When eternity meets the clock: a philosopher on God and time
The way humans measure time is visible in cultural habits, and nowhere more so than in a nation that halts for a horse race. When the Melbourne Cup silences offices across Sydney, Brisbane and Perth each November, Australians enact something philosophers have long puzzled over: a shared sense of "now" that binds a community together. Learn more about O Andor Do Cristo Salvador História E Restauro.
For centuries, Christian thinkers have argued that God's relationship to time is fundamentally different from ours. A philosopher who has spent decades studying this question suggests that the apparent conflict between divine eternity and the scientific picture of time dissolves once we examine what each tradition actually means by its central terms.
The scientific revolution reshaped time from a flowing river into a geometric dimension, while theologians continued to speak of God's eternity as distinct from temporal succession. Bringing these two pictures into dialogue requires precision and humility, and recent conversations among Australian scholars suggest a productive path forward.
Readers wanting a wider survey of related discussions can explore the archive at https://scienceandbiblicalfaithdialogue.net/articles.
Augustine, Boethius and the heritage of divine timelessness
The classical Christian tradition treated God's eternity as timelessness rather than unending duration. Augustine wrote that God is not in time but that all time is present to God. Boethius refined this: eternity is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of interminable life.
Created beings exist within time, experiencing succession and change, while the Creator stands outside the temporal order and contains it. The model was not that God existed forever in the past and forever in the future, since such a God would still be subject to temporal sequence. Rather, God experiences the whole of history in a single eternal present.
For many believers, this picture has pastoral appeal. Prayer, prophecy and divine action make sense if God can address particular moments without being limited to them. The model has also been criticised for importing Greek assumptions into biblical thought, and modern theologians ask whether Scripture teaches timelessness or everlasting duration.
The Newtonian clock and the relativity revolution
The scientific story begins with Newton, whose absolute time flowed uniformly without relation to anything external. Time was a container for events, and a universal clock could mark the same instant for all observers. Newton was a theologian, and his conception of time was intertwined with belief in an absolute God.
Einstein's relativity overturned this intuition. Time became relative to motion and gravitational potential, woven with space into a four-dimensional fabric. Two observers moving relative to each other disagree on the duration between events, and simultaneity itself becomes observer-dependent.
For philosophers of time, Einstein reopened questions Newton had closed. If there is no universal "now," what does the present moment mean? If time is a dimension like space, the universe is a block in which past, present and future all exist equally. The doctrine of divine timelessness was developed before anyone imagined time as a dimension.
The block universe and the loss of "now"
The block universe interpretation, sometimes called eternalism, takes relativity seriously. The cosmos is a four-dimensional manifold in which every event, from the formation of the Outback to next week's headlines in Adelaide, exists at its spacetime coordinate. There is no privileged "now" that slices the universe into past and future.
This picture can feel alien. Most people, including scientists at the laboratory bench, experience time as flowing. The Australian philosopher Huw Price has argued that this flow is an artefact of our temporal perspective, much as the apparent rotation of the heavens is an artefact of our planetary motion.
Theological responses vary. Some argue that if God knows all events simultaneously, the block universe is a natural ally of divine foreknowledge. Others worry that a universe without becoming has no room for creatures who act, pray or change.
Presentism, becoming and the A-theory revival
Presentism is the rival view that only the present moment truly exists. The past has been, the future will be, and the flow of time is as real as anything in physics. Presentism has deep roots in Christian thought, making intuitive sense of prayer, divine action and eschatological hope.
Philosophers distinguish the A-theory of time, which takes temporal becoming seriously, from the B-theory, which treats all times as equally real. The choice between them has profound theological consequences.
If only the present exists, God's relationship to the world is ongoing engagement with a changing creation, rather than surveillance of a static block. Many contemporary theologians prefer this picture, since it preserves creaturely freedom and divine responsiveness. The cost is difficulty accounting for divine omniscience, since a God who knows only the present would seem limited.
Eternity as timelessness or everlasting duration
The philosopher whose work informs this reflection distinguishes two senses of eternity. The first is timelessness, the classical view. The second is everlasting duration, the idea that God exists through every moment of time without beginning or end.
Many biblical scholars prefer the second view, arguing that the Hebrew text portrays God as active within history, speaking at particular times and responding to particular events. A God who is timeless in the strict Boethian sense can struggle to act, since action implies temporal sequence.
A growing number of theologians propose that eternity is best understood as an everlasting "now" that encompasses all history without being bound to it. This preserves the conviction that God is not confined to the temporal order. Australian readers interested in how the arts engage this theme can find a striking visual reflection in a salvador del mundo project that explores the Lamb of God across history.
Conversations in Australia: faith, science and the Southern Cross
Australian universities are important venues for this conversation. The University of Sydney, the Australian National University and Monash host scholars working at the intersection of philosophy, theology and physics. Public lectures in Melbourne and Brisbane draw audiences who want to think carefully about science and Christianity.
Indigenous Australian conceptions of time, often grouped under the term the Dreaming, offer another resource. In these traditions, time is not a line but a layered reality in which ancestral events remain present. While not identical to Christian eternity, this resonates with the idea of a God who holds all history simultaneously.
For Australian pastors and teachers, the question is how to communicate these ideas from suburban Sydney churches to remote Queensland communities. Resources modelling engagement with Scripture and contemporary science are increasingly valued.
Living between two pictures of time
The philosopher's central claim is that the tension between God's eternity and the scientific picture of time is largely a matter of vocabulary. Once we clarify what "time" means in each context, the conflict softens. Science studies the temporal structure of the created order; theology reflects on the Creator's relationship to it.
The questions are not easy. The reality of temporal becoming, divine action and the meaning of eternity all remain live issues. Yet the picture that emerges is not warfare between faith and science but complementary perspectives on a single mystery.
For Australian Christians, the takeaway is encouraging. Believers do not need to choose between physics and Scripture, since the two address different layers of reality. A thoughtful Christian can celebrate the cosmic background radiation mapped by telescopes at Parkes, the relativist insights of researchers at the Australian Academy of Science, and the confession that God sustains all things by the word of his power.
| View of Time | Nature of Time | Status of "Now" | Relation to God | Key Advocates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newtonian | Absolute, uniform flow | Universal and real | Container for divine action | Newton |
| Relativistic (B-theory) | Fourth dimension, relative | Observer-dependent | Compatible with block universe | Einstein, Minkowski |
| Eternalism | All times equally real | No privileged slice | Natural fit for foreknowledge | McTaggart, Price |
| Presentism (A-theory) | Only present exists | Real and dynamic | Invites ongoing engagement | Augustine, many presentists |
| Divine Timelessness | Outside time altogether | All moments present to God | God contains rather than inhabits time | Boethius, Aquinas |
Different commitments lead to different pictures of time, each related to the Christian doctrine of God in different ways. The choice is rarely forced by physics alone.
Time touches every corner of life, from CSIRO laboratories to the way casino re-spins have become part of vocabulary about cycles and renewal. Christians across Australia can bring their questions about eternity into dialogue with contemporary science, confident that the God of Scripture is the Lord of every moment.
Consider joining one of the upcoming dialogue events where scientists, pastors and teachers work through these issues together. Many Australian gatherings now stream online, and study groups in Perth, Hobart and Darwin are using these resources to deepen faith and understanding of the natural world. The conversation is far from over, and your voice is a welcome part of it.