God, Eternity, and Time [Hardcover]

God is eternal is a standard belief of all theistic religions. But what does it mean? If, on the one hand, eternal means timeless, how can God hear the prayers of the faithful at some point of time? And how can a timeless God act in order to answer the prayers? If God knows what I will do tomorrow from all eternity, how can I be free to choose what to do? If, on the other hand, eternal means everlasting, does that not jeopardize divine majesty? How can everlastingness be reconciled with the traditional doctrines of divine simplicity and perfection? An outstanding group of American, UK, German, Austrian, and Swiss philosophers and theologians discuss the problem of God's relation to time. Their contributions range from analyzing and defending classical conceptions of eternity (Boethius's and Aquinas's) to vindicating everlastingness accounts, and from the foreknowledge problem to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. This book tackles philosophical questions that are of utmost importance for Systematic Theology. Its highest aim is to deepen our understanding of religious faith by surveying its relations to one of the most fundamental aspects of reality: time.Contents: Introduction; Part I In Defence of Divine Timelessness: On existing all at once, Robert Pasnau; Eternity, simplicity, and presence, Eleonore Stump; Why we need God's eternity, Thomas Sch??rtl. Part II Divine Omniscience and Human Freedom: Eternity and fatalism, Linda Zagzebski; Molina on foreknowledge and transfer of necessities, Christoph J??ger. Part III In Favour of a 'Third Way': Eternity and Infinity, Christian Tapp; The difference creation makes: relative timelessness reconsidered, Alan G. Padgett; Timeless action? Temporality and/or eternity in God's being and acting, Reinhold Bernhardt. Part IV In Defence of Divine Temporalism, or: In Debate with Science: Divine eternity and Einstein's special theory of relativity, William Lane Craig; Eternity in process philosophies, Hans Kraml; Biblls,