Time, Eternity, and the Trinity

One of the vital issues in contemporary Christian theology is the problem of a renewed understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time. This is not merely a peripheral doctrinal issue, but lies at the heart of our understanding of God and humanity, and contributes to our entire worldview. This study focuses on a long-standing debate between two competing views on God's eternity: one focused on God's absolute timelessness in classical theism, and the other on God's temporal everlastingness in contemporary panentheism. In contrast to both of these well-worn options, this book presents an alternative Trinitarian analogical understanding of God's eternity and its relation to time, especially through a critical reflection on Karl Barth's and Hans Urs von Balthasar's engagement of the issue. This analogical approach, based on the dynamic and dramatic concepts of God's being-in-relation and of the Triune God's communicative action in eternity and time, has the potential to resolve the debate between absolute timeless eternity and temporal everlasting duration.

Una dintre problemele vitale din teologia crestina contemporana este problema unei intelegeri reinnoite a eternitatii lui Dumnezeu si a relatiei sale cu timpul. Aceasta nu este doar o problema doctrinara periferica, ci se afla in centrul intelegerii noastre despre Dumnezeu si omenire si contribuie la intreaga noastra viziune asupra lumii.