Abstract

BUITENDAG, J. Inside or outside the box? An attempt to say something about time and eternity. Verbum Eccles. (Online) [online]. 2008, vol.29, n.2, pp.320-344. ISSN 2074-7705.

This article deals with the dialogue between theology and science with special reference to eschatology. It takes the relation of time and eternity as the leitmotiv for the exposition, based on the view that the latest insights from physics enrich the theological debate and vice versa. Neither discipline, however, is indispensable to the other. After a short epistemological discourse, a theological and scientific understanding of eschatology are juxtaposed and from this, certain conclusions are drawn. "Outside the box" includes the meaning that time and eternity complement each other and that the focus should rather be on God than on the creation in order to come to grips with time and eternity. Neither a "temporalisation" of eternity nor a "kairologising" of time would therefore be acceptable. Time is the horizon of our thoughts and experiences, though not only as an explicans, but as an explicandum too.

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