Time, Eternity, and the Trinity: A Trinitarian Analogical Understanding of Time and Eternity
- Format:
- Dissertation
- Year:
- 2006
- University:
- Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
- University URL:
- Thesis type:
- Doctoral Dissertation
- Place published:
- Deerfield, Ill.
- Language:
- Abstract:
One of the red-hot issues in contemporary Christian theology is the problem of a renewed understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time. It is not merely a doctrinal issue, but at the heart of our understanding of God, human being, and the total constitution of our world-view. Indeed, it is the place in which most of the horizons of theological subject matters are converged and diverged. Concerning the debate between the two competing views on God's eternity, the absolute timelessness in classical theism and the temporal everlastingness in contemporary panentheism, the purpose of this study is to present an alternative Trinitarian analogical understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time, especially, through a critical reflection of K. Barth's and H. U. von Balthasar's understandings, which can provide helpful resources for thinking further the debate on the timeless/everlasting eternity of God.
That is, while critically reviewing very diverse contemporary views on the topic, my particular concern is how we can simultaneously grasp not only the infinite qualitative difference but also the positive relationship between God's eternity and time in a proper way. In my view, it can be accomplished through reconceiving not only the nature of time but also that of God's eternity in a Trinitarian and analogical way. In other words, neither via negationis (i.e., timeless view) nor via eminentiae (i.e., everlasting view) can properly conceive the biblical teaching of the qualitative difference and the positive relationship between God's eternity and time. Therefore, a kind of via analogia through the following Trinitarian triple analogy, analogia vitae, analogia relationis, and analogia communicationis, centered in the only true God-given analogy, Jesus Christ, is the key to a proper conception of the biblical teaching of God's eternity and its positive relation to time. This analogical approach, which is based on a dynamic and dramatic concept of God's Being-as-life-in-relation and the Triune God's communicative action in eternity and time, can help us in solving the problem of the debate between the absolute timeless eternity and the temporal everlasting duration.
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