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Loftin, Robert Keith UHI Thesis - pdf download summary Time and Eternity A Study of the ‘Accidental Temporalist’ View Loftin, Robert Keith DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (AWARDED BY OU/ABERDEEN) Award date: 2014 Awarding institution: The University of Edinburgh Link URL to thesis in UHI Research Database General rights and useage policy Copyright,IP and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the UHI Research Database are retained by the author, users must recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement, or without prior permission from the author. Users may download and print one copy of any thesis from the UHI Research Database for the not-for-profit purpose of private study or research on the condition that: 1) The full text is not changed in any way 2) If citing, a bibliographic link is made to the metadata record on the the UHI Research Database 3) You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain 4) You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the UHI Research Database Take down policy If you believe that any data within this document represents a breach of copyright, confidence or data protection please contact us at [email protected] providing details; we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 02. Oct. 2021 TIME AND ETERNITY: A STUDY OF THE ‘ACCIDENTAL TEMPORALIST’ VIEW A Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen By R. Keith Loftin M.A. Louisiana State University M.A. University of Dallas B.A. Southeastern Bible College December 2013 I declare that this thesis has been composed by myself, that it has not been accepted in any previous application for a degree, and that all quotations have been distinguished by quotation marks and the sources of information specifically acknowledged. R. Keith Loftin, 09 December 2013 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements..................................................................................................vi Abstract...................................................................................................................viii Preface.......................................................................................................................1 Chapter One: Introduction and Context...................................................................18 1.1 God and Creation: The Provenance of the God and Time Question .....18 1.2 Establishing Parameters.........................................................................23 1.3 God and Time: The Argument...............................................................44 Chapter Two: Historical Context of Accidental Temporalism................................51 2.1 Introduction: Historical Context of Accidental Temporalism ..............51 2.2 Medieval Accounts of Divine Eternality ...............................................53 2.2.1 Augustine ......................................................................................54 2.2.2 Boethius ........................................................................................61 2.2.3 Anselm ..........................................................................................66 2.2.4 Aquinas .........................................................................................70 2.2.5 Duns Scotus ..................................................................................74 2.2.6 Ockham.........................................................................................79 2.2.7 Molina...........................................................................................83 2.3 Contemporary Proponents of Divine Atemporality...............................87 2.3.1 Brian Leftow .................................................................................88 2.3.2 Eleonore Stump/ Norman Kretzmann ..........................................93 2.3.3 Paul Helm......................................................................................96 iii 2.4 Contemporary Proponents of Divine Temporality ................................99 2.4.1 Richard Swinburne.......................................................................100 2.4.2 William Hasker ............................................................................103 2.4.3 Nicholas Wolterstorff...................................................................107 2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................111 Chapter Three: William Lane Craig on Divine Eternity.........................................114 3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................114 3.2 Accidental Temporalism Summarized..................................................115 3.3 The Nature of Time...............................................................................130 3.3.1 Static vs. Dynamic Time .............................................................132 3.3.2 Craig and the Nature of Time ......................................................140 3.4 God: Timeless sans Creation ................................................................152 3.5 God: Temporal Subsequent to Creation................................................158 3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................165 Chapter Four: Philosophical Challenges to Accidental Temporalism....................168 4.1 Introduction...........................................................................................168 4.2 Two Peremptory Objections .................................................................169 4.2.1 The Disturbed Timelessness Objection .......................................170 4.2.2 The Before-After Incoherence Objection ....................................172 4.3 The Relational View of Time ...............................................................185 4.4 Accidental Temporalism and Omniscience: Two Worries...................190 4.4.1 A Potential Dilemma....................................................................193 4.4.2 A Grounding Worry.....................................................................198 iv 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................215 Chapter Five: Implications of Accidental Temporalism.........................................217 5.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................217 5.2 Everitt’s Atheological Objection from Divine Eternity........................219 5.2.1 Evaluation of Everitt’s Argument................................................221 5.2.2 Refutation of Everitt’s Argument ................................................224 5.3 Divine Eternity and Creation Ex Nihilo................................................226 5.3.1 Desiderata of Creation Ex Nihilo .................................................227 5.3.2 Divine Eternity and Creation Ex Nihilo.......................................232 5.4 Divine Eternity and Pre-existence of Christ .........................................238 5.4.1 Desiderata of Pre-existence of Christ ..........................................240 5.4.2 Divine Eternity of the Pre-existence of Christ.............................242 5.5 Divine Eternity and the Persons of the Trinity .....................................247 5.5.1 Complementarianism versus Egalitarianism................................250 5.5.2 Complementarianism, Egalitarianism, and Divine Eternity ........254 5.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................258 Chapter Six: Summary and Conclusion..................................................................260 References...............................................................................................................278 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this doctoral thesis represents years of effort and the accumulation of countless debts of gratitude. I wish to thank my dear parents, Scott and Kathy Loftin, from whom I learned the relevance of Christianity, from the bottom of my heart for generosity and love beyond all measure. I am also grateful to Joan Greene, my mother-in-law, and Dr. Gary Greene, my late father-in-law, for their unfailing encouragement and support. Among the many excellent professors who over the years have sharpened and broadened my thinking, I owe a special word of thanks to three in particular: Dr. Jason Snyder, my first theology professor, introduced me to the question of God’s relationship to time. I still remember his lectures on this topic which inspired my own research. Dr. Steven Cowan, my first philosophy professor, taught me much about philosophy but even more about being a Christian philosopher. And Dr. Nathan Holsteen, who has been and continues to be a teacher and mentor than which none greater can be conceived. I am grateful to Dr. Robert Shillaker and Dr. Gerald Bray for their guidance and wisdom toward the completion of this thesis. Despite a seemingly impossibly demanding schedule, Gerald Bray generously and patiently spent time in discussion with me. To William Lane Craig, through whose needle nearly every thread of analytic theology’s elegant robe has passed, I
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