Theological Outlines • by • Francis J. Hall

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August 02, 2005

Ch.VII. Q.49. Divine Eternity

THE Eternity of God is that Divine attribute of which temporal relations are the finite shadow; or, Divine infinity as contemplated from the point of view of time.1

2. The word Eternal has three uses: (a) with beginning but without end—life eternal of the saints: (b) without beginning or end but unnecessary—the creative act of God; (c) without beginning or end and necessary. The last is peculiar to the life of God, and is not possible elsewhere, even for the saints.2 The time that shall be no longer is that which is measured by the events of this world.

3. Time is a relation of created things and of finite events. When of things, it expresses their duration; when of events, it is the measure of their succession. But Divine eternity is an idea which transcends duration and excludes all but logical succession. Boethius and the scholastics describe it as "Interminibilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio."3

4. We may not describe time as eternal in the Divine sense—i.e., as infinite. In a sense both time and space are boundless. There is no "before" or "after" time, which would mean time beyond the temporal; and there is no outside of space, for space does not extend beyond the spatial. Neither space nor time have independent reality except in the abstract. They are not what they are of themselves. They are not things at all. They are relations simply, and relations of finite things and events. Divine eternity transcends time.4

5. Time and eternity have been illustrated by the circumference of a circle and its centre. The centre corresponds to every division and motion of the circumference, without being divisible or movable itself. There is a succession of parts in the circumference, but none in the centre. The circumference may be indefinitely expanded, yet the centre will correspond to a larger circle still. Yet eternity is neither an extension nor a modification of time. Time is nunc volans, eternity nunc stans.5

6. The Eternal One has no involuntary relations to time, but freely enters into temporal relations by virtue of creation. He is therefore said to fore-know and to pre-destinate.

7. God is immutable—free from the vicissitudes of change, although He enters into changeable relations with mutability. This latter truth justifies the metaphorical allusions in Holy Scripture to Divine providence, and the delay of the Incarnation until the fulness of time.6 The kenotic theory, that the Divine Son abandoned certain of His eternal attributes in order to become man, is inconsistent with this truth.7

8. God is described in Holy Scripture as alone immortal.8 By this is meant that He is not subject, in His essence, either to development or corruption. The saints are subject to both in this life, and to development in the world to come.9 Their immortality is also derived, while that of God is underived.10

Posted by Debra Bullock at August 2, 2005 10:34 PM

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