THE CONCEPTS OF TIME AND ETERNITY FROM PLATO TO SAINT MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR

  • Vladimir Cvetkovic
Keywords: time, eternity, distance, everlasting movement, ever-moving rest

Abstract

The ultimate concern of this article is to show the transformation of time-eternity relation through history from the Greek philosophical tradition Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus, to Origen and patristic Christian thought, represented by St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Maximus the Confessor. Christian writers tried to solve the problem of time according to the Scripture. Christian concept of time is released from the necessity of eternal circling and established as linear concept of time, with its beginning, middle and end. If time was the image of eternity for Plato, measure or the creative life of a universal for Aristotle, divine principle of soul for Plotinus, for Christian authors time became the medium for the history of salvation.

Gregory of Nyssa defines time as an extension (diastema), which is characteristic of creation and marks off the creature from the Creator. In a contrary there is no extension or temporal sequence in divine being which is self-sufficient and eternal.

Maximus the Confessor has changed the perspective of looking on the origin of time, placing it not on the beginning but at the end. Everything in the history of salvation according to Maximus is made for the recapitulation in Christ, which is at the end of time. Thus, time becomes the only passage to eternity, or moreover the general movement of all created creatures towards God. Christian concept of time established a new ontology, completely different from the Greek one.

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Published
2004-10-01