God and Timelessness

Christian theologians are agreed that God is eternal. However disagreement arises within the Christian tradition over the precise interpretation to be given to the word eternal. Professor Nelson Pike examines one way of understanding the doctrine of divine eternity that has had considerable prominence in the writings of both Catholic and Protestant theologians. On this interpretation to say that God is eternal is to say that God exists outside of time; in other words that God is timeless. Professor Pike undertakes to expose both the strengths and shortcomings of this analysis of Gods eternity. In addition to his discussion of divine eternity Professor Pike treats a wide range of other theological and philosophical topics. These include the medieval doctrine of essential prediction the syntactical status of the term God the problem of divine foreknowledge the notion of Gods omnipotence the doctrine of divine immutability and the general methodological issues connected with traditional ways of determining the adequacy of statements ascribing specific attributes to God.