Time Eternity And The Trinity

One of the vital issues in contemporary Christian theology is the problem of a renewed understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time. This is not merely a peripheral doctrinal issue, but lies at the heart of our understanding of God and humanity, and contributes to our entire worldview. This study focuses on a long-standing debate between two competing views on God's eternity: one focused on God's absolute timelessness in classical theism, and the other on God's temporal everlastingness in contemporary panentheism. In contrast to both of these well-worn options, this book presents an alternative Trinitarian analogical understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time, especially through a critical reflection on Karl Barth's and Hans Urs von Balthasar's engagement of the issue. This analogical approach, based on the dynamic and dramatic concepts of God's being-in-relation and of the Triune God's communicative action in eternity and time, has the potential to resolve the debate between absolute timeless eternity and temporal everlasting duration.

This remarkable work offers an analytical exploration of the nature of divine eternity and God's relationship to time.

In this book Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. examines the Trinity's eternity in relationship to creation's time, particularly in relation to human persons. Because the persons of the Trinity are subsistent-relationsfully-in-act as the one God, they are immutable as to who they are in relationship to one another. Thus they exist in a timeless manner. Moreover, this volume assesses how the eternal Trinity is personally related to human persons over the course of time, and how human persons are personally related to the persons of the eternal Trinity. In the first part of the book Weinandy treats, in an original and innovative manner, an issue that has been addressed throughout the history of theology, while the second part addresses a related topic that rarely, if ever, has been considered: How does the relationship between the persons of the Trinity and humans change through the saving works of the Trinity--the Incarnation, cross, and Resurrection--and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Through faith in the incarnated Son of God, and by participating in the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, human persons abide in the risen Jesus. The relationship between eternity and time, in the light of salvation, now takes on a whole new perspective, both epistemologically and ontologically. What will be the relationship between the eternal persons of the Trinity and glorified human beings at the end of time? Time will assume a new heavenly and everlasting dimension. But what will this heavenly novelty be like? The Trinity: Eternity in Time answers these questions and more in a thoroughly philosophical, biblical, and theological manner.

Editor Gregory Ganssle calls on four Christian philosophers to present and defend their views on the place of God in a time-bound universe. The positions taken up here include divine timeless eternity, eternity as relative timelessness, timelessness and omnitemporality, and unqualified divine temporality.

The relation of the eternal God to time and history has perplexed theologians and philosophers for centuries. How can Christians describe a God who is distinct from time but acts within it? This book presents one creative and profound approach to this perennial theme by examining the theology of Karl Barth. Contrary to interpretations of Barth that suggest he held a view of eternity as abstracted from time and history, this comprehensive study suggests that he provides a more complex and fruitful understanding. Rather than defining eternity in a negative relation to time, Barth relates eternity and time with reference to such doctrines as the Trinity and incarnation. This ensures overcoming what he saw as the "Babylonian Captivity" of an abstract philosophical definition of eternity that developed in the Western tradition. The central argument of the book suggests an analogia trinitaria temporis, a basic analogy between the eternal being of God and God's creating and activity within time. Also, implicit in Barth's view is a narrative view of time, similar to the view of Paul Ricoeur, which unfolds as the Church Dogmatics develops.

One of the vital issues in contemporary Christian theology is the problem of a renewed understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time. This is not merely a peripheral doctrinal issue, but lies at the heart of our understanding of God and humanity, and contributes to our entire worldview. This study focuses on a long-standing debate between two competing views on God's eternity: one focused on God's absolute timelessness in classical theism, and the other on God's temporal everlastingness in contemporary panentheism. In contrast to both of these well-worn options, this book presents an alternative Trinitarian analogical understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time, especially through a critical reflection on Karl Barth's and Hans Urs von Balthasar's engagement of the issue. This analogical approach, based on the dynamic and dramatic concepts of God's being-in-relation and of the Triune God's communicative action in eternity and time, has the potential to resolve the debate between absolute timeless eternity and temporal everlasting duration.

Fairacres Publications 136 God has given us the gift of time. Through that gift, we have the opportunity to grow in response to God’s love, but we are always free to choose whether or not we wish to do so and thereby to live eternity. The life of the Trinity is the life of eternity, yet God accepted the limitations of our lives, including our mortality, in taking on human form in Jesus. Because of the incarnation of Jesus, time enters into eternity, and eternity is brought into time.

With the recent publication of his two-volume "Systematic Theology", Robert W. Jenson has established himself as a significant voice in contemporary Christian theology. In "Trinity, Time, and Church", leading scholars critically engage the major themes of Jenson's thought. These essays offer an introduction to his work and provide an overview of the contours of meaningful Christian theology today.

"What is time? Is there a link between objective knowledge about time and subjective experience of time? And what is eternity? Does religion have the answer? Does science? Antje Jackelén investigates the problem and concept of time. Her analysis of the subject includes: The notion of time and eternity as it is narrated through Christian hymn books stemming from Germany, Sweden, and the English-speaking world, with insights into changes of the concept and understanding of time in Christian spirituality over the past few decades; Theological approaches to time and eternity, as well as a look at Trinitarian theology and its relation to time; The discussion of scientific theories of time, including Newtonian, relativistic, quantum, and chaos theories; The formulation of a "theology of time," a theological-mathematical model incorporating relational thinking oriented towards the future, the doctrine of trinity, and the notion of eschatology"--Descripción del editor.

Triune Eternality argues that the theology of Karl Barth is an important resource for understanding God's relationship to time. While Barth's statements on God and time, and on God and eternity, are spread throughout his writings, a proper comprehension is best achieved by understanding three important contexts: the doctrinal, the conceptual, and the developmental. In short, for Barth "time and eternity" are not so much philosophical or scientific concepts but theological terms that point to fundamental realities.