Author
Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Unqualified Divine Temporality
4 quotes Popular first.
- “Consider the spatial concepts of here and there. Nobody supposes that these mark a distinction in objective space; nobody supposes that some areas of space have hereness and the others have thereness. The fact that for each of us, at any time, some areas of space are here and the others are there is merely a consequence of the fact that each of us has a location in space, by virtue of having bodies. Here is simply where I am. For bodiless angels there’s no here and no there.
Perhaps past, present, and future are like that. Just as each of us has a location in space, by virtue of each having a body and those bodies having a location, so also each of our actions and responses has a location in time—that is, in the B-series. Perhaps the present is simply the location in time of my act of writing down these words, and of whatever else is simultaneous with that. The past would then be whatever precedes that, and the future whatever succeeds it. It’s only because there are selves having bodies with spatial locations that the concepts of here and there have applicability; perhaps it’s only because there are agents whose actions and reactions have locations in the B-series that the concepts of past, present, and future have applicability.”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Unqualified Divine TemporalitySource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 195) - “But there’s no story to be told about numbers, no narrative to be composed. That’s because numbers have no history. They neither come into existence nor go out; nor do they change. For some numbers it happens that they are discovered at a certain time; but the event of a number’s discovery is an item in the history of its discoverer, not in the history of the number. Its discovery makes no difference to the number; it represents no change in it.
When it comes to nonevents I propose that we take whether or not something has a history as the determinant of whether or not it is in time. What brings it about that you and I are in time? The fact that we each have a history; about each of us there’s a story that can be told, a narrative that can be composed. What brings it about that numbers are not in time—that they are timeless? The fact that none has a history.”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Unqualified Divine TemporalitySource:God & Time: Four Views (pp. 202–203) - “Those who hold that God is timeless agree, of course, that Scripture offers us this narrative. They deny, nevertheless, that God has a history. Not only does God not come into or go out of existence, there are also no changes in God: no alterations in action, response or knowledge. The biblical narrative is not to be interpreted as presenting items in God’s history; it’s to be interpreted as presenting items in human history. The analogue to numbers is helpful: what appears at first sight to be a history of numbers is in fact a history of human beings dealing with numbers.
Everybody in the orthodox Christian tradition would agree, however, that for the purposes at hand there are some absolutely decisive differences between God and numbers. For our purposes the most important differences to note are that whereas God acts, numbers do not; and whereas God has knowledge, numbers do not.
If one concedes that God acts, how can one nevertheless hold that God has no history, and that the narrative of God’s actions presented to us in Scripture cannot be interpreted as a narrative of God’s history?”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Unqualified Divine TemporalitySource:God & Time: Four Views (pp. 203–204) - “Time but No Space?
Rather often it is objected to those who hold that God’s actions have temporal locations that, given the similarities between time and space, they must also hold that God has a spatial location; if one holds that God has a history, then consistency requires that God has a location. I hold that God does not have a spatial location; so what do I say in answer to the charge of inconsistency?”— Wolterstorff, N. (2001). Unqualified Divine TemporalitySource:God & Time: Four Views (p. 208)