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The Death of Jesus Christ, Time and Eternity

Publication at Protestant Theological Faculty |
2018

Abstract

The time-eternity relation is a traditional problem in philosophy and theology. For many centuries, Augustine's understanding was considered a good solution.

However, the twentieth century brought some radical criticism of this conception and some new theories. The article follows the critics of the Augustinian-Boethian conception mainly in its static concept of God, but, at the same time, it refuses to abandon the traditional frame fully as does, for example, process theology with its very dynamic understanding of God, though massively reduced to immanence.

The proposed solution seeks to keep the time-eternity difference, but at the same time in connection with a dynamic understanding of God where time and eternity do not stand against each other as opposites, as the traditional Augustinian conception holds. In this article, God is thought of with the newly elaborated concept of accommodation as the main characteristic of God, which opens the possibility to think the time-eternity relation more dynamically because God-Self is conceived dynamically as life.

This can be done, however, only against the Trinitarian backdrop. Therefore, the article thinks this relation consequently in a Trinitarian way, rooted firmly in Christology.

Through the Spirit the Father remains the Lord of time which in Jesus Christ became his own time and hence a part of the life of God. The cross and the resurrection of Christ stand therefore as the midpoint of both time and eternity.