment to presentism conflicts with their commitment \nto divine timelessness and omniscience. In chapter 5 I shall argue that classical \nChristian theology cannot reconcile divine timelessness with their doctrines of \ncreation and conservation. In chapter 6, it will be shown how four-dimensional \neternalism can help Christian theology solve some of these problems for divine \ntimelessness. However, it will also be argued that four-dimensional eternalism \nconflicts with Christian theology, and that four-dimensional eternalism is not \ncompatible with divine timelessness. Chapter 7 offers a thorough examination of the \ndoctrine of the incarnation. It is argued that divine timelessness is not compatible with the incarnation.
Author: R. T. Mullins
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1594102512