Content
CONTENTS
Preface
11
1. TWO VIEWS OF DIVINE ETERNITY
13
I. The Nature of Time
II. The Biblical Data on Divine Eternity
III. The Importance of Articulating a Theory of Divine Eternity
2. DIVINE TIMELESSNESS
29
I. Divine Simplicity and Immutability
II. Relativity Theory
III. The Incompleteness of Temporal Life
3. DIVINE TEMPORALITY
77
I. The Impossibility of Atemporal Personhood
II. Divine Relations with the World
III. Divine Knowledge of Tensed Facts
4. THE DYNAMIC CONCEPTION OF TIME
115
I. Arguments for a Dynamic Conception
1. The Ineliminability of Tense
2. Our Experience of Tense
II. Arguments against a Dynamic Conception
1. McTaggart’s Paradox
2. The Myth of Passage
5. THE STATIC CONCEPTION OF TIME
167
I. Arguments for a Static Conception
1. Relativity Theory
2. The Mind-Dependence of Becoming
II. Arguments against a Static Conception
1. “Spatializing” Time
2. The Illusion of Becoming
3. The Problem of Intrinsic Change
Creatio ex Nihilo
6. GOD, TIME, AND CREATION
217
I. Did Time Begin?
1. Arguments for the Infinitude of the Past
2. Arguments for the Finitude of the Past
II. God and the Beginning of Time
1. Amorphous Time
2. Timelessness without Creation
7. CONCLUSION
239
APPENDIX: Divine Eternity and God’s Knowledge of the Future
243
General Index
266
Scripture and Extra-biblical Literature Index
271