These facts of revelation also express the rational conviction to which one comes when one considers that God is the subsisting Being, and therefore necessary, and therefore eternal.īecause he cannot not be, he cannot have beginning or end nor a succession of moments in the only and infinite act of his existence. John Paul II made the implications of this more explicit when he taught: The Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church believes and acknowledges that there is one true and living God, creator and lord of heaven and earth, almighty, eternal, immeasurable, incomprehensible, infinite in will, understanding and every perfection ( Dei Filius, 1:1 DS 3001). The same definition was standard when in 1870 the First Vatican Council taught: We may be everlasting-and we will be, for God will give us endless life-but God is fundamentally outside of time.īoethius’s definition became standard in Catholic thought, and it was the definition in use when in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council taught:įirmly we believe and we confess simply that the true God is one alone, eternal, immense, and unchangeable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, and ineffable (DS 800). He defined eternity this way:Įternity, then, is the complete, simultaneous, and perfect possession of everlasting life this will be clear from a comparison with creatures that exist in time ( The Consolation of Philosophy, 5:6, emphasis added).Įternity, then, is “the complete, simultaneous, and perfect possession of unending life.” It is something possessed by God and not possessed by creatures that exist in time. The classic definition of eternity was given by the Christian philosopher Boethius (c. ![]() ![]() However, he holds that due to the creation of the world, God exists inside of time rather than outside of it. He does hold that God has always existed and that God would exist if the world (including time) had never come into being. Specifically: Craig (who is not Catholic) holds that God is not eternal in the sense that the Church understands. In particular, the foremost proponent of the Kalaam argument today-William Lane Craig-articulates it using concepts that clash with Catholic teaching, and Catholics who wish to use it need to be aware of this so that they can do the necessary filtering. When it comes to the Kalaam argument, this is important because not all of the versions of it in circulation rely on assumptions consistent with Catholic teaching. These limits are established by other teachings of the Church, and Catholic apologists need to be aware of them. While Catholic teaching allows great liberty when it comes to apologetic arguments, there are limits. As a result, I think a properly qualified version of the Kalaam argument can be used, based on modern science. However, in the 20 th century the Big Bang was discovered, and current cosmology is consistent with the idea of the universe having a beginning. Thomas Aquinas was right, and the philosophical arguments that have been proposed to show that the universe must have a finite history do not work. The question is how we can show this to a person who doesn’t already believe it.īack in the 1200s, modern science had not yet been developed, and this premise had to be defended on purely philosophical grounds. ![]() Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) famously thought that it does not.īoth of these men have been declared doctors of the Church, meaning that they are among the best, most highly honored theologians.Ī key premise of the Kalaam argument is that the universe has a beginning, which is certainly true. Bonaventure (1221-1274) thought that the argument is successful, while his contemporary St. Historically, major Catholic thinkers have taken different positions on the issue. While the Catholic Church holds that it is possible to prove the existence of God, it does not have teachings on specific versions of arguments for God’s existence and whether or not they work.Īs a result, it does not have a teaching on the Kalaam cosmological argument, and Catholics are free to use it or not, depending on whether they think it works.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |