Time and Eternity in the Greek Fathers

The Thomist 70 (2006): 311-66 TIME AND ETERNITY IN THE GREEK FATHERS DAVID BRADSHAW University ofKentucky Lexington, Kentucky NE OF THE MOST familiar phrases of medieval philosophy is the definition of eternity given by Boethius: "the complete possession all at once of unlimited life."1 As is well known, this definition would seem to derive from that of Plotinus, who defines eternity (aiwv) as "the life which belongs to that which exists and is in being, all together and full, completely without extension or interval."2 The Plotinian definition, in turn, was a distillation of a longstanding consensus among the Platonists of antiquity, one that neatly synthesized the conception of eternity in the Timaeus with that of Aristotle in the Metaphysics (book A) and De Caelo. (I shall return to this subject below.) Seen in that light, the Boethian definition is the fruit of a rich and deeply rooted tradition. What is surprising in Boethius's discussion of eternity is not the definition itself, but the way in which it is applied to God. Boethius prefaces it by the statement: "Now that God is eternal is the common judgement of all who live by reason. Therefore let us 1 Boethius, Consolation ofPhilosophy, book 5, prose 6: "interminabilis vitae tota simul et perfecta possessio." 2 "Ti rrcpl Ti ov i!v T0 dvm i;w~ 6µo0 rracm Kai rr7'~p11i; ciotcfornrni; rravrnxfj" (Plotinus, Enneads 3.7.3.37-39; trans. A.H. Armstrong [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966-88], 3:305). For Boethius's knowledge of Plotinus and the sources of his teaching on eternity see Pierre Courcelle, Late Latin Writers and Their Greek Sources (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969), 281-83, 312-16. Courcelle thinks that Boethius did not read Plotinus directly but received his Neoplatonism through later authors. I am not convinced on this point, but if it is correct a likely source for the definition would be Proclus, Elements of Theology, prop. 52 (not cited by Courcelle). 311 312 DAVID BRADSHAW consider, what is eternity; for this makes plain to us both the divine nature and the divine knowledge."3 For Boethius, eternity is a feature of the divine nature; indeed, one could even say that eternity is the divine nature. As he explains in his theological tractates, in God there is no distinction between substance and attribute, so that for God to be just, good, or great, and simply to be God, are one and the same.4 Although in these discussions Boethius does not mention eternity, there can be little doubt that, in his view, for God to be eternal and to be God are also one and the same. The place of eternity in the Plotinian system is sharply different . For Plotinus eternity is a characteristic of the second hypostasis, Intellect, and as such is wholly derivative from the One. As he goes on to explain in the treatise containing his definition, the nature that is eternal "is around the One and comes from it and is directed towards it," so that eternity is "an activity of life directed to the One and in the One."5 Since eternity arises only at the level of the second hypostasis, in the process of emanation from the One, the One itself is no more eternal than it is temporal. As Plotinus states elsewhere, the One "was what it was even before eternity existed."6 Both eternity and time are "contained" in the One as in their source, but precisely because it is their source it transcends them both.7 What Boethius has done, from the perspective of Plotinus, is to equate God with Intellect. The One as the first principle of Intellect-a first principle that can be approached only apophatically, in a noncognitive way of knowing-has simply disappeared from the picture. Boethius was not the first Western theologian to adopt this radical simplification of Neoplatonism. A similar tendency to 3 Boethius, Consolation ofPhilosophy, book5, prose 6 (trans. S. J. Tester, Loeb Classical Library [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973], 423). 4 Boethius, On the Trinity 4, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), 18); Boethius, On the Hebdomads, Loeb...