Augustine’s Thoughts on Time and Eternity

ABSTRACT

We studied Augustine’s thought on time as presented in the chapters on creation and time in his autobiography, ｢Confession｣. He is the original thinker of the subjective time theory that is a great turn from the ancient Greek theory of the objective time initiated by Plato and Aristotle. He considered the nature of time, by critically examining the absence of three tenses, past, present, and future, as subjective internal experience of human mind(spirit) : remembering, percepting, and anticipating. His view of internal time became an ever lasting source for later thinkers such as Husserl’s phenomenological time theory. His thought on creation of time from absolute nothingness is consistent even with modern cosmological science. His most original contribution to time theory is his thought on eternity as an anti-time or transcendental concept beyond time. The eternity represents God’s Immutability, Omniscience, Oneness, while the time represents human and creature’s mutability, limited knowledge, and division. Human in the realm of time is in danger of falling to nothing and can only be saved by faith in being one with God. Augustine’s subjective psychological time and eternity as transcending time combined with God’s creation was unique in the philosophy, science, and theology of time. Augustine’s original thought on time, eternity, and faith in God provides a theoretical principle for the faith-education.