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Dr. Johannes Grössl is a a Systematic Theologian and Philosopher of Religion at the University of Siegen in Germany.
In this cutting-edge talk he explores four of what he calls in-between views on God and time, discussing work by philosophers including Dean Zimmerman, and William Lane Craig, among others.
Did God wait around for an infinitely long time before creating? Or does he exist in his own undifferentiated time “prior to” creating?
Dr. Grössl takes as his starting point here the Aristotelian idea that time is a measure of change, so that to be in time is to change and vice-versa. As he sees it, the fundamental theological issue here is whether or not God can change – whether or not he is absolutely, essentially, intrinsically immutable in all respects, as mainstream catholic traditions assert.
If I understand him, he disagrees with such strong claims, because God must be able to act in time and to respond to us, and because biblical claims that God is unchanging mean only that God’s character is something we can completely rely on, that he can only be faithful to his covenants.
In these charts from his presentation slides, the top, dark line represents God’s time, that is, the series of changes he undergoes. This series is distinct from the series of changes in creation, in the cosmos God has made, and in models 2b and 3, also from (created) time itself.
Links for this episode:
- Dr. Grössl’s slides for this presentation
- Dr. Grössl’s professional home page
- Dr. Grössl’s papers @ Academia.edu
- God and Time Workshop, Society for Philosophy of Time
- Dean Zimmerman’s home page
- Zimmerman, “Presentism and the Space-Time Manifold“
- Zimmerman, “The Privileged Present: Defending an ‘A-theory’ of Time“
- William Lane Craig, “God, Time, and Eternity“
- Alan Rhoda, “Presentism, Truthmakers, and God“
- This week’s thinking music is “Scuba” by Simun Mathewson.
