God, Time, and the Incarnation

Publisher Description

The dominant view among Christian theologians and philosophers is that God is timeless--that he exists outside of time in an atemporal eternity. In God, Time, and the Incarnation, Richard Holland offers a critical evaluation of this traditional view in light of the most central doctrine of Christianity: the Incarnation of Christ. Holland reviews the history of the controversy, highlighting the various theological problems for which atemporal models were offered as a solution. He asserts the central importance of the Incarnation for Christian theology, and evaluates both temporal and atemporal models in light of this doctrine. Finally, he suggests that the traditional atemporal view is not compatible with a robust and orthodox view of the Incarnation, and so it rejects the atemporal view of God's relationship to time, thus providing an argument based on the Incarnation that God experiences temporal sequence in his existence.